As a grieving California couple shares photos of their 13-year-old son with autism, who died last month after being restrained by teachers, other parents have begun pulling their children from the inclusive private K-12 school where it took place.
The parents of Max Benson, a student at Guiding Hands School in El Dorado Hills, shared photos of their son with Fox 40 in Sacramento to show his sweet demeanor, the news station said. The family, from Davis, is also fighting back at Guiding Hands, which a preliminary investigation by the state shows violated multiple rules in its handling of the boy.
Max was allegedly placed in a prone restraint, face-down on the floor, Nov. 28 after school officials said he became violent. The El Dorado Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the incident, said in a news release that Max was 6 feet tall and weighed about 280 pounds.
An attorney for Max’s family, Seth Goldstein, disputed the claims of the boy’s height and weight, saying that Max was 5 feet, 4 inches tall. At most, he weighed 230 pounds, Goldstein said.
"He was not an unmanageable child in any sense of that term, in terms of that size," Goldstein told The Sacramento Bee.
The Bee previously reported that sources said Max was held in the prone restraint position for about an hour before he became unresponsive.
"A teacher began CPR until medical aid arrived," a news release from the Sheriff's Office said. "The student was transported to Mercy Folsom in critical condition and later to UC Davis (Medical Center)."
Max died two days later.
"At this time, there appears to be no evidence of foul play or criminal intent," investigators said in the release.
Cherilyn Caler, whose own 13-year-old son witnessed the restraint used on Max, said the teacher and an aide restrained the boy, who had been a student there for just a few months, because he kicked a wall, the Bee reported. A second parent who asked to remain anonymous backed Caler's account.
Caler told the newspaper her son, who is also on the autism spectrum, told her Max became unresponsive, at which point those restraining him told him to stop pretending to be asleep. After about 30 minutes, they realized he wasn’t pretending, she said.
Caler has since removed her son from the school, the Bee reported.
>> Related story: Teen with autism dies after being restrained at school
A Dec. 5 letter from the California Department of Education states that staff members at Guiding Hills violated multiple state rules when trying to get Max under control. The Department of Education’s own preliminary investigation found that the staff used an emergency intervention to stop predictable, or non-emergency, behavior.
It also found that an emergency intervention was used as a substitute for Max’s behavioral intervention plan, or BIP, which is designed to change, replace, modify or eliminate a targeted behavior. The intervention was also used for longer than necessary and it was used with an amount of force that was “not reasonable and necessary under the circumstances.”
The school staff’s actions also failed to take into account Max’s individualized education program, or IEP, which required specific intervention strategies that were not used, the letter says.
Guiding Hands School’s certification has been suspended until the end of 2019, according to the letter. The school can continue to serve current students but cannot accept new pupils.
“The (California Department of Education) is continuing to conduct its investigation into the actions of (Guiding Hands),” the letter reads. It is likely required corrective actions will be issued by the CDE resulting from this investigation.”
All corrective actions would have to be completed for the school to regain its certification.
Caler is not the only parent who has pulled their child out of Guiding Hands, which had an enrollment of 137 this school year, according to state records.
Melissa Lasater told Fox 40 that she was appalled at how the school handled Max's death.
"When they were bringing the chaplains from class to class, instead of just letting the chaplains say, 'We're here for you,' the staff also shared their message: 'Just so you know, we didn't kill anyone,'" Lasater told the news station.
Lasater said her own 13-year-old son, who knew Max, did not realize his classmate died until his death made the news about a week later.
"He immediately started to, like, cry and started to process, like, 'Who's been missing the last few days, who could it be?'" Lasater said. "And then his face just dropped and he's, like, 'Mom, mom, it was Max. They killed Max.' And then he was petrified."
Lasater said the school had used restraints on her son in the past, sometimes leaving him with bruises. In the wake of Max’s death, she initially revoked her permission for the school to use any force on her son.
Ultimately, she chose to pull him from the school.
"They're all still there with the same staff, who are trained in the same techniques, who are going to use them the same way. They use them as punishment," Lasater told Fox 40.
Other parents and students tell stories of physical restraint being used as punishment.
Josh Greenfield, 23, was a student at Guiding Hands until 2013, the Bee reported. Greenfield told the newspaper he was restrained twice during his time there and found the experiences frightening.
The restraints were excessive and were done for dubious reasons, according to the former student. He told the Bee he was once placed in a prone restraint because he ignored a teacher calling his name in a hallway.
Melanie Stark, of Elk Grove, pulled her 9-year-old son from Guiding Hands Thursday, the Bee reported. She also has a pending complaint with the Department of Education regarding the use of restraints in the school.
Stark said her son was restrained on his first day at the school in September. She said a teacher’s aide wrapped her arms and legs around the boy so he could not get up from his desk.
The reasoning was to keep him seated and guide him through the activity he was working on, she said.
"That was too aggressive and it was happening about four times a week," Stark told the Bee.
Rebecca St. Clair, of Folsom, told the newspaper her son was put in a prone restraint two years ago. In that incident, staff members rolled him inside a gym mat and put their weight on the mat to keep him still.
Despite being upset by the incident, it was not until the week before Max's death, when she personally witnessed a student being rolled inside a mat that she realized how "alarming and unsettling" the practice is, the Bee reported.
"I tried to assure myself that this was based on trust. I really trusted the teachers," St. Clair told the newspaper. "That trust has been broken. I thought they were so careful. I feel so wrong about that now."
Lasater and others protested outside the California Department of Education Monday, demanding that Guiding Hands be shut down. One of those protesting was Katie Kaufman, a former student there.
According to CBS Sacramento, Kaufman said she also was restrained multiple times at the school.
"They always use the one where you throw the person on the floor in a body slam," Kaufman told the news station. "It was a matter of time. Someone dies, and they finally start listening."
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