A wake-up call on the use and abuse of restraints against disabled children in public schools
Over 100,000 students are restrained and secluded in locked rooms throughout US public schools; the overwhelming majority are students with disabilities. Despite pleas from parents, disability rights organizations, and at least seventeen state Attorneys General, Congress has refused to pass laws to protect these students from the horrors of harmful restraint and seclusion practices. In No Restraint, Charles Bell argues that seclusion and restraint are so harmful and traumatic that they provoke night terrors, a profound aversion to school, and self-harm in children. Students reported being subjected to aggressive restraint tactics that left bruises on their arms and legs, dragged into seclusion rooms that resemble solitary confinement cells in prisons, and locked inside.
Featuring extensive interviews, ranging across fifteen states, with parents of Black and white children with disabilities as well as university teacher education program directors, Bell explores how parents of children with disabilities perceive the impact of school seclusion and restraint on their families and investigates how the training school officials receive contributes to the misuse of these practices. Among parents, the trauma associated with their child's restraint and seclusion in school led to physical and mental health challenges, as well as long-term job loss as they advocated for their children. Additionally, as parents challenged harmful restraint and seclusion practices in legal proceedings, school officials often retaliated by filing claims with child protective services, targeting spouses employed within the district, and involving law enforcement.
A deeply moving and timely work, No Restraint exposes how schools function as structurally violent anti-disability institutions. This book will encourage school officials and policymakers to rethink harmful disciplinary strategies and craft stronger policy guidelines that protect children from these practices.
Industry Reviews
"No Restraint provides a truly disturbing account of how schools can harm children. In this in-depth account of the use of school restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities, a topic ignored by most scholars studying education, Charles Bell offers a perspective into the lives of families whose children suffer horrible abuses at school. His ability to center the voices of these parents and children is exceptional and powerful. Anyone who cares about school policy and children's welfare in schools must read No Restraint." - Aaron Kupchik, author of Suspended Education: School Punishment and the Legacy of Racial Injustice "Through rigorous research and keen insight, Bell has crafted a compelling case for why we need to be talking more about restraint and seclusion in K-12 schools. Relying on parents' accounts of their children's experiences, Bell shows the deep harms to children, parents, and families caused by these practices, how we ended up here, and how we can chart a more just path forward. This book offers a challenge for researchers, guidance for educators and policymakers, and solidarity for parents." - Ben Fisher, Associate Professor of Civil Society & Community Studies
