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North Van schools adopt ‘hands off’ policy for working with behavioural challenges

Physically restraining or removing children with behavioural challenges who act out in North Vancouver classrooms will be used only as a last resort following the adoption of a new policy on the issue by the board of education.
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Physically restraining or removing children with behavioural challenges who act out in North Vancouver classrooms will be used only as a last resort following the adoption of a new policy on the issue by the board of education.

The policy – required by the ministry of education – sets out very limited circumstances in which school staff will physically intervene in a child’s behaviour.

Generally, staff will be hands off unless a child – often a student with autism or other special needs – is at risk of harming either themselves, staff, fellow students or is blocking exits, according to the policy.

The usual practice during an incident involving escalating behaviour will be to get other kids and staff out and allow the student to calm down from a safe distance.

Vince White, district principal of inclusive education, said the policy recognizes that children who sometimes exhibit behavioural challenges are vulnerable because of their disability and lack the ability to regulate themselves.

“This is about a child’s disability,” he said. “It’s not violence or aggressive behaviour.”

He said the policy lets staff know it’s OK to get other kids out of the classroom and allow the situation to defuse rather than feeling a need to restore order.

“In the vast majority of instances, that’s sufficient,” he said. “Somebody’s being given the time and the space that they need to calm down.”

In some instances, staff may evacuate a section of a school.

White said having specific plans in place for students with behavioural challenges and training for staff is also key.

That could involve knowing what might “trigger” a child’s behaviour to escalate or recognizing certain actions – like pacing – or uttering certain words could indicate that the student might be losing the ability to regulate their behaviour, he said.

“If you pay careful attention to this, you really diminish the likelihood of this occurring.”

Across the province, education ranks only second to health care in terms of occupations involving a risk of violence to employees, according to WorkSafe. Educational assistants in North Vancouver have in the past suffered injuries as a result of working with children with behavioural challenges.

But White said those kinds of incidents are “very, very rare.”

The emphasis away from using seclusion or restraint on kids with special needs has lessons for all, he added.

“It teaches everybody including students that we are compassionate and caring and we’re going to respond and take care of our children when they need that help,” he said.

Students with behavioural challenges can easily be misunderstood, he said.

“They can be very quickly judged and judged in ways that people can question whether they belong in our school. They absolutely do. They are part of our community.”