Apology after autistic twins were strapped into chairs
Legal action after non-verbal pair were restrained at special needs school
A special needs school has apologised after breaching the human rights of two students who were repeatedly strapped into chairs to restrict their movements. Five Acre Wood in Maidstone admitted to ignoring its own policy and government guidance by using mechanical restraints on the autistic twins.
Kent County Council (KCC), which runs the school, has offered the parents of Samuel and Jacob Montague more than £80,000 in compensation after admitting multiple failings following a legal case.
The twins, who are both severely autistic and non-verbal, started at the Boughton Lane, Loose, school in 2009 aged four, with the intention that they would attend until age 19. They are now both 17.
However, their parents Annie and Mark removed them in 2013. They says the first public incident took place in 2010, when the boys were wheeled out at a school concert strapped into the ‘Hardrock’ chairs. The seats restrain movement through a number of straps that go around legs, arms, and shoulders. When the horrified parents protested, they were told the mechanical restraint chairs were the only way the boys could participate in such a concert and the incident was a one-off. Despite this, the couple became concerned that Samuel and Jacob were being routinely restrained. In June 2011, a clinical psychologist visited and witnessed one of the boys strapped into the Hardrock chairs in the classroom.
The parents protested but say the chairs continued to be used. On one occasion the boys’ mother and their carer attended a school sports day where other children were outside and running around. Jacob was strapped into the chair and visibly distressed.
The boys’ autism means they interpret the world through touch and movement, so the use of the chairs completely undermined their human rights, Mr and Mrs Montague said. After
they took Samuel and Jacob out of the school, they homeschooled them and the boys have since flourished.
Mr and Mrs Montague are now calling for changes to the law. Following the settlement, they said: “We are so pleased that Samuel and Jacob’s cases have come to a successful conclusion, and that the local authority has
finally admitted that it failed our sons.
“Children with special educational needs should be protected, not strapped into chairs. Mistreatment of children like Samuel and Jacob happens behind closed doors, and it is very difficult for parents to find the evidence to challenge it, or to bring a legal case.”