The ending of the end

My friends. how do you feel inside after watching this?  What can be the meaning of this? 

And the horror of realizing that the question mostly likely is not "Does the District have and use such 'seclusion rooms?'" but rather, "How many are there and how often are they used?"  I mean, did Herbst resort to the rubber-band method because the waiting list for the "time-out room" was too long??

Were these the "closets" that came up again and again during capacity discussions?



Physical Restraints:  teachers are trained how to rush and tackle our children if necessary.  My friends, take a good look at the Restraint and Seclusion policy; there but for the grace of God go our own children! 

Mechanical Restraints:  children can be strapped down electric-chair style; I imagine they can even be tazed -- wtf.

Chemical Restraints:  Remember the mace "blindfold" utilized by that transexual on the subway train.

Whatever happened to staying after school!?  How about writing, "I will not fidget during class" a hundred times?  Study hall? 

I heard the other day of a situation at the District about ten years ago; a teacher determined that a little boy was not wearing suitably snug pants, and used a rope as a belt to cinch the pants tighter. Well, the little boy couldn't undo the knot that had been tied into the pants, and the teacher refused to help him...causing him to wet himself. No one helped him that cold day; he had to walk home that way...and when he got home, his jeans wet with pee were literally frozen to his little legs.



Nothing happened to the teacher involved.


COME ON PEOPLE:  If we as parents did such things to our own children, WE WOULD BE JAILED, AND OUR KIDS WOULD BE TAKEN AWAY FROM US.  We parents must be wary merely for spanking our children if we see fit; but it's ok for our children's teachers to restrain and confine our children for perceived misbehavior in school???

I am sad...SO sad...becoming verklempt again and again as I put myself in the shoes of the boy walking home with the frozen pants, and the boy bound with rubber bands standing in line with his class outside during a fire drill, and the boy given a rope and left to get his mind right in the seclusion room...and the broken-hearted parents of these children. 

My husband went from kindergarten through sixth grade at Bates; my kids spent a combined total of eight years at Bates; Ms. Herbst "taught" my daughter at Bates.  News of the incident at Bates has shaken me -- I mean, it has grabbed me by the shoulders and shaken me until my teeth rattled -- reminding yet again of our lives gone haywire and horribly awry.

My trust in the District, and in mankind, is broken...and I grieve for myself, and for the world. 

What's happening to our kids?  What's happening at our schools?  What's happening in our country?  My God, what's happening to us?

I'll tell you what. 

You know the expression, "it was the beginning of the end?"

we must be at the ending of the end

* * * * * * * *

hold your children close

pray for our deliverance