Action News Jax Investigates found there are still problems despite a federal investigation, that ended with the district promising changes.
Action News Jax Annette Gutierrez spent the last month looking into the data after a state report showed thousands of restraints being used on special needs students.
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Since those numbers came out, parents reached out claiming there are still problems with restraints, the lack of record keeping, and keeping students from reaching their educational goals.
“We as parents are sending our kids to school [to] what is supposed to be a top-notch school district, and we have to question if our child is going to end up in handcuffs or if they’re going to be in some kind of restraint when we pick them up,” St. Johns County parent Bilyana Linton said. “And that’s a very scary proposition for us.”
From physical restraints…
“Our son was coming home saying they’re manhandling me,” St. Johns County parent Marilyn Lisewski said.
…to mechanical restraints…
“He was handcuffed with his hand behind his chair,” Linton said.
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…Parents said their children aren’t getting a full education because they spend their time being restrained in school. But this is something district leaders said isn’t true.
“It’s really a last resort,” St. Johns County School District ESE program specialist George Freeman said. “If there is an imminent risk of serious injury to the student or to somebody else, that is when we would implement a restraint.”
Freeman said they only use this method when necessary, especially after a federal civil rights investigation found St. Johns Schools retrains students more than any district in the state.
In the 2018-2019 year, they reported more than 1700 restraints. One child was restrained more than 120 times.
“We were very uncomfortable with the numbers, too,” Freeman said.
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While the numbers have dropped since that investigation, parents like Marilyn and Kevin Lisweski said things are not better for their son, Caden, who has autism.
He had been going to Pine Island Academy when his behavior started to flare up last school year. They sued after Caden came home one day bleeding, and the school never reported it.
The Lisweskis said restraints only became an issue for Caden when the school removed the behavioral resources that were helping him.
“He’s in a state of fight or flight all day in school because he’s worried about who is going to put their hands on them next,” Kevin said.
RELATED: Federal investigation reveals St. Johns County schools restrained students with disabilities
The Lisewskis said they only got video evidence showing a struggle in the hallway between two teachers and his son, because they sued, and the court ordered the district to share it.
“It’s hard to trust the school after that,” Marilyn said.
Freeman said this incident was an anomaly and *they are* transparent with their reporting.
“When our numbers were so high, we still continued to report,” Freeman said.
The Lisweskis aren’t the only ones. Bilyana Linton said her son’s services were also taken away last year.
He has autism, and Linton claims Beachside High teachers were triggering him every day to the point where he was suspended more than 60 times in one school year.
“That to me was an astronomical number of suspensions for one child with disabilities and it was all due to his disability so he was basically being punished for them,” Linton said.
It got to the point, where he was removed from school permanently.
“In April and May, he was home because the principal decided to issue a no-trespassing letter to him,” Linton said.
Because of this note, the school failed to meet his individualized education plan.
Freeman said they remove services when they see a student’s behavior improving.
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“We’re always trying to move students toward a less restrictive environment and toward more options, more independence,” Linton said.
But it backfired for both Caden and for Linton’s son.
Linton sued, transferred her son to a different school, and got his disciplinary record expunged.
She said she believes it stemmed from the district failing to train teachers properly.
“He didn’t do anything to justify the suspensions,” Linton said.
The data following the compliance review shows the districts numbers dropped by about 94 percent since 2018.
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But parents aren’t buying it.
“I think they’re creatively using different definitions,” Kevin said.
Civil rights attorney Stephanie Langer represents the Lisweskis along with several other families suing against the district.
“And we have caught the school district several times not being truthful about what occurred to the student on that date,” Langer said. “When they got in trouble or when the investigation began, they stopped reporting the restraints that were occurring.”
Both Caden and Linton’s son are doing better – one because of a school transfer, the other because they are homeschooling.
Langer said she does believe things have improved slightly, but not nearly enough.
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“I believe we are being transparent,” Freeman said. “Really, our attitude is if there’s a problem, we need to fix the problem.”
Freeman said they want every student to succeed and they are not finished putting in work.
“We have made great progress and we’re not through,” Freeman said. “We continue to work on it. St. John’s County is number one in the state for a lot of different things. And we are one of the being number one in this area as well.”
Following the investigation, the district came up with a resolution agreement to update policies and procedures, create specific professional learning, monthly monitoring of restraint, and offer to meet with families of students who have been restrained to discuss current support needs and whether compensatory services are needed due to being restrained.
Below are some more ways the district said it is working to fix the problem:
- Focus – We attribute our significant decrease in incidents of restraint to our continued focus on getting our students the individualized support they need to be successful.
- District Behavior Specialists – In 2014-2015 we had 7 positions supporting our schools & currently, we have 19 positions. This support has resulted in improved behavior programming for students.
- District Behavior Technicians – We have increased from zero to 14 positions across the last several years.
- Behavior Programs – We have behavior programs at 13 school sites (KES, SWE, WES, FCMS, GRMS, MMS, LA, LPA, TCA, BTHS, NHS, PMHS, SAHS).
- Separate Day School – A couple of years ago we restructured The Evelyn Hamblen Center to have a strong therapeutic focus. This included hiring more mental health counselors, behavior paraprofessionals, and other support staff.
- District Review Committee – Any school can schedule to meet with the DRC for problem-solving.
- Crisis Management Training – Ukeru focuses on building relationships, Trauma Informed Care, and De-escalation strategies. It includes the use of pads for blocking physical aggression when it occurs.
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