LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A bill that would allow Nebraska teachers to physically restrain disruptive students ran into backlash Tuesday from educators, attorneys and disability rights advocates.
Bill sponsor Sen. Mike Groene said the legislation “fills a gap” by allowing teachers and administrators to stop students from continuing to disrupt a classroom. It would permit educators to use “necessary physical force or physical restraint” to subdue students or remove them from a classroom, only letting them back in with teacher approval. Teachers who use such force would be immune from legal action and administrative discipline.
Groene’s measure comes in response to a 2014 incident in his hometown of North Platte, in which a long-time elementary school teacher and coach grabbed an 8-year-old boy’s foot and dragged him about 90 feet to a timeout room, causing rug burns on the child’s back. The North Platte Public Schools Board voted 4-2 to renew the teacher’s contract that summer after 15 hours of public testimony.
“Humans lose it. He lost it,” Groene said. “Would he have lost it if he had guidelines telling him what to do?”
The Nebraska State Education Association received feedback from thousands of teachers concerned about classroom safety because of disruptive students, said NSEA program director Jay Sears. Nebraska law already allows some physical contact, but many teachers won’t touch these students for fear of lawsuits or disciplinary action, he said.
Many of these students have learning or behavioral disabilities and fall under the protection of federal statutes such as the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, said Karen Haase, a Lincoln-based attorney who specializes in school law. Legally, teachers can’t keep these children from their classrooms, she said.
Communication and building a culture in each school will do more to keep students engaged in class than more disciplinary actions, said Brad Jacobsen, the principal of Ashland-Greenwood Middle/High School in Ashland.
Lynn Redding, a disability rights advocate from Wood River, told the committee she had had restraints applied to her while in school and believed the bill was a step backward.
“I fear that letting teachers be free of discipline and legal actions will allow potential abusive situations to occur,” she said. “No child should be abused. Dragging a child 90 feet is abuse.”
Sen. Patty Pansing-Brooks, of Lincoln, questioned why the bill doesn’t come with a series of progressive actions, such as calling the principal or calling parents before physically restraining students or removing them from class.
“It seems like we’re going to such extremes on any kind of infraction,” she said.
Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha, tried unsuccessfully to have Groene’s bill heard in the Judiciary Committee instead of Education, which Groene chairs. Chambers spoke against the bill on the Legislature floor Tuesday.
“It’s silly to say that a statute can take away a parent’s right to file a lawsuit when their child has been abused,” he said.
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