Lawsuit alleges autistic students cuffed

Disability Rights North Carolina has filed a federal lawsuit against the Wake County Board of Education and the senior director of special education services, claiming that several autistic students were cuffed and "encouraged to wrestle one another" and bruising resulted which was not properly reported or documented. The incidents occurred at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh, N.C., where it is alleged there was a "WWF" room - a term referring to a vacant room where students were allegedly encouraged to release aggression by wrestling. One student reported to his mother that he saw a teacher wrestle a student to the floor.

The group has also asked for the right to monitor the classroom and student-teacher interactions. To date, the school board has not given student information to the DRNC so they can investigate the claims.

Rittelmeyer believes that part of the reason the school board will not give the requested information is because DRNC is a fairly new agency -- it was instituted by the federal government 15 months ago under a law that exempts such agencies when it comes to privacy laws.

Majestic said that the schools simply want to be certain that they are in compliance with the law.

The likelihood of embarrassment should the alleged abuse be proved, said Rittelmeyer, is another reason he believes the school board is not cooperating.

"I'm not sure they're hiding something -- I think we probably know most of the events that are going on in that classroom -- but to confirm them would be an embarrassment to the school system," said Rittelmeyer.

via abcnews.go.com

The court complaint may be viewed here. It alleges that the wrestling was done with the classroom teacher's knowledge and teaching assistants were directly involved in wrestling with students.