Aug 2, 2018, Western Mass News: Report: abuse and neglect found at Easthampton special education school http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/38797226/report-abuse-and-neglect-at-found-easthampton-special-education-school An Easthampton special education school will close for about a year following an investigation into reports of abuse and neglect. The Disability Law Center (DLC) said Thursday that Tri-County Schools - which is a private, day special education school run by the Northeast Center for Youth and Families - will undergo that closure "to reassess and reopen the school’s operation with a focus on a trauma-informed care model." The DLC reviewed complaints about the treatment of students with disabilities that they received early this spring. They then examined the records of three students, restraint video, records from Mass. DCF and Easthampton Police, and interviewed 19 parents. … The agency said that their investigation found that staff "engaged in abuse by repeatedly using excessive force in restraints and engaging in improper time-out and disciplinary practices."… According to the DLC, two parents told them that their children were each restrained either daily or nearly daily and that they both came home with external injuries - one with bruises and the other with bruises and scrapes…. In one instance, school staff called police reporting a student-on-student fight. However, once on-scene, police didn't find a fight, but rather three students who tried repeatedly to escape restraints that had been "improperly administered."…
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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