By Alex Dobuzinskis
May 25 (Reuters) – The Jackson, Mississippi, school district
has agreed to stop shackling students to fixed objects, after i t
was su ed for handcuffing pu pils t o railings and poles at a
school for troubled children, officials said on Friday.
The Southern Poverty Law Center sued Jackson Public Schools
in 2011 over its treatment of students at the district’s Capital
City Alternative School. Students at that campus have been
suspended or expelled from other schools.
The center argued in its lawsuit that students at Capital
City Alternative School were “handcuffed and shackled to poles”
for non-criminal offenses such as violating dress code or
talking back to a teacher.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee approved a legal settlement on
Friday.
Under the agreement, Jackson Public Schools will order its
employees to end the practice of fixed restraints, which refers
to securing a student to an immobile object with handcuffs or
shackles, according to court papers.
The district will not use handcuffs on any student under 13,
court papers said. In addition, handcuffs won’t be used as
punishment or for non-criminal conduct. The district also agreed
to revise its restraint policy and document all cases in which
handcuffs are used on students.
ONE STUDENT HANDCUFFED TO POLE FOR HOURS
In court papers filed last year, attorneys for the school
district acknowledged that “employees passing by or through the
… area can hear children calling out and asking for the
handcuffs to be loosened.”
The lead plaintiff in the case was described in the suit as
an unidentified eighth grade student with a history of attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma and seizures.
On one occasion, when he was handcuffed to a pole for hours,
he was forced to call out to ask to be taken to the bathroom,
the lawsuit said.
Jayne Sargent, interim superintendent of Jackson Public
Schools, said in a statement that her district was “delighted”
it could reach a settlement.
“The children certainly will benefit the most,” said
Sargent, who added that the incidents that led to the lawsuit
occurred before she became interim superintendent.
Jody Owens of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi
office said in a statement that the settlement is a victory for
Jackson public school students.
“This handcuffing policy demonstrated a punitive school
culture and a broken model of school discipline that focused on
criminalizing students at the expense of educating them,” Owens
said.
The U.S. Department of Education warned in a report this
month that restraining students can, in some cases, lead to
their deaths, and that the use of restraints has not been shown
to reduce students’ bad behavior on campuses. The department
says restraints should not be used unless a child endangers
himself, herself or others.
Mississippi was listed in the report as one of several
states without statutes or regulations addressing the topic of
student restraints. Other states in that category included
Indiana, Kansas, Alabama and Arizona.
(Additional reporting By Emily LeCoz in Tupelo, Mississippi;
Editing by Stacey Joyce)
