Throughout my 45-year career as an expert in the field of school safety, one of the most challenging issues has been how to support and care for students with special needs when they become disruptive or even violent. Generally, school personnel are in a better position to deal with these students because, more often than not, they know these kids and understand their limitations.
In Tennessee, however, school safety officers are prohibited from using “mechanical restraints” (handcuffs) on students with special needs for any reason whatsoever. As a result, in a situation when all other efforts to de-escalate the situation have failed, if the student’s behavior is a threat to himself and others, school officials must call law enforcement. Oddly, law enforcement is permitted to handcuff these students, and even charge them, when all that might have been necessary was an enforced “time-out” for the student to collect himself.
I brought this issue to the attention of the leadership of Hamilton County Schools and the Board attorney. The Board attorney reached out to Rep. Greg Martin for assistance.
Rep. Martin was struck by this anomaly – whereas a student may have simply needed more support after a violent episode, he could be facing legal troubles in Juvenile Court simply because school safety officers are not authorized to use handcuffs on special needs students, even in response to violent emergencies. Rep. Martin bravely proposed a change to state law to allow school safety officers to respond to these emergencies without having to send our kids into the Juvenile system. In fact, his proposal received bipartisan support on Capitol Hill – but now he is now being accused of trying to lock kids to their desks.
This change to state law would have only allowed the use of mechanical restraints by trained school safety officers when the safety of the special needs student or another person was in jeopardy. Additionally, the restraints were to be removed as soon as it could be done safely. This badly needed change was proposed to increase the level of safety for everyone and not to be used as a punishment tool. Special needs students need support and security, exactly what Rep. Martin was trying to build with his support for the student safety officers statewide.
Dr. James W. Corbin
Student Safety Coordinator, Retired
Hamilton County Schools
Retired school resource officer in Orlando, Fl. and a nationally recognized trainer and speaker in areas of school safety, school security, school-based policing and a former high school social studies teacher.