Sample Maine e-mail

Dear (insert senator or reps name http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/townlist.htm),

I am writing to urge you to support the continued implementation of the updated Rule 33 governing the use of restraint and seclusion in public schools. When fully implemented, the new rules will make a big difference for children with special needs and for all Maine children.

Restraint and seclusion create a potential for injury to the child being restrained and the adults involved. They also create psychological problems, including trauma, in young children. Young children can be very frightened and anxious because they do not have the skills to understand the procedures and their consequences. Furthermore, use of restraint or seclusion involves the real risk that children inadvertently learn that their caregivers are responsible for placing them in ‘scary’ situations, which impairs the development of safe and secure relationships with other adults and peers. There is also the risk that children learn that classrooms are associated with invasive and traumatic experiences, which may lead to future difficulties in subsequent schooling.

As there is a lack of therapeutic benefit in using restraint and seclusion procedures, young children are not learning positive behavioral alternatives. Therefore, children’s behaviors may remain unchanged and teachers may end up resorting to additional and more forceful intrusive behavior-control procedures. The likelihood that circumstances may occur over and over again in the same way is both negative and disturbing for the child, with no positive outcomes. 4. When restraint and seclusion are used to control behavior, there is a risk that such procedures may over time become the “normal” or routine practices in the classroom. Because restraint and seclusion can temporarily curtail the occurrence of disruptive behaviors, teachers may be reinforced for using them and, unintentionally, use them more often and more routinely in the future. With continued implementation of restraint and seclusion, the risk of abuse is dramatically heightened.