Queens school locks disabled kids in isolation room: teacher
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P224, a Queens special-education school, is housed at PS 186, the Castlewood School, in Bellrose. Photo: J.C.Rice
Disabled kids at a Queens school were routinely restrained and put into an isolation room — often without administrators notifying parents or logging events, a teacher alleges.
Michael Faust, a former “crisis intervention teacher” at P224 in Bellerose, a special-education elementary with many students classified as emotionally disturbed and autistic, said that he and other staffers forcibly held down kids hundreds of times a year, but that rarely were parents informed or incident reports filed, in violation of state rules.
In one of many horrific tugs-of-war, a student having a meltdown in the school’s “blue room” pushed as hard as he could to escape while staffers on the other side gripped the doorknob to keep him in, as instructed by administrators, Faust alleged.
State rules forbid kids to be put in a locked seclusion room.
When the wooden door broke after years of such battles, Faust said, he had to block the exit, although a kid would punch, kick or scratch him. Finally, a metal door with a small window to observe children was installed.
Students urinated, defecated and vomited in the room — which has blue padded walls — took off their clothes and threw shoes at a hanging light fixture, Faust said.
In classrooms, students who became aggressive were put face-down on mats while two staffers restrained them — one holding the child’s arms and one the legs.
Faust has written to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and other officials, saying staff members get no guidance in such tactics — as required by the state.
“I don’t want a kid to get seriously injured because staff members are not getting trained appropriately,” he told The Post.
Nationwide, child restraint has caused deaths, including that of Jonathan Carey, an autistic 13-year-old in 2004 who was smothered in a private facility in New York.
Faust, now on a health sabbatical, left P224 in June 2014, but two other school sources said the restraints and use of seclusion continue.
P224 Principal Desmond Park did not return messages seeking comment. A spokesman for the city Department of Education did not answer questions, saying, “The matter is under investigation.”
Faust’s allegations come amid a statewide probe by Disabled Rights New York, a federally funded non-profit, which found “substantial underreporting and overuse of restraints and seclusion in schools,” said director Jennifer Monthie.
In a survey of New York parents, students, and school professionals, 34 percent reported that students with disabilities are restrained more than 10 times in a school year, Monthie said. Of those, 74 percent are under age 13, and 35 percent ages six to nine. Of kids restrained more than 20 times in a school year, 73 percent were also secluded.
The harsh practices commonly are hidden, experts agree.
“Students may be non-verbal and can’t tell their parents what happened to them during the day,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, a city group that represents disabled kids “If the school doesn’t tell their parents an incident occurred, they may never know.”
In settling a lawsuit by Legal Services NYC for students sent to emergency rooms because of misbehavior, the DOE in May added a regulation requiring all schools to have a “crisis de-escalation plan,” including parent notification. It does not mention restraints or seclusion.
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