Oct 25, 2019, DH News, Edmonton, AL: Alberta lays out standards for seclusion rooms, physical restraint in schools https://dailyhive.com/edmonton/alberta-seclusion-rooms-physical-restraints-school The Province of Alberta has officially laid out the new standards for the use of seclusion rooms and physical restraints in Alberta’s schools. Following a ban on the use of seclusion rooms by the NDP-led provincial government earlier this year, the newly elected UCP-led government announced that the order banning the use of the rooms had been repealed on September 1. “The majority of our education partners told us that banning seclusion rooms limits a school’s ability to protect the safety of everyone,” said Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange in a release from the province…. The Province of Alberta made public the new, permanent standards that the province’s schools will have to follow in order to use the rooms or physical restraint of any kind, which are expected to take effect on November 1…. The new standards note that: “The use of seclusion and/or physical restraint may be necessary only in situations where a child’s/student’s behaviour poses significant imminent danger of serious physical harm to themselves or those around them.”… Even in a situation where a student is displaying destructive behaviour and destroying school property, if that student is not clearly at risk of harming themselves or other students, they cannot be placed into a seclusion room or physically restrained. …
