To Touch a Child

December 16, 2006 4:42 AM

Looking for guidelines on physically handling children at school.

I recently started being a playground & lunch supervisor at my son's school.
The school system has no set guidlelines for how to handle children.
I have set some self-imposed standards, like not being isolated with a child, touching only hands-arms-shoulders, not initiating hugs, and not yanking a child.
Still, when I pulled a child who was angry and wouldn't stop yelling in the lunchline out of line to talk with her, she complained to the assistant principal.
I have full support of the admin and staff, and want better guidelines.
It is relevant that I'm male, both in that I was told the school needed more males, and in that the children feel it is different.

I've got an internal conflict whether to push officially for better guidelines.
On the one hand, the male teachers at the school do great, and I don't want to interfere with what they do.
On the other hand, I know of a professor at the local college, who worked at a private high school many years ago.
He left after a sex-&-drugs scandal, but hush-hush with no record, and he has run a high-school summer program here.
So the cracks are big for creeps to fall through.

The internets are loaded with opinions.
Has anybody actually studied this?
Do you know where any official guidelines are?

posted by dragonsi55 to human relations (10 comments total)

IANAL of course, but I would suggest that if a situation escalates to where you feel the need to touch a child for any reason (even to pull out of a lunchline), you get a teacher involved. As a volunteer, you probably don't have any liability protection whereas an employee of the system has, at least, a limited amount.

My husband worked as a teacher in a school with ED children, and he received very specific instructions and training on the proper ways to approach, manage and, if necessary, physically restrain children. His school system really stressed how bad the situation can be if done incorrectly.

If it were me, I'd definitely advocate for guidelines from the system, or the school at a minimum. You don't want to be making this stuff up in the midst of emotion (yours or theirs).
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:34 AM on December 16, 2006

I'll see if I can find Hub's training materials in one of the many piles of paper around here.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:36 AM on December 16, 2006

In New York City we have the official Chancellor's Regulations (pdf), which basically say that you can't touch a kid unless you are attempting to protect yourself, another student, or school property.
posted by samsarah at 5:44 AM on December 16, 2006

I would not work for a school that did not have clear policies regarding non-violent crisis intervention. Consider this carefully.

Without this type of guideline I would advise you to touch a child ONLY when you are protecting the child or another child from being injured, otherwise get another adult before you do anything, you need a witness, and as mentioned above, someone with liability insurance. If the school feels that you should physically manage a child under any other situation, you might want to look for another job.
posted by HuronBob at 6:23 AM on December 16, 2006

Boy things sure have changed from when I went to school. I had a teacher that would routinely sneak up behind us if we were talking in class and whack us in the back of the head with a book. He would constantly remind us that no laws protected us once we walked into his classroom. Nothing like Catholic justice huh?
posted by any major dude at 6:34 AM on December 16, 2006

At my school we have very clear policies about when it's okay to lay hands on a student. You won't be out of line to ask for clear, written policies. If they won't give you anything, make a note of the date and time you requested, who you talked to, and what they said. I know that sounds paranoid, but it's better to quietly make those notes and never need them than to find yourself in an uncomfortable situation with no documentation at all.

That being said, at my school we can only restrain a student if they're going to physically harm themselves or someone else. So breaking up a fight is okay, but pulling on a yelling child would not be. Perhaps you can ask if there's a rewards/points/consequences system you can participate in to manage the kids. Like, if a kid won't stop yelling you can deduct 10 points or give a detention or whatever.

Good luck!
posted by christinetheslp at 6:36 AM on December 16, 2006

Thank you for comments so far.

A clarification: I'm hired part-time at the school, so I'm in a more official capacity than volunteer.

The person who interviewed me was my son's teacher for several years, and so knew me and my family well beyond a simple intake interview, and was comfortable with me in the position. A criminal background check was done before hiring.

Yet I know that what was done can be insufficient. The person mentioned above is one aspect. I worked with Interactive Theater Inc., and gave a presentation to the state police about child molesters - from this I know that molesters target their prey, usually beguile rather than force, and often have the parents beguiled as well. So I don't think that a personal validation by an adult is sufficient, either.

I also worked on a crisis psychiatric ward, but that restraint level is way above what I'm seeking here, though there are many special needs students at the school.
At least once I saw one of these children so out of control he needed restraint from a 'hug' position.

I looked at the NYC document, which includes (regarding use-of-force):

"to restrain or remove a pupil whose behavior is interfering with the orderly
exercise and performance of school district functions, powers or duties, if
that pupil has refused to comply with a request to refrain from further
disruptive acts"

which makes the application very general.

But use-of-force is also beyond what I'm dealing with, I think.
Is a hand on the shoulder in a loud lunchroom to get someone's attention considered use-of-force?
I guess it could be.

Sweetie Darling, thank you. If you can find something, I'll pass it on to the school administrators.

And I agree, things are different than they used to be.
posted by dragonsi55 at 6:53 AM on December 16, 2006

Folks these days are very worried about inappropriate touching of kids, and it doesn't take more than 10 minutes with the news to understand exactly why that is, and what the consequences of inappropriate touching can be.

In my work as a doctor I rotated on a pediatric floor, and regrettably a doc has to touch the kid occasionally. I never touched a kid without a nurse or parent present, and I always explained to the parent and the kid what I was going to do before I started, when that was possible.

I think your self-imposed standards are too lax. You should also never touch a kid without a co-worker present. In fact, I'm not sure I'd advise you ever to touch a kid at all. In this litigious, GPS-armlet modern world, the risks don't appear to me to outweigh the benefits.

I no longer work with kids.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:11 AM on December 16, 2006

I was doing some consulting work for a Maryland public school district and one of the documents I saw was the state regulations for dealing with children in school and one of them (which flabberghasted me) was that you're not allowed to touch kids ever--even if they're attacking you. I, of course, would ignore that and risk getting fired, but my point is there may be some state or district wide regulations about what is appropriate and/or legal.

This is really cynical, but I'm with ikkyu2 on this--it's best not to touch the kids at all this day and age.
posted by Kimberly at 1:01 PM on December 17, 2006

Late follow-up:

A book is due out:
Touchy subject : teachers touching children

An excerpt from one of the articles in the book is here.

Also, a quick pdf by a lawyer is here.
posted by dragonsi55 at 2:16 PM on December 27, 2006