Restraint and Seclusion National Call-In Day

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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), in conjunction with the Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion (APRAIS), is asking you to join us in a National Call-In Day on Thursday, January 21st to tell your members of Congress to support the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247/S.2860) introduced last month by Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). This legislation would provide students with and without disabilities vital protections against abuse in schools. We are providing details on how to contact your members of Congress -- please distribute this announcement widely.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call on Thursday and encourage your friends, family and coworkers to participate by dialing the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your Congressional representative to Co-Sponsor H.R. 4247, and your senators to Co-Sponsor S. 2860.

• To find out the names of your US Senators and Representative, click here (link to www.congress.org)
• Ask for the offices of your US Senators and Representative
• Ask to speak to the person working on education issues
• Identify yourself as a constituent and the organization that you represent (if any)

Message: “ I am calling to urge (Senator y) to cosponsor S.2860, legislation preventing harmful use of restraint and seclusion in schools.”

Message: “I am calling to urge (Representative z) to cosponsor HR 4247, legislation preventing harmful use of restraint and seclusion in schools.”

Thanks for your advocacy. Increasing congressional support for these bills will help move them through the legislative process towards enactment. Please call on January 21, 2010 and tell your friends and family to join you. If you are interested in doing more, please e-mail us at [email protected] for information about how you can arrange a meeting with your representatives to explain why this bill is essential or visit www.tash.org/aprais to learn more.

Regards,
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the APRAIS Coalition

Alternately, if you have a hard time with anxiety and/or getting your thoughts out on the telephone, there is an option to write a letter to your congressional representative.For example, I live in Wisconsin in Brookfield county.So my representative would be Jim Sensenbrenner in District 5. I found the links below helped make the information easier to process.

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#wi

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/congress.html

Once you've figured out who your representative is, search his or her name on congress.org. Click the contact tab. Then click web form. It should look something like this

http://www.congress.org/bio/id/639

Hope this helps,

In Texas no restraint or seclusion or any other sensory deprivation is allowed,. My bf was a psych tech. He was taught to pull people off each other, but only put them in the seclusion room because they were so out of it they were just throwing themselves at everything and everyone indiscriminantly, and there is always someone watching them in the room so he still gets to vent his feelings to someone. If restraint is necessary for longer, it is done with drugs that actually make the person feel better rather than acting as chemical restraints. I used to hate Texas because of their death row scandal and planned to boycott it but I am so glad that I met this wonderful man there and learned about the mental health system, not the correctional system. I think that as long as I don't hang around with the wrong crowd I won't end up on death row. So I feel safe in Texas. Safer than anywhere else in the world.