Essex Reporter: All Brains Belong VT advocates to end to traumatic practices of secluding and restraining children in schools (Kate Vanni, 4/25/23)
VERMONT — All Brains Belong VT is working to end the traumatic practice of restraint and seclusion still legal in Vermont schools. It’s a practice that has led to deaths of children in over 30 states.
In Vermont, where “trauma informed” efforts are pushed forward in school systems, physicians and parents alike find the continued existence of restraint and seclusion methods to be extremely hypocritical.
Restraint or seclusion is used on 587 Vermont students each year, according to Lives in the Balance, a nonprofit working to eradicate the mistreatment of vulnerable children.
Nationally, 80% of public school restraints and 77% of public school seclusions are used on children with disabilities, such as autism, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Lives in the Balance, shows the effects of seclusion and restraint practices parents have seen in their children in a 2023 Vermont-made documentary.