The Truth about Prone Restraint

These are stories about real people. Now imagine what happens if your right to physically intervene to protect yourself or rescue another is taken away.
STATE	FACILITY	DETAILS	LINKS
California	Locke High School	School Fights: The root of a fight involving 600 students started between two graffiti gangs. The fight was supposed to be between 10 Hispanic students and 10 black students. The group met at the handball courts but fighting spread throughout the school like a wildfire. School security would show up to stop one fight only to find out other fights were being staged elsewhere. The students that were not fighting were locked into their classrooms.	story
California	Nursing Home	Three injured in Petaluma nursing home. A nursing home patient wielding a saw slashed a fellow resident, cut a worker and scraped a police officer. As police closed in on Cooper, he threw a wheelchair down a stairwell at them and tossed his saw at an officer.	story
California	Hospital	Patient kicks nurse in the spleen. A nurse with eleven years of experience was forcefully kicked by a patient in the spleen. She was set flying across the room and had to be immediately treated at her hospital's own emergency room.	story
Canada	Schools: Alberta; British Columbia	Unable to teach: Violence in the Classroom. One teacher says that school boards, management and administration need to back their people, and not just see one side. The Ministis of education needs to step up and make sure that policy reflects the safety and wellbeing of the adults and not just the students. Teachers have left and are leaving the profession because of the abuse and lack of support by administration. One teacher was jumped from behind and knocked to the ground. All the principal could say was that the teacher was wrong and should not have tried to break up the fight. One of the students was bleeding from cuts on his face and head.	story
Colorado	Pueblo West High School	Teacher encourages students to fight. A teacher accused of encouraging two students to attack another has reached a deal that would allow charges to be dropped.	story
Florida	First Coast High School	Fifteen year old student injured in a fight. A 15-year old student was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries from the attack which occurred about 10:30am on a basketball court at First Coast High School. The arrest report says the two students had an ongoing fued over a girl and were fighting over $4 missing from a backpack.	story
Florida	Jacksonville	School bus beating. Florida student brutally beaten on school bus. Twelve year old Si'mone was beaten on a school bus by 6 other students suffering bruises on the back of his head. His mother is now considering sending the seventh grader to a new school.	story
Florida	Savannas Hospital & Treatment Center	Nurse murdered: A mental patient who said he was sent by God to rid the world of bad people is accused of beating a nurse to death with his fists and injuring two other patients as he was being involuntarily committed to a hospital early Tuesday.	story
Florida	Sebastian River Middle School	School bus beating. Two eighth-graders have been charged with two felony counts each, including attempted sexual battery on a child. The sixth grader who was assaulted told authorities that the two students turned him around in the back seat of the school bus and pulled his pants and boxer shorts down. One studen thed the sixth-grader's face against the window of the bus. The sixth-grader pulled his boxers up, but the students then dragged him into the aisle of the buse and held his pants down and put an apple pie box between the child's buttocks. There were two teachers and a driver present on the bus. The teachers claim they did not see anything.	story
Georgia	All Georgia State Mental Hospitals	Employee injured due to patient assaults. Employees of all seven state hospitals claim more injuries from altercations with patients than from all other causes combined. Due to insufficient staffing, supervision and control, 45 of one hospital unit's 84 patients had sustained injuries in assaults by other patients. Some were injured several times. Between July 2002 through June 2006, there were more than 2700 or 54% of all state worker compensation claims were from altercations with patients.	story
Hawaii	Hawaii State Hospital	Patient assaults a nurse. A female nurse was physically assaulted by a male patient. The staff working on her shift were not trained in physical intervention, so there was a delay in assisting the nurse. Another patient came to the nurse's rescue. The nurse was beat repeatedly in the face, completely crushing the bottom part of her eye and displacing it from its socket. Assaults are up nine percent from last year, and up 41 percent from 2005 to 2006. The Deptartment of Justice (DOJ) went into this facility to clean it up. According to press reports things are worse now than they were before.	story
Idaho	Intermountain Hospital	Juvenile Patients Riot. Juvenile Patients Riot at Intermountain Hospital. Informants choosing to remain anonymous (watch for these recurring themes of fear of retaliation including job loss and false abuse charges) notified press and others that help was needed because Intermountain was out of control again. A boys unit rioted at about 8pm. One Intermountain psychiatric technician resigned citing repeated assaults from several adolescents. fearing for his life and receiving multiple cuts and wounds on his arms and two large welts on his forehead. The fact that the teens had control of the institution was further confirmed by a father’s recount of a conversation with his son who told of several other incidents including a fight between two females that his son tried to stop because the people who run the place just turned the other way and did not try to stop it.	story
Illinois	Chicago High School	18 year old student shot leaving school. An 18 year old student was leaving his High School when he was fatally shot in broad daylight in plain view of other students. The day before, an eighth-grader was shot and killed. So far, 20 Chicago public school students have been fatally shot so far this school year.	story
Iowa	Tanager Place - children's home	Staff lets child elope. Child drowns. Tanager had a policy that only allowed staff to use physical restraint in emergencies. Apparently, child elopement was not considered an emergency and staff did not prevent the child from running away. The 15 year old boy who had mental health issues died after jumping off a bridge and drowning.
Kansas	Nursing Home	Patient with hand saw slashed resident. A nursing home patient wielding a hand saw slashed a fellow resident, cut a worker and scraped a poilce officer ina rampage that ended when he was subdued by the authorities in Petaluma California. Officers found the woman in the lobby with head wounds when they arrived, Cooper was nearby with a tree-trimming hand saw.	story
Maryland	Baltimore City Middle School	Twice assaulted teacher quits. A Baltimore teacher resigns after being physically assaulted by students. According to Baltimore Teacher Union president Marietta English, 8000 teachers and paraprofessionals have faced numerous assaults only to have the student return to class. Principals and administrators try to limit the number of suspensions to receive NCLB money and prevent the school from being listed as persistently dangerous. Gumminger says she was thrown against a wall by a student she told to go to the principal's office. After a two day suspension, the student was right back in her class.	story
Maryland	Doctor Murdered	Doctor Murdered by Schizophrenic Patient. On September 3, after an urgent call for treatment, Dr. Fenton was found beaten to death at his Bethesda, MD, office. Mary Zdanowicz, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center said that the mental health community focuses on recovery – the brighter side of mental illness. This focus on happier outcomes has been done at the expense of acknowledging the other side of the outcome continuum, which includes those patients who are slow to or never recover and/or are dangerous.	story
Massachusetts	Brockton Hospital	The Massachusetts Nurses Association has dubbed Brockton Hospital a "poster child" for workplace violence. Employees are suffering physical assaults from patients that are leading to serious injuries including punching, kicking, biting, scratching and hair pulling. A nurse at Brockton Hospital was kicked to the floor and beaten by a patient. Other nurses have had their hair pulled. One was punched in the face, and another was threatened with a knife. How defunct is OSHA? OSHA could not cite the hospital because there are no specific standards relating to workplace violence.	story
Massachusetts	Taunton State Hospital	A nurse has been hit, kicked, assaulted and spit on. A psychiatric nurse in Taunton, MA remembers one evening when her son asked her if any patients had tired to kill her that day. Nurse Coughlin said she has been hit, kicked and spit on, and a knife pulled on her. Coughlin recounts one incident where a 6 feet 4 inch, 275 pound patient smacked another patient, bit a health aide, threatened to kill her and lunged forward to strike her. Nurse Coughlin was one of the stories with a fortunate outcome, the patient was restrained before he reached her.	story
Massachusetts	Taunton State Hospital	Nurses consider leaving because of unsafe conditions. 97% of nurses and health professionals at Taunton State Hospital (TSH) report management is dangerously understaffing the hospital which puts patients, staff and the local community in jeopardy; nearly 90 percent report working conditions that prevent them from providing care up to their professional standards; and nearly 80 percent report that they have/are considering leaving the facility because of the unsafe conditions.	story
Minnesota	Statewide survey	13% of Nurses report having been physically attacked. In a 2004 survey of 6,300 randomly selected nurses in Minnesota, 13% of respondents reported having been physically attacked during the previous year and 39% reported having been threatened, verbally abused or sexually harassed. Patients accounted for almost all the physical assaults and two-thirds of the verbal ones.	story
Nebraska	Lincoln Regional Center	Psychiatric Doctor killed by patient. Dr. Louis Martin, 78 was assaulted and killed by a patient at Lincoln Regional Center, a state psychiatric hospital in Nebraska. A patient was upset over the Dr's testimony at his criminal trial. When Dr. Martin walked onto Lewis's floor, Lewis began attacking him and punching him in the face. Dr. Martin fell backwards, hitting his head on the wall and floor suffering extensive head and brain injuries. ,	story1 story2
New York	Intermediate School 278, Brooklyn	Brooklyn teachers allowed students to be molested. A severely understaffed Brooklyn Junior High School declared an extended recess and let the students play outside all day. The boys took advantage of the lack of supervision, and at least eight girls were groped and their clothing ripped off (some with teachers present). Teachers refused to call the police and refused to let the parents call the police. After this incident, at least one female student was stripped of her clothing and molested in a classroom with the teacher present.	story
New York	Hempstead High School	Boy stabbed in the school yard. A gang fatally stabbed a 15 year old Long Island boy while he played handball in the school yard. As his two friends looked on, Michael Alguera was knifed in the torso, and could not be saved.	story
New York	Hempstead High School	100s of fights break out in school due to lack of security. Following two days of fighting that spiraled out of control, and the cancelling the the homecoming pep rally, police from Hempstead Village and undercover officers from Nassau County Police joined school security in returning peace to the school, patrolling the campus perimeter and walking the hallways. Administration says that the fights involving about 100 of the 1,600 students were not race related. According to one of the students suspended for fighting there's no security at the school. "Everybody for themselves. What do you expect . . . a bunch of Hispanic kids coming at a bunch of black kids."	story
North Carolina	John Umstead State Hospital	Nurse beaten at State Mental Hospital. A patient with a history of violence severely beat a nurse at John Umstead State Mental Hospital in Butner, North Carolina, breaking bones in her face. The nurse's facial injuries were so extensive that the doctors could not fully assess the extent of her injuries. Nurse McClure is 5 foot 2. Her attacker is 6 foot 1.	story1 story2
North Carolina	Cherry Hospital	Mental Health employees picket Cherry Hospital's unsafe working conditions. Concerned employees picket hospital about unsafe working conditions that they say have gotten worse since the state began its mental health reforms in 2001. Staff complains that the hospital only looks at patient safety, not staff safety. Stating, that if anything happens to a patient, it makes the news, the fact that 11 employees are injured by patients in a three week period goes unnoticed.	story
Pennsylvania	George Washington High School	A Pennsylvania Federal Judge ruled that a school cannot ignore violence and unsafe conditions. A Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled that a school's policy to ignore and deny the obvious existence of violence and unsafe conditions without putting measures in place to address the unsafe conditions violated the civil rights of a student that was brutally attacked. The Judge found that the student met the requirements of the state-created danger test by alleging that the school was aware of the unsafe and dangerous conditions and did nothing to remedy the situation.	story
Pennsylvania	West Philadelphia High School	Teacher attacked - again. Violence-plagued WPHS announced yet another teacher was assaulted when he was punched in the jaw after telling students to get off a car. The seventh in two weeks and at least the 18th this school year.	story
Pennsylvania	North Philadelphia Elem. School	Girl hits principal at NP ES. An elementary school principal was knocked to the ground by a female student. The eighth grader ran up from behind and punched the principal knocking her to the ground. Another 8th grader started running towards her and tried to strike her, but police halted the attack. The girl then struck a female school police officer. It took a lot of people to get her down to the ground. Had this incident happened today, the officers would not be allowed to put the student on the ground because the Pennsylvania Dept. of Education has banned the use of face down floor holds.	story
Pennsylvania	West Philadelphia School District	Three assaults on teachers in two days. There has been 63 assaults this school year on administrators, including principals, assistant principals, deans of students and others. A student punched a non-teaching assistant in the face. School staffers have been pushed, slapped, hit and struck with objects. Amber described a school out of control where students roam the hallways as thy please. There's not a lot of shooting, but there's a lot of fighting. Punching people and starting fires. The security guards sit there and say stop it.	story1 story2
Pennsylvania	Warren State Hospital	An adult female patient attacked another adult female patient at Warren State Hospital. The patient pulled the victim off of a couch by her hair, then pushed the victim's head into a chair, kicked her and punched her in the face numerous times.
Pennsylvania	Warren State Hospital	59 out of 93 staff were assaulted by patients in the last 6 months. In a study concerning responses of staff to patient-on-staff assault at a state inpatient psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. The study found that 59 out of 93 Staff were assaulted by patients in the past six months. Direct-care staff were more likely to be assaulted than were other staff. Assaulted staff were more likely to report higher anxiety, more somatic concerns, greater vulnerability and lack of control, and higher levels of impairment at work and were more likely to consider terminating employment than were non-assaulted staff.	story
Tennessee	Knoxville High School	A student fatally shot a 16-year-old classmate. School officials say that this was not a random act, the boy was shot in the cafeteria at 8:30 in the morning. Eyewitnesses say that they heard a noise and saw the boy holding his chest. There was blood everywhere.	story
Tennessee	Murfreesboro School District	A bus driver said that two high school students brutally beat him, breaking his leg. After the driver's allegations, reports surfaced that Campbell had taunted the teens before the attack. story	story
Texas	Study	15% of participants at the 6 state psychiatric hospitals experienced a major to severe patient assault. The study found that workers in wards with low safety climate supervisory actions were 5 times as likely to experience an assault-related injury than workers in a ward with high safety. The odds of experiencing patient assault-related injury was 2.5 times greater for respondents who believed that patient seclusion and restraint was not beneficial to use with patients. The implications of the study are that a high level of safety climate is protective and substantially reduces the likelihood of patient assault related injuries.
Texas	Dallas ISD	A special education teacher fell hard on cement after three students set up a trip wire, watched her fall then ran back into a classroom. The school does not have a policy telling employees how to handle fights. Fights in schools can escalate quickly. At Carter High School, a hall monitor and an assistant principal were trying to break up a fight that had attracted a crowd of at least 100 students when some students turned on them. The hall monitor landed in the emergency room after being hit in the face with an unknown object, and the assistant principal suffered an injured knee.
Virginia	Potomac Hospital	Patient assaults police officer who was saved by a good samaritan. A patient stole a man's cell phone while the man was talking on it outside the emergency room. Police responded to the scene. The patient, punched the officer, knocked him down and tried to remove the officer's gun. A citizen witnessed the incident and knocked Samuel off of the officer probably saving his life. Samuel then ran back into the hospital and punched a nurse in the face.	story
Virginia	Maury High School	Violence permeates a Virginia school. In response to gang-related problems, officials added an assistant principal and three security guards and plan to increase video surveillance of the building. One mother spoke out about school safety saying her daughter was assaulted and a teacher injured during a gang fight at the school. She said she doubted the accuracy of the school's discipline statistics. An art teacher said increasing violence in the city now permeates the schools. School Board Chairman mentioned that 84% of the students have never been suspended. One Maury parent said it wasn't reassuring that 16% were.	story
Washington	Court Case	Educators can sue a school district for creating and maintaining an unsafe environment. A State Court ruling found in favor of two Starwood special education aides who alleged the school district was negligent in not protecting them from students known to be violent. School districts are now looking to the state to provide them with immunity if sued by special education teachers.	story
Washington	Schools	Special education teachers feel unsafe in class. Teachers are worn out by being head-butted, kicked, spit on, punched and in some cases knocked out. A former school district special education teacher said you have to be on your guard all the time - and even then they can hurt you. One teacher recalls teaching a special education class and being kicked down the stairs by a student. A Clover Park School teacher was head-butted by a student, knocked backwards, hitting her head on the end of a counter and knocked unconscious.	story
Washington	Western State Mental Health	State mental hospital grapples with rise in patient violence. At WSH, fewer patients are gettign strapped to beds or locked in empty rooms, but incidences and severity of assaults on staff are on the rise. The hospital has recorded a 19% increase in the number of patient attcks on workers and the number of severe assaults. Workers are getting their jaws broken and the Stat's Department of Labor and Industries called WSH's organizaiton structure dysfunctional.	story1 story2
Washington	Seattle Schools	A 15 year old Federal Way student was charged with assault for slamming his special education teacher's head into a desk. Eight special education teachers or aides filed claims against their school districts in the past year. The educators, whose claims range from death threats to bites claim they were not being protected in the classroom. Hodgins, an attorney said he believes many districts are so afraid of being sued by parents that they are not adequately protecting their teachers or students from harm.	story