Charles Bell No Restraint: Disabled Children & Institutionalized Violence in

A wakeup call on the use and abuse of restraints against disabled children in public schoolsOver 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 selfharm 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 childs restraint and seclusion in school led to physical and mental health challenges, as well as longterm job loss as they advocated for their children.... | Charles Bell No Restraint: Disabled Children & Institutionalized Violence in