School employee dies after being kicked in the chest by 14-year-old student
School employee dies after being kicked in the chest by 14-year-old student
“Therapeutic residential school” is a term that reminds me of elan.school. I don’t know if it’s anything like that, but I know the Elan school wasn’t unique.
Edit: Found this about it on Reddit:
Meadowbridge Academy, Swansea, MA, is run by Justice Resource Institute--an organization that has gotten into trouble for running abusive programs. In 2017-2018, the Disability Law Center (Massachusetts Protection and Advocacy Agency--every state has one) investigated Meadowbridge Academy due to complaints regarding sexual abuse of students and neglect. The DLC report reports that Meadowbridge Academy terminated those involved and has made significant changes in response to this incident. JRI is a member of NATSAP, the trade organization representing the Troubled Teen Industry--an organization no legitimate non-profit would want to be associated with.
They had my son in a similar program, outplacement, not residential however. It was called High Roads. They have had multiple cases opened against them, and I refuse to let them ever place him there again. The school they had him in was a converted office space in an industrial park. It didn't even have a gym. They are also for profit, and treat the staff like garbage.
I asked in an interview, how do you help a child who is in crisis, and they showed me their concrete cell. That's the plan. Just detain the child in basically solitary confinement. My son self harms in this kind of thing, while it will keep other students and staff safe (highly important) it does nothing to help the child's actual issues.
They tried to place him there again last year, I've loved all my son's teachers, but last year's teacher was, not great. So when he had trouble, they wanted to put him there again. I said no, and faught them on it with our states advocate program. High Roads the cheapest out placement for the school. When I brought to them other, more expensive, better outplacement options, they fucking folded when I said our compromise could be to keep him in his current in district program. His teacher this year is fantastic, and is so far doing well. Advocate for you kids man. And fuck High Roads and these for profit child prisions.
It's like locking a misbehaving dog in a cage, and then they wonder why they bite. Its foolishness.
I'm deeply saddened that this event with the teacher losing her life. This is the worst I've ever heard. That's absolutely should not have happened. Many of these schools are not meant to actually help children. They sacrifice the wellbeing of staff and the kids for profit. The system is fucked. And I guarantee you, this tragedy won't be enough to change anything meaningful.
Sounds just like tons of other evil “schools” I’ve read about. Lady shouldn’t have died obviously but I’m not gonna fault that kid for fighting back in a place like that. Horrible.
Damn, this is sad all around.
How hard were they trying to restrain someone just for leaving a building? I can see extreme measures for someone armed making threats or actively harming themselves, but if they want to leave the building surely there were better options.
That was my first thought too. Physically restraining a person, especially a minor, and even more especially a minor with trauma, is a very serious thing. It was strange to me the article had nothing about why the girl needed to be physically restrained.
But I'm also more suspicious about it because it's American, I've seen (in the news) so many examples of insane authoritarianism in American institutions, where even doing your hair in a non traditional white manner is considered grounds to be expelled.
And numerous cases of calling the police on children "to teach them a lesson"!!!
American conditions in institutions are insane just like they are in the rest of American society. because USA as a nation has gone more and more sociopathic and authoritarian over the past 40 years. Might makes right is just one issue, and I suspect the one that could have been at play here? It is quite telling IMO that the colleague doesn't blame the girl.
It is also weird that she is just described as "a staff member" indicating she has no special training with these sorts of children!
She may have done her best according to her abilities, but this reeks of an institutional failure.
This place seems to be a troubled teen "School" probably pulling from fucking Elan. TLDR historically troubled kids were chucked at military school or farming/ranching schools which were closer to residential technical schools than anything else, then came the boom of psychology and a bunch of fuckwads opened up troubled teen schools which can vary from kinda okay nature retreat facilities to batshit insane religious schools which mentally break kids. These places are closer to native American/Aboriginal residential "schools" than anything else and I'm not convinced aren't somehow directly related.
This isn't a normal American school, it's an place where shitty parents send their unruly kids to be abused.
Absolutely.
I've dealt with some of these schools. You have untrained staff literally yelling, "Do your work now!" To a room full of kids with ODD and others. Then sit back and wonder why it's not working. Their solution when they become dysregulated is to lock them in solitary confinement until they, calm down.
It's garbage. It doesn't work. It is institutional failure, because, well, profits over everything in the United States.
Most likely what the minor did to need to be physically restrained is covered by privacy laws.
I could see the kid running a self defense case. Particularly if all they were trying to do was leave and somebody forcibly restrained them.
Hopefully they have camera footage showing this.
It was strange to me the article had nothing about why the girl needed to be physically restrained.
It clearly says why, whether or not you agree it was necessary.
The victim was 53 years old and it does not take much to break a rib and have the bone stab through a lung or your heart, which can very quickly kill you.
Damn, crazy to think a kick the chest by a 14 year old girl could result in death. Fighting is fucking dangerous.
Fighting definitely proves the almost paradoxical notion that humans are both exceptionally resilient and pathetically fragile at the exact same time.
I practice martial arts. I don't wanna fight anybody ever. Too many variables could spell disaster.
Yup, the first thing you learn in martial arts is that you should never fight.
"Battles are dangerous affairs".
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News like this destroy our mental health without serving any purpose but to make the website some sweet ad-money. Click it, engage and soon we'll get one news article for every recorded act of violence in the world. Congratulations, you just lost a little more faith in humanity, making your perceived reality more scary and unsafe.
1000%. Look, it's sad, but it is one thing in a sea of endless information. At best a reader walks away more scared of the world. At worst, there is an entire electorate that will walk away more violent towards others. Deadass these articles have a role in the global rise of fascism.
Not to mention the fact this is a UK media outlet sharing a story from the US - and it's not even their reporting but just a regurgitation of an actual local news station.
there was another article a while back, where a teacher took away a 15yo phone, and beat her with an inch of her life. he was a huge dude and had mental issues, in other schools.
Was it a 15 year old phone? Did the teacher do the beating or was the teacher the big dude with mental issues? What happened in other schools?
The way I interpreted it was a large 15 year old male with mental issues, who was a problem in other schools, became violent when the teacher confiscated their phone.
Try adding more text to your context window, or switch to a model with more parameters. Assuming the text seems unparsable to your setup.
Idk if you're being deliberately obtuse or just didn't understand but I interpreted it as the 15 year old had their phone taken then beat the teacher within an inch of their life and the student had apparently had past issues, also they were big. Context + some creative interpretation makes it pretty easy to puzzle this one out.
and how do you beat someone with an inch of a life? what is an inch of a life??
I'm pretty sure this is the one you're thinking of:
That was pretty rough to watch because he was like twice her size.
yea that one.
How sad, she was doing her job here. It is a very hard and underpaid field, and most people never think of it. May she rest in peace.
Critically, criminally underpaid. Had a good friend that did it for over 8 years. Never got a raise, continually dealt with the worst kids and rehabilitated them. Fucking saints in a largely thankless field.
alot of teachers quit during the pandemic, because of childrens you cant discipline in class anymore. in the 90s and 2000s teachers had more power by giving them "Referrals" which essentially a academic complaint, and can hold back s tudents,,,etc. plus in the 2000s they already started the problem with participation grades: passing people who had no business of passing just for the sake of funding.
That kid just ruined a lot of lives
That kid is a natural, time to start training for MMA
Meadowbridge Academy is a “therapeutic residential school providing comprehensive treatment to youth and young adults with mental health issues, behavioral difficulties, and complex trauma histories,”
Oh god, is that another one of those American child torture prisons that they extremely euphemistically call "therapeutic school"? It has to be as the name is so vague and it would explain why this student wanted to leave so badly.
A lot of comments in here assuming there wasn’t good reason to restrain the kid. Or that this school exists only to contain kids of parents who can’t be bothered to be there for their kids. That might be true, but it’s just as much of an assumption as the opposite.
My daughter is 10, adopted at 5 from a traumatic past. Last weekend I asked her to do a chore and because she didn’t want to, escalated to assaulting me. Eventually she needed to be restrained because she refused to take simple steps at my suggestion to get herself calmed down and instead attempted to hit, kick, bite, and headbutt me. Maybe you assume this is simply me being a bad parent, but the fact is that I remained calm and only asked her to take the time to calm down with the skills she’s been working on for this kind of thing. The trauma she was exposed to before I adopted her was not my fault, but I have to deal with how that impacts her choices every day. And sometimes that means restraining her, calling the police, or admitting her to residential treatment. None of those are ideal outcomes, but I have to make choices that will keep me, my wife, our son (her biological brother we also adopted), and HER safe. If you had seen the kind of damage she can do, you would also not make the dumbass suggestion to just leave her be; I can assure you, there was not a better option last weekend.
So idk, you could be right: this place could be fucked up and they could’ve had no good reason to restrain this kid. But I don’t think it’s fair to assume that this person deserved to die because they had a teen drop kick them in a school for troubled kids. They were likely doing their best to help this kid and instead got assaulted to death on the job.
When I was a kid, I knew a kid who was (presumed) special needs but also EXTREMELY VIOLENT. I remember being in the 3rd grade and seeing him literally being carried away into a side room at school (probably to get him away from someone). And I mean like some teachers had his arms, and others had his legs, literally suspending him in the air because he wasn't going willingly to any degree.
He was known for biting and clawing. One time, he flat-out just choked me. He was a known entity in the school.
I have no idea where he ended up. I think his mom ended up putting him in a group home or something because she basically couldn't overpower him anymore, and he made it known he was pissed at her.
Yeah dude. It’s sad, but sometimes a kid is just dangerous to other people. There’s no amount of reason or gentleness that can help. It fucking sucks. I hope he’s doing okay now, and I hope his mom has peace with whatever has happened. It’s so hard to be comfortable with your child being completely unhinged, and the choices you have to make to keep others safe around them.
we knew a SPED in school, who dint seemed violent at first, but strange occurences only happened after we all graduated from HS. we had no real formal relationship with the guy, but he started showing up at our house and frequently after that. after we had turn away because nobody in the house had any friendships in him, he started geting angry and violent. so we had to call the parent multiple times, last i heard they moved away and he had to put in some healthcare situation. like stuffing our door keyhole with toothpicks(classic stalking killer vibe), and threw a random computer monitor onto the car window and game cartridge went missing. this was like 15+years ago.
You're doing a great job. Thank you for loving them.
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Sending love. Good on you for what you do
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