A Killeen woman whose foster son died after being restrained by a teacher said she hopes legislation passed Wednesday by the U.S. House will keep other families from going through the same heartbreak.

Toni Price said she was shocked to learn after her son’s death there are no federal rules about when students can be restrained at school.

If she had treated her son the way his Killeen Independent School District teacher did — sitting on him until he suffocated — she would have been placed in jail, she said.

Yet, the teacher was not criminally prosecuted and went on to teach in another state.

Under the provisions of the House bill, students could be restrained only if they posed an imminent danger. In no instance could a restraint restrict breathing, and schools could not use mechanical restraints, such as strapping a student to a chair.

The rules also would prohibit students from being placed in locked seclusion unless they posed an immediate threat. In addition, schools would not be allowed to use behavior management techniques that deny students water, food, clothing or access to toilet facilities.

Although restraints most often are used on special education students, the rules would apply to all students attending a public or private school that receives federal funds, as well as Head Start programs. Similar legislation is pending in the Senate.

Price, who has testified before a House committee, said if the rules had been in place in 2002, her son likely would not have died.

Cedric Napoleon came to live with Price’s family when he was 12 years old, she said.

Cedric had a history of abuse that included food being withheld from him, Price said. He had been forced to rummage through trash or steal to get food for him and his siblings. As a result, food was a sensitive issue, Price said.

School officials — including the middle school teacher who taught his special education class — knew that, Price said. Yet, on the day of his death, his teacher denied him lunch as punishment, the investigation into his death found.

Cedric left class, likely in search of food. He was brought back to the classroom by an aide and told to sit in a chair. He refused and eventually was placed facedown in a restraint hold, with the 230-pound teacher lying on top of him.

An autopsy found Cedric died from mechanical compression of his trunk, and his death was ruled a homicide. But a grand jury declined to indict the teacher.

That teacher left Texas and went to Virginia to teach, until authorities there were notified about her past. She voluntarily gave up her teaching license there in October, officials said.

No physical aggression

Price said she still gets angry when she thinks about Cedric dying because he wanted something to eat. He had behavior problems, but he never had been physically aggressive at home and was not violent the day he died, she said.

“He was not posing a danger to anyone,” Price said. “There’s a place for (restraint), yes. But use it in the right time at the right place.”

Nationally, there is no central reporting system for school restraints.

However, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recently studied the issue and found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to school restraints during the past two decades.

Texas law already includes the main provisions in the federal bill, a Texas Education Agency official said. The main difference is that Texas law applies only to special education students, whereas the federal bill applies to all students.

Darla Bower, regional coordinator for a group called Parents Resource Network, said although Texas has more restraint rules than some states, she routinely gets calls from Central Texas parents concerned about school restraints.

Many teachers aren’t fully trained about restraints or techniques that could be used to prevent them, she said.

“It’s too often used as a first resort rather than the last resort,” Bower said.

Carolyn Key, director of special education for Waco ISD, said if students must be restrained, they are kept upright.

Key also noted that each campus has a crisis team, made up of staff who are specially trained in restraints.

In addition, the about 70 teachers who work with students who attend only special education classes also receive restraint training, she said.

cculp@wacotrib.com

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