When non-restraint methods failed, schools called police 150 times in the last 5 years
By utilizing de-escalation training —and partnering with local law enforcement — schools have stayed restraint-free in dealing with children in crisis
When non-restraint methods failed, schools called police 150 times in the last 5 years By utilizing de-escalation training —and partnering with local law enforcement — schools have stayed restraint-free in dealing with children in crisis Check out this story on newsleader.com: https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2018/10/14/schools-staunton-waynesboro-augusta-call-police-help/1291877002/
Jeff Schwaner, Staunton News Leader Published 10:19 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018
After an Emergency Custody Order is issued, police may bring a person against their will to Augusta Health for a mental health evaluation. This can involve the use of restraint to protect the person from harming themselves or others.(Photo: Jeff Schwaner. Source: reports from Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County law enforcement.)
All three local school districts reported zero-use of restraint or seclusion in dealing with students in crisis over the last five years, as previously reported in The News Leader.
The number does not tell the whole story, however. There's a hidden partner in the school districts' collective success.
When a crisis cannot be de-escalated and a child is a danger to themselves or others, the schools call the police.
And the police come.
Local law enforcement answered 157 calls for children in crisis in public schools in the last five years, according to data The News Leader compiled from Staunton and Waynesboro police departments and the Augusta County Sheriffs Office. These numbers do not include police visits for pranks, fire alarms, or drug searches.
Police issued an Emergency Custody Order in 35 of those incidents, in which a person who is considered to be a danger to themselves or others may be restrained by law enforcement and transported to Augusta Health for a mental health evaluation.
In a dozen other incidents, all in Waynesboro, students agreed voluntarily to be escorted to Augusta Health for mental health help and no ECO was issued.
Overall, roughly 3 out of 10 calls resulted in a child being removed from their situation at the school, whether by force or voluntarily.
Districts vary as to when they may choose to request help from law enforcement. And when police respond to the call, they may not actually engage with the student, according to Ryan Barber, Director of Student Services at Waynesboro Public Schools.
"The numbers are the numbers and we're not disputing the numbers in any way at all. There are a lot of times where we anticipate for safety reasons that we need some help from a police officer," Barber says.
"Because we have folks who are really good about de-escalating situations, we are able to resolve them. The police officers are always very responsive and on scene, but they are often not having to engage our students.
Dr. Ryan Barber, Director of Student Services at Waynesboro Public Schools, in his office on September 12, 2018. (Photo: Jeff Schwaner / The News Leader)
"The police might be in the parking lot. The police might be a visible presence on a sidewalk or in the office. Not every time they're called are they directly engaging the kid."
Barber references the school's sole incident so far this school year as an example.
At Kate Collins there was a student who was being disorderly and attempts to calm the student were unsuccessful. "The administration called Waynesboro High School, where our resource officer was, and said 'Can you come to Kate Collins and provide some assistance?'" said Barber.
"By the time the officer got to the middle school, which was in about two minutes, the situation was totally resolved. There was no interaction from our police officer with the students."
"There are situations where police officers come and restrain kids," Barber said. "More often than not, with our students, the situation is able to resolve itself."
Waynesboro schools made twice as many calls to police as Staunton, but had half the number of custody orders.
Schools called police 157 times in the last 5 school years for help with incidents of children in crisis. (Photo: Jeff Schwaner. Source: reports from Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County law enforcement.)
A closer look at the numbers illustrates Barber's point.
Staunton schools made 38 calls to police in the last five years, with 18 of those visits by police resulting in an Emergency Custody Order — roughly half.
Waynesboro made 77 calls, twice as many as Staunton. Only 11 resulted in Emergency Custody Orders. That's under 15%.
Augusta County schools made 42 calls to the sheriffs office, with 10 — roughly a quarter — resulting in Emergency Custody Orders.
In Staunton, almost 1 of 2 calls to police resulted in the child being removed from the school under an Emergency Custody Order. While Waynesboro had far more calls, only 1 in 7 resulted in ECOs. In Augusta County, about 1 in 4 calls resulted in ECOs being issued. (Photo: Jeff Schwaner. Source: reports from Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County law enforcement.)
Local law enforcement's Crisis Intervention Training emphasizes communication, observation, and listening skills as vital to de-escalating crises. That could explain how some situations ended with students voluntarily deciding to come with officers for evaluation.
But inside the schools, before the police arrive or are even called, how does the staff handle situations?
More: They didn't shoot: Training and talk help avoid deadly force
Mandt System stresses relationships. It also includes physical restraint training—it just hasn't been used.
Jonathan Steck, the School Social Worker and a certified Mandt trainer, says establishing relationships with students is the first thing you learn in Mandt training. (Photo: Jeff Schwaner / The News Leader)
The school districts of Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County all use a crisis de-escalation system with goals similar to what police learn in Crisis Intervention Training. The Mandt System emphasizes establishing meaningful relationships with students which come in handy when they need to de-escalate crisis situations.
The multi-day training for the Mandt System does include instruction in physical restraint — using the hands and body to hold a person in place temporarily to give a person a chance to calm down without resorting to any mechanical restraint or seclusion.
"You undergo five days of the training" to become a trainer of the system, "and at that five-day training you spend the first two full days on relationship skills," said Jonathan Steck, the school social worker and certified Mandt trainer for Waynesboro schools. "So the primary emphasis of Mandt is building healthy and positive relationships where dignity and respect is always present."
"What we're striving for is to keep all interactions from becoming an incident," said Steck. "If it does become an incident, we are trying to de-escalate it. If you can't de-escalate an incident and it becomes a crisis — and a crisis for us is if a student becomes a significant danger to themselves or others — then that's why we teach physical restraints."
Barber says, "One of the things that Jonathan always says as he's doing the Mandt training is when you're putting your hands on somebody, the relationship changes," and almost never for the better.
Each school in each district has a number of Mandt-trained personnel. Often they are counselors and teachers but other staff may be trained as well.
Jelisa Wolfe, Director of Student Services at Staunton City Schools, estimates there are at least 4 Mandt-trained personnel at each school in the district.
Miranda Ball, of Augusta County Schools Department of Pupil Services. (Photo: Jeff Schwaner / The News Leader)
Miranda Ball of Augusta County Pupil Services says there are at least 5 Mandt-trained personnel at each school in the county. She stresses that the use of non-restraint methods goes far beyond the 5-year data The News Leader compiled. While mechanical restraints might be legal in this state, she says the emphasis has always been on non-restraint de-escalation.
"I've worked in Augusta county my entire career, which is 18 years, and the whole mechanical restraint thing is completely foreign to me," she says.
Wolfe says Mandt training shows ways to use the body to help keep a situation in control, even when restraints are not used. Important in
"I might put my body in the way of where I'd not like you to walk so that the way I want you to walk is open," she says. "I'm not putting my hands on you, I'm just standing there and making sure you're not going through the door. If I want you to go through the door I'll get out of the way, so that you'll go through the door."
"I know that's counterintuitive to some people, to get out of the way of where you want them to go."
Steck gives an example. "So we've had incidences where we're guiding a student to or away from something, kind of escorting them, without having to use a physical restraint. I had a kid in the office who threw a vase and the vase broke. It was broken glass and I was nervous that the kid was going to get to the broken glass. So you just try and position yourself between that and the kid."
Wolfe describes other non-physical forms of de-escalation that teachers are trained to model.
"There's verbal de-escalation, so how we use our words," she says. "There's non-verbal— so, for example, you can see my hands, and how my body's relaxed, so that if you're sitting there and you're starting to get upset, I make sure you have space, so I lean back, so my body is open. You can see my hands so you're not wondering what i'm doing with my hands."
Teachers know that what they say, and how they say it, matters.
"We talk a lot about modulating voice, speaking quietly, not loudly, calling a person by name. That's very dignified and respectful."
And then there's addressing the behavior, though the teacher may discuss that at a different time, when the student is calm and
"An important part is trying to teach the person how to replace the behavior that's getting in the way of them being successful," she says.
More: Thousands of kids put in restraints or seclusion each year in Virginia schools
'It's not about the chocolate milk'
The News Leader talked to officials from all three schools about how they would handle a behavioral issue with a student as it developed. Here's the situation, and here's what they said:
It's middle school. ("It's always middle school..." was the immediate reaction of all three professionals.) A crowded noisy cafeteria. One student seems to be visibly upset with something and stands up. Maybe he bought a chocolate milk, but the milk got knocked over and they don't have money to buy another. The student is raising his voice.
Ball: "So I think the first thing that's going to happen is for somebody who recognizes that kid who's hopefully a trusted adult and has a good relationship with them will attempt to assist with separating the child from that situation and proximity to the kids, and get them to a quiet place to be able to figure out what what's bothering them."
Steck: "One of the concepts that we really work on in Mandt is 'RADAR' and it stands for recognize, assess, decide, act, review.
"Hopefully our teachers are going to recognize that the student is becoming visibly agitated. You can see he's upset. So then you assess the situation, especially with middle schoolers. Is he in front of a whole room full of his peers, like in the lunch room setting. Would it be better if I could get approach him and just say, 'Hey, can you come over and speak with me over here?' and not call that student out in a room full of their peers. That's the D (decide), and then you take that action and then we're saying review the results later.
"We want to start with the smallest tool we have. I don't want to get out the sledgehammer for a situation when I can fix it with the screwdriver."
Wolfe: "Teachers spend a lot of time up front trying to establish relationships. The vast majority of the time an adult can walk up to that child and say, 'Will you please come talk to me in the hall?' And kids will leave with you. And they'll tell you what it is that made them angry.
"It's generally not about the chocolate milk. Typically you get at then what is really bothering the child, and you figure out a way to solve that problem for them.
"That's why building relationships matter. So that you'll tell me what's really bothering you."
Ball: "The intent is always going to be that you get the child to a place to be able to work through the problem. That could mean either physically moving with them to a different spot or just to a place where they're able to interact in a conversation."
The child refuses to leave the cafeteria.
Wolfe: "Another adult will try to intervene, perhaps a teacher or counselor the student trusts."
Steck: "The primary concern is the safety of the individuals we're serving and the safety of the other individuals in the cafeteria as well. So the next step in my thinking (if another teacher cannot convince them to get up) would be removing some of the students in the cafeteria."
Ball: "So it might be that audience is removed, so to speak, that you ask the kids at the table to go to a different table or a different spot and create that space that you were trying to achieve."
All three said that patience becomes important at that point, and they would work with the child to determine the real root cause of the anger, without worrying about when the next bell rings or class starts.
The child goes with a teacher out into the hall, stands in the hall and talks, but then becomes agitated again. He swings his arms around, hits lockers with his backpack.
Wolfe: "If kids are just standing and refusing to move, we'll stand with them. If kids bang on the locker, we'll stand with them, and ask them what they want. That wouldn't result in someone trying to put their hands on a child if the child's not hurting themselves. The locker can take it."
"Sometimes you just wait."
The child tries to leave the school through a door in the hallway.
Ball: "You still wouldn't grab the kid. First, you kind of get in the way of the door.
"I think at that point probably more than one adult will be involved, in assisting by maybe removing options as far as what direction or what hallway the child can take, with your body between the child and the least desirable direction, in order to kind of guide them to whatever the safest space is, or the best spaces as determined by the administrator at that time.
Steck: "I would say that something else that's going to be a really common component of those conversations with the direction is some choice. So saying, 'You know what's happening is not acceptable.' But, for instance, you might know that the kid has a good conversation with the PE teacher the PE teacher's at lunch. So the kid gets a choice. 'You can come to the office to calm down, or we'll go to coach whomever's office.' You ask them which spot do they want to go to, what's going to work best for them. So yeah, choice is always an element.
Wolfe: "Most of the time kids just want a voice, and some time it just takes the kids a little while to formulate what they want to say."
The child becomes a danger to another student or teacher or to themselves.
By this point, the school may have already called a parent or the police for assistance. In the case that neither are there, that's a point at which temporary physical restraint may be applied by a trained teacher or staff member.
If the staff has been successful in moving other students away from the student in crisis, and that student is surrounded by adults he or she can trust, it reduces the likelihood of that a situation will escalate.
A law enforcement officer on scene may convince a student to willingly go with them to Augusta Health to talk to a mental health counselor.
Steck talks about the nature of the restraint holds that teachers are trained to use.
Steck: "We never take kids to the floor. So there's no prone- or supine-restraints and we don't take kids to the floor. There's always a limb free even in some of the more restrictive restraints. Or when two people are involved for steadying one individual, there's always at least one limb free and that whole time while you're doing the physical restraint.
"I'm still talking to the student because it's the verbal stuff that's going to help calm down and a lot of our kids aren't in the best shape. A lot of our staff are not in the best shape so you can never restrain longer for three minutes. The maximum length of a physical restraint recommended by Mandt is three minutes. That doesn't mean that the situation is always resolved within three minutes, but you are trained to come out of the restraint, like let go and then get back in, if you need to."
In the last five years, they haven't needed to.
Wolfe says that when students are offered options, they are more likely to assist in de-escalating a potentially dangerous situation.
"We have children come to school at young ages who've experienced trauma," she says. The schools try "to create relationships with families and kids so we can hope to find the response to help them."
What does she keep in mind when difficult situations arise?
"I think about my own children" and how she would want them treated, she says.
Proposed regulations on restraint and seclusion have languished for over three years. What's holding them up?
New proposed regulatory language that would add a chapter to the state's Administrative Code (LINK) includes several elements that proponents say would advance the cause of a safer environment for both students and teachers.
All forms of mechanical restraint would be prohibited and acceptable circumstances and environments for seclusion would be defined by the new regulations.
But there seem to be several sticking points to the regulations being finalized.
One involves the language defining when physical restraint would be an option. Some teachers believe it should only be an option when a student is a danger to themselves or others. Others believe it should include a reference to the destruction of property.
Another point of contention is whether everyone in a school — including teachers, counselors and all staff — will need to be trained in a skill-set like Mandt. Even among proponents of the training, an "all-in" scenario could be an operational headache, and a costly one.
Augusta County's existing policy language references "significant property damage" as a reason that restraint could be used.
Miranda Ball says, "So by our policy manual, 'significant property damage' would be a reason to use physical restraint. That's totally subjective, and what I would say to you is I feel very confident that when administrators are making the decision about how and when to intervene, property is not the determining factor.
"It really is about the safety of students and the safety of the student who's in crisis, as well as the staff members who are trying to intervene. So while our policy includes significant property damage, our practice is very much focused on the people and their safety.
"We can replace a chair or, you know, clean up whatever spills," Ball says.
Ball addresses the strain of possibly training everyone. "In Augusta County, we're relatively self sufficient — we have our own in-house trainers and we manage that in such a way that they divide the training responsibilities. So there are several teachers and staff members who train across the year and they do it in small groups so that makes it a bit more sustainable for them.
"We have our people," she says. "Still, if we were to have to get all of our employees trained in a certain amount of time that would be something we'd really have to work through. I think we're in a better position to be able to do that just based upon what our approach has been to this point."
Barber says Waynesboro schools have taken a nuanced approach to training.
"One of the things that we're looking for is finding that right balance," he says. "So we've trained whole staff in some of our buildings in the relationship components of the Mandt training (but not in the physical restraint component)."
Steck, one of the trainers for Waynesboro, explains the concept.
"One of the things that we worry about is if you train everyone in restraints then your restraint numbers are likely to go up. Because if more people are trained (in restraint) they maybe jump to that too soon," he says.
"So we try and train an appropriate amount of staff in each building based on if they are likely to be free when an incident comes up. Is there someone trained in each hallway, for instance. So we're kind of our strategic in selecting the staff that we train.
"And then once you're trained, every year you have to be recertified. so we try and make sure we keep the right administrators trained and the right staff in each of our buildings trained as re-certification comes up."
Jelisa Wolfe says the new regs would prohibit mechanical restraint for those not in a consent situation (Individual Education Program or IEPs).
Wolfe's concerned about the logistical problem of trying to get everyone trained in Mandt.
"We would need a lot more trainers in order to create a training schedule that could be efficient and effective," she explains.
"I think we have about 500 employees, that's a lot of people to train."
On the language regarding property, Barber says he understands the debate about whether to include that language in the final regs.
"I think people who sit in my chair as directors of student service would love it if we had some clear guidance from our state. It's an emotionally charged issue. And there are strong opinions on either side," Barber says, referencing recent actions in Georgia schools calling a school board to revisit the use of corporal punishment.
"So if they took my pen and broke it in half, that's not significantly destroying property. If they took the chair, though, and threw it out this window..." Barber looks down to the parking lot like he can almost see his chair dropping and smashing on the pavement below.
"Well, that's something that we need to be responding to."
Wolfe says it's important to know the range of plans outside of Mandt training and calling the police that contribute to the low incident numbers for local schools, regardless of the language of the final regulations.
"We do functional behavior assessments for children when we're concerned about their behavior, we have threat assessment if we think kids are in crisis, we have good day plans, we have individual behavior support plans, we do behavior contracts with kids," she says.
"We have school-wide behavior support plans to help kids learn how to manage their stress, manage their aggression, and figure out more productive responses. So we do all that," she says, taking a deep breath. "It's a big ball of wax."
More: The hidden victims of restraint: facility caregivers and staff
More: Kids restrained at Staunton mental health hospital for safety
Read or Share this story: https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2018/10/14/schools-staunton-waynesboro-augusta-call-police-help/1291877002/
More than 20 shots fired in Waynesboro gunfight, 2 arrested
Flying with a Real ID is coming: Tips for your trip to the DMV
New ownership for Waynesboro Country Club
MLK Day 2020: What's open, closed in the Valley
Kris Losh sentenced to lengthy prison term
Waynesboro PD: Man shot on Tiffany Drive