In Florida’s public school system, school personnel can use handcuffs, zip-ties, straightjackets or other devices on students who are acting out or misbehaving in a way that poses a threat to themselves or others.

But legislation filed in the 2022 legislative session would prohibit school personnel from using those methods — potentially sparing students, especially those with disabilities, from a traumatic experience.

Only school resource officers, school safety officers, school guardians, or school security guards would still be able to use these restraints on students in grades 6 through 12 — but not younger children.

“The younger the child, the smaller they are,” said Rep. Rene Plasencia, the sponsor of HB 235. “It’s easier to use the right, the appropriate methods of making sure they don’t harm anyone else or harm themselves. As a child gets larger it becomes a little more challenging.”

Plasencia builds off previous legislative efforts to limit how teachers and other school personnel handle students who might be acting out in a dangerous manner.

“We want to make sure that no parent sends their child to school and the child comes home with bruises, or the child comes home with some kind of stress that could have been avoided,” Plasencia said Thursday at a House education subcommittee meeting.

The previous legislation dealing with this topic, which was sponsored by former Rep. Bobby DuBose, added language into Florida law that limited the use of restraints on students.

Under current Florida law, following DuBose’s successful push for the legislation, school personnel can only use restraints, physical or mechanical, on a student if they pose a serious risk to themselves or others as long as all other forms of behavioral intervention methods have been exhausted.

Read the full article about prohibiting school personnel from handcuffing students by Danielle J. Brown and Florida Phoenix at The 74.