Primary school wants to physically control violent special needs pupils

By NATASHA HARRIS

A Hibiscus Coast school wants teachers to physically handle special-needs children if they become violent, since an 11-year-old boy was handcuffed after flying into a rage.

The move from Stanmore Bay Primary School comes after a policeman was called to restrain the boy, who was throwing chairs and abusing his teachers.

Principal David Fletcher, whose school has one special needs class for behavioural problems, said if parents approved, the three staff members in the class would undergo training on safety restraint methods next year.

A letter will be sent to parents asking if they would agree to their child being restrained if they showed any "undue violent" behaviour.

The school has about seven children in the special needs class. They stay for about two to three months working on their behavioural problems.

The class was set up in January, teaching pupils from 10 Hibiscus Coast primary schools. A psychologist, specialist teacher and teacher-aide are present at all times.

Mr Fletcher said he thought of the training after a male teacher, who held the boy down by the shoulders before police arrived, became worried that he could be accused of assault.

The boy went into a rage in October after refusing to apologise to a classmate he had picked on.

The mother of the boy, who was in the class at the time, called the policeman, a family friend, after 15 minutes of struggling to control her son.

He had his hands put behind his back, was handcuffed, and taken home.

"This young male teacher said he felt uncomfortable holding the child on his shoulders and was worried that parents could turn around and accuse him of assault.

"His comments hit it on the head that we needed to have some sort of safeguard for our teachers and give them training so they know the proper way in which to approach these kids," Mr Fletcher said.

The training was mostly about "negotiating" and the physical handling part of it was only to be used as a "last resort".

The law allows teachers to use self-defence if they are physically assaulted and for schools to have their own restraint policies.

Group Special Education district manager for northwest Auckland, Adele Peart-Baillie, said the Ministry of Education, of which she is a part, was looking into national guidelines for teachers when children became violent. She expected those to be announced at the end of next year.

Ms Peart-Baillie - who would not comment on the case of the 11-year-old boy or Stanmore Bay Primary School's plan - said the course Mr Fletcher wanted his teachers to go on, called Crisis Prevention Intervention, was about "de-escalating" situations before children became violent.

The course was taught to all types of schools.