Teachers, special education aides, the staff in the classroom can usually see it coming. A student is starting to lose it, is in danger of getting out of control.
So they begin to try to “de-escalate” the student — calm the student, talk the student down.
“The point is you never want to get in a power struggle,” said Special Education Director Karen Berasi. “You don’t use a loud voice. You use a very calming voice. You want to be very aware of your proximity to the student, and what you are doing with your body, and the body language you are giving.
“Every student is different, but when you have a student who is very upset, you have to be very careful about your own body language and whether it is appropriate to touch that student,” Ms. Berasi said. “Most of the time, it is not.”
As they try to de-escalate the situation, the staff members on the scene will call the school’s crisis team.
One of the goals is to avoid using physical “restraint” on the child — who is often, though not always, a special education student.
“The teacher always knows what to do: Call for the team,” Ms. Berasi said.
Each of Ridgefield’s nine schools has its own crisis team with at least three or four members who have been trained, and are re-trained at least once a year, in the techniques of the Wisconsin-based Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI).
“When a child can’t be de-escalated, the CPI team is called,” Ms. Berasi said.
“It’s never just one adult, it always has to have multiple people involved.”
Most of the incidents involve students with serious disabilities, such as autism or emotional disabilities. There is likely already a special education paraprofessional or aide in attendance, in addition to the teacher.
“Usually we know who would be potentially restrained, so there’s a paraprofessional in the room with that child,” Ms. Berasi said.
The crisis team would often include the school psychologist, a special education teacher, an occupational or physical therapist, an administrator such as the principal or an assistant principal — staff members who can report to a suddenly difficult situation without leaving a room full of students unattended.
Jen Haan, the school psychologist at Veterans Park, is in charge of training team members throughout the district in de-escalation and control techniques.
“They go through an eight-hour training that includes a pre-test and post-test. They also have to model things with me,” Ms. Haan said.
“And to maintain the certification, they have to take a re-certification class once a year,” she said. “That class is three hours long, and it’s kind of like a review and they’re also tested at the end, and they have to get at least an 80% on the test to pass.
“A lot of the training, I’d say 60% of the training, is teaching staff how to identify a situation that’s starting to escalate and initially use verbal strategies to de-escalate that situation,” Ms. Haan said.
“Really, it’s breaking down a behavior and understanding body language, change in tone of voice, understanding why a child might be feeling anxious.
“If they’re pacing back and forth, biting their nails, starting to talk louder — identifying situations where a behavior is starting to escalate, or a child may be feeling anxious. …
“Next would be defensive: The child might be become defensive, dig their heels in, refuse to cooperate.
“They might become belligerent, challenging. They might be starting to lose a sense of rationality at that point.”
Team members are given methods to try to reverse the ramping up of anxiety and behavior.
“At each level they’re taught strategies to de-escalate those types of situations,” Ms. Haan said.
Staff may separate the child from other students during the crisis.
“Sometimes the child is removed from the classroom, or the area where that child is. Sometimes the other students are removed,” said Ms. Berasi, the special education director.
“They try to de-escalate. They may escort — one team member on one side of the child, another team member on the other side of the child, and an observer — so there’s always at least three.”
There are a couple of physical “restraints” — restrictive body holds — that are used when de-escalation doesn’t work and a child is in danger of hurting himself or herself or someone else.
The basic move is the “children’s control position” in which the adult’s arms are wrapped around the child from behind, restricting movement of the child’s arms.
“Their arms are at their sides,” Ms. Haan said, “and they’re holding them, essentially until they calm down.”
The other technique that’s taught is generally used when the child — a high school or middle school student, usually — is larger than the adults. This is the “escorting” Ms. Berasi described, with an adult on either side of the student, each with a hand holding one of the student’s arms around their own waist, and their other arm on the student’s shoulder.
“There’s an adult on either side of the child,” Ms. Haan said, “… and they’re holding them until they’re calm.”
The team response is for the child’s protection, but it also helps protect the staff.
“They’re taught never to respond to a crisis alone, for the safety of the child, safety of themselves, for professionalism, and litigation, too — you always want to have a witness there,” Ms. Haan said.
Situations that require de-escalation aren’t that common.
In Veterans Park, where Ms. Haan works, it might be a handful of times throughout the school year.
“I’d say, roughly, we need our crisis team once every three months — and that might not necessarily mean it turns into a restraint,” Ms. Haan said. “That might mean there’s a child going into crisis and we need the team to step in and handle the situation.
“Restraint is only used as a last resort.”
The training helps staff deal with difficult situations — which can benefit everyone involved.
“I think it’s a good thing. I think it decreases the anxiety staff has when they have to respond to things like that,” Ms. Haan said.
“These types of situations can create anxiety within ourselves, and learning how to stay calm and not overreact and act appropriately and stay within your own emotions — those are all things that are taught when they go through the training,” she said.
“I think it makes them feel more comfortable knowing, having tools and techniques they can use when responding to a situation that might lead to a crisis.”