Brigid Murphy

I have spent time working as a para educator in NH schools. At that time, we were being encouraged to use more restraint and isolation than was legally necessary, particularly with non-verbal students. At one point, I was encouraged to step on a student's hair if they were refusing to get up off the floor. We were told to use gentle language when describing incidents. I was asked to outright not report incidents requiring a student be removed from the classroom on at least two occasions. All of this was in one of the better school districts in the state, and was years ago when our funding was better. I could describe similar situations in the same vein, but for brevity's sake will leave the anecdotes there. My point in this isn't to launch accusations or bring up old problems in our educational system, but to acknowledge that there is already plenty of room for improvement in training, meeting the needs of students receiving special education services, and to ensure their safety in schools. Restraint and removing a child to isolate are not only incredibly difficult on the child, but also on the staff implementing these "last resort" techniques and the peers of the student who often bear witness to this. Instead of allowing MORE restraint and isolation, we should be providing funds to better train staff, improve ratios in gen ed and inclusion services alike, and to have better resources to proactively help children BEFORE they reach the point where restraint or isolation might be necessary. For the sake of NH students, please oppose HB1688.