Brookside Primary School in the Harwood Unified Union School district has been averaging more than one physical restraint per day for at least the past five school years. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, Harwood used physical restraints 451 times with 281 occurring at Brookside in 2017, by far the most in the state.
The state of Vermont does not have a law governing the use of restraint and seclusion in school. Instead, it is governed by the Vermont State Board of Education Rule 4500.
There is obviously a lot to be discussed within the Harwood community about what led to such high rates of physical restraint, but we should also be questioning the Vermont Agency of Education and the Vermont State Board of Education. How did the AOE and BOE allow hundreds of physical restraints in a single primary school to go unnoticed without any cause for concern? Shouldn’t Harwood’s high frequency of physical restraints trigger an investigation or a corrective action plan? What good is Rule 4500 without oversight? The AOE and BOE should identify the systemic breakdowns that led to Harwood’s current situation to protect our most vulnerable students from additional trauma that physical restraints are proven to inflict.
Brian Dalla Mura
Duxbury