House GOP Rejects Law Banning Child Abuse

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Things Are Not O.K.

On Wednesday afternoon, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 4247, the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act, by a vote of 242-153. In the final vote count, 238 Democrats and just 24 Republicans voted for the bill, while 8 Democrats and 145 Republicans voted against it.

Angellika Arndt, a 7-year-old Wisconsin girl who died in seclusion as a result of restraint related suffocation, 05/26/06. (photo: Family, Angellika Arndt)

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+8 # Guest 2010-03-05 22:54

For the love God's children, I simply have to ask: What further proof is needed to declare that the Republican Party is the party of filth and degradation? What more do we need to know that these Re-thug-lie-cons are simply beyond the pale of human decency in their hearts and are perfectly willing to inflict their evil on even little children...even disabled and handicapped children who cannot protect themselves from such abuse without our intervention?
I'm not talking about political theory and ideological disagreements between parties. I'm talking about the basics of morality, decency, the desire for good to triumph over evil, and the desire to intervene to protect children when adults responsible for them are torturing and abusing them.
That 145 of 169 Republicans voted against this bill tells me one thing loud and clear: Republicans don't think our children are worth being protected from abuse, torture and even death. Mighty Christian of them. They can go to hell.

-2 # Guest 2010-03-06 05:13

and Obama refused to ban landmines which are responsible for the murder, maiming and dismembering of children in every war zone for yeare after the US has gladly placed their little hope and change forces leave our puppets despots and our oil companies in control.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-06 07:56

As an avowed liberal, I certainly firmly against abusive treatment of kids, but I suspect that our conservative friends are also firmly against it. So, it's worth asking why this journalist didn't bother to ask any of them why they voted against this bill.

I can see several reasons off the bat to vote against this, not least of which is that criminal statutes such as these have long been rightly the realm of state, not federal, law. Most states have very detailed policies and laws regarding these issues. Further, the extreme examples given are certainly slanted to sound as ominous and awful as possible... The student who hung himself is a tragedy, but it's probably libelous to imply that the staff supervising him, in effect, killed the boy. And the fact that some boy, somewhere, was mistreated doesn't necessarily justify a new federal law -- it's entirely possible that such mistreatment could be punishable under existing laws... Thick on outrage, thin on journalism.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-06 10:08

I think you miss something important SSW. The Federal government passed a law because local jurisdictions FAILED to either pass adequate laws of their own or to enforce them. The Federal government is correct to make it the law of the land that conduct such as this is universally unacceptable. Since you are an avowed liberal, you ought to know this and further, the staff involved in such tragic deaths HAVE, in effect, killed that boy and children like him and now that there's a federal law prohibiting such conduct, the federal courts can enforce the law now where local jurisdictions have failed to. I'd go as far as to say that criminal indictments for man slaughter at the least are in order.

-3 # Guest 2010-03-06 15:30

For many, many years now, federal criminal law has overstepped its proper bounds, prescribing draconian punishments for offenses that should be handled at the state level or that should not be considered crimes at all. During the last century, especially in the last three decades and in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Congress has made federal crimes out of an astonishing array of behavior, much of which is already prohibited by state law, could be better addressed with civil penalties, or is considered wrongful not because it violates anyone's rights but only because Congress says so. Most of those laws were passed with the enthusiastic votes of Republicans. People of all political persuasions should educate themselves about this issue. A good place to start would be here: "Washington's Biggest Crime Problem: The Federal Government's Ever-Expanding Criminal Code Is an Affront to Justice and The Constitution" http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_11_35/ai_n6116461/

+5 # JJM09 2010-03-06 08:30

I am in utter shock over this article and very relieved to see my Congressman voted in favor of this law. How anyone who has ever loved a child could read this and not be overwhelmed with sorrow and outrage is beyond comprehension.
@bobvan and any who feel the need to agree: This should not be viewed as a political issue, but regardless people have sadly become so jaded and polarized, they will take ANY subject and twist it into a political fight. This is a HUMAN issue. Before spewing hate, one should really ask themselves honestly: what if this happened to my child?

-7 # Guest 2010-03-06 12:46

SSW makes some great points. While nobody wants a child to be tortured teachers face some horrible problems with disruptive students. It has gotten so they can't touch them without facing possible criminal consequences yet another law is passed to make it even harder for a teacher to impose punishment on a child. Children quickly learn how far they can go before punishment starts so now they will be able to push even further. When a student is sent to sit alone, often times now his parents then threaten to sue the school or school board because it must be the teachers fault their child misbehaved. I date myself, but I remember when teachers could with the parents blessings punish me and other students who misbehaved. Now the poor dears will go into some sort of trauma if told no...what is the country coming too??

+5 # Antonia Myss 2010-03-06 16:05

Let me guess, Paul: you are in favor of corporal punishment when a student misbehaves. I remember when teachers (and NOT with the parents' blessings) physically punished children for misbehaving and even for failing to perform academically (when I was in the 2nd grade in Austin, TX, the teacher used a wooden paddle to hit the hands of we 7-year-old students who were having difficulty learning cursive writing, leaving red welts. Looking back, I recognize that teacher as a sadist. H.R. 4247 addresses what is clearly sadistic child abuse: harmful restraints and solitary confinement (often perpetrated against children least able to defend themselves by telling a responsible adult: the very young and the developmentally disabled students). My Democratic Congresswoman (I am a Democrat) voted against this bill. I intend to find out why and in all likelihood will not vote for her in the 2010 election.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-06 19:35

Gee Paul, I guess you didn't read the article. We aren't talking about the difficulty of managing difficult children, we are talking about the use of torture (yes, torture) on young children that has resulted in death, in the one instance, for the crime of a 7 year old blowing bubbles in her milk and then suffocating because of the inappropriate use of physical constraints. Misbehavior? Worry by teachers afraid of being sued? What are you talking about Paul?
You ignore that there has been other deaths, severe trauma, and punishments inflicted on little children with special needs, some being developmentally disabled in some manner and others with physical or neurological disabilities such as cerebral palsy.

I would suggest that you have an underdeveloped sense of fairness and justice as you don't seem to think the punishment should fit the crime, so to speak. I just hope now that children EVERYWHERE will gleefully blow bubbles in their milk whenever the heck they want.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-07 08:35

Antonia Myss, it is not surprising that our Federal Government Criminal Code is expanding. Our population has doubled in the last 30 years which supplies us with double the number of possible crimes that can be thought up and committed. And as we define our behaviors beyond the simplistic 10 commandments, it is inevitable that we will expand and refine our laws. That's good, no bad. And this law will provide enforcement capability where none currently exists. Even one case of TSD in a school setting is unacceptable.
A simple base line federal law is reasonable in a country where education has been relegated to producing consumers instead of thoughtful citizens.
States Rights are important but not at the expense of caring for our children. There is a line that needs to be drawn. This law does not hurt anyone of good conscience with compassion and intelligence as their guiding principle.

-3 # Guest 2010-03-07 09:42

Any time you have multiple millions of people in any situation or institution, you will find crime and abuse. These infrequent incidents should be treated as what they are, crime, and prosecuted.
Children are 100 times safer in school than in their own homes.
This paranoid need to depict schools and teachers as villains does great disservice to our common sense. Making scapegoats won't correct the problems in education, and red herrings like this lead us away from the real problems.

0 # Guest 2010-04-04 10:11

Quoting

Children are 100 times safer in school than in their own homes...
Making scapegoats won't correct the problems in education, and red herrings like this lead us away from the real problems.

So, what you are saying is that disabled children in schools where many nightmares occur for days, months and even years are "safe" in these torture chambers? And that these abusive and demonic special ed teachers are "scapegoats" for blame? And that these so-called "red herrings" are a major distraction from the "real problems?"

Don't make me laugh... because that is some sick and ghetto crap.

By the way, I'm a 16 year old girl writing this stuff.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-07 09:51

I taught delinquent teenagers for 12 years in Los Angeles, and in my 36- year teaching career, I have taught severely emotionally disturbed children as well as learning disabled and retarded children. I never had to punish them in any physical or traumatic fashion. (I'm a small woman, so I couldn't have even if I thought physical interventions would have worked.) This law should have passed unanimously. My students behaved because I had the skills and training to manage their behavior kindly and appropriately. It worked.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-09 09:39

Now we can know from this piece of legislation that Republicans basically don't care about people--be they women from whose bodies they believe they own, to people who are sick or injured without insurance and now they want to continue to fill our prisons with young people who were treated as criminals in childhood therefore leaving them sullen, distrustful and acting out their fears often violently.

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