Children in Holyoke school program for emotionally disabled abused by staff, report says
While enrolled in a Holyoke public school program for children with emotional disabilities, students were punished with psychological abuse or restrained with excessive force, a newly released investigative report found, according to The Boston Globe.
The investigation from the Disability Law Center into the Peck School found that students — fourth through eighth graders in the Therapeutic Intervention Program — were forced face-down to the floor, thrown into walls, and sat on by staff, according to the Globe. The investigation on behalf of the state began in the spring when a parent filed a complaint alleging that his or her child had been painfully restrained and sometimes unable to breath.
The abuse uncovered at the Peck School is one of the worst instances the center has ever investigated, according to Stanley Eichner, a litigation director for the organization.
“Excessive force was used against them in a school that has been set up to address these needs,’’ Eichner told the Globe. “Pretty much to a person, these are students with emotional disabilities who have previously witnessed trauma or been traumatized at one time or another.’’
Read the full Globe story here.
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