Restraining Children with Disabilities: 21st Century or 12th Century?

While reading my news feeds this morning, I came across this report on the dangers children have in school due to "disciplinary action".  Many of the children were injured or died while under disciplinary action, and many of those children had disabilities.  One child (and the reason it showed up in my feeds) was a 15 yr old autistic child that was killed while being restrained by 4 school employees.  

Personally, I find this report to be shocking.  I thought we as a human race left solitary confinement as a casual disciplinary measure in the 1800's when it was proven to be detrimental to a person's mental health.  I also thought the restraining of children with disabilities (like autism) was abandoned by the 1900's.  Apparently I was wrong. 

Now, there may be people out there that would argue along these lines:  Children who are unruly need to be brought under control!  If that means restraining them, then that's what you do!  If that means threatening them with solitary confinement, that's what you do!  A few hours (not minutes, not seconds, but hours!) mean nothing if you can finally get control of the situation!  

Let me counter with this:  Children are not beasts.  They are learning, they are growing, and they test their boundaries.  Most importantly, they crave attention.  If they don't get positive attention, they will try to get negative attention.  One way or another they will get validation for their existence.  

First with restraining children, particularly children with autism.  Most autistic children do not want to be touched.  The simple action of touching an autistic child can overload their sensory experience and send them into a meltdown.  Often this is called a "temper tantrum", but instead of kicking and screaming, they will run around the room, scream, fall on the floor and try to block out everything around them.  Sometimes they will even try to override their sensory overload with pain, and hurt themselves.  The more you try to restrain an autistic child, the more likely they are to increase the behavior.  

Solitary confinement was used in the 1700's and 1800's as a means of "humane punishment", where a person would sit quietly and think about the wrongs they had done.  They would be shut in, with no hope of escape, almost completely locked out from any sensory experience.  Unfortunately, with the idea that you have no hope of freedom or contact from another person, it can cause a mental breakdown precluded by panic attacks.  This can heighten the effects of the "punishment", and cause serious mental anguish and suffering, often leading to desperate means of escape.  In the case of a 13 yr old, that escape was suicide.  This is not healthy on a developing young mind for obvious reasons.  

I'm appalled that any educational institution would resort to such drastic measures in order to "gain control" of a situation.  I would hope that, particularly where disabilities are concerned, educators would be well informed enough to manage a situation in a manner that diffuses the situation instead of escalating it.  That means understanding the child's condition, learning about it, and making judgement calls with their needs in mind.