Sitting around a table, East Texas mom Heather Alex speaks very softly as she is calmly telling her 10-year-old son Isaiah, to draw a card. They're playing a card game with his brother, Isaac.Isaiah says he likes school a little better this year because he now has a friend.Alex says,"They were restrained over and over as early as four years old." Fighting back tears and wiping her eyes, she explains,"It was hard.
Following one restraint, Alex says the school nurse called her to tell her Isaac, then 7-years-old, was having an asthma attack. Alex says Isaac hadn't had trouble with asthmas since he was a baby, and, she says, he never had an attack. The school called an ambulance. Isaiah defended his teachers when asked why this happens."It's ok because they get frustrated because they're so many kids in the classroom and they can't think," explained Isaiah.
Representative Hull's office says the testimony took place late at night after a very long day on the House floor so"...not everyone could stick around to speak."The Minerate Foundation Ghani says that makes the number of reported restraints appear much lower than they really are, though, he says the numbers are still staggering.
The Minerate Foundation partnered with Hull on the legislation helping her author the House Bill 2875"No Kids in Cuff." After it stalled out, Representative Hull's office tells us they amended the language to Senate Bill 1267 sponsored by Senator Royce West.However, now the Minerate Foundation and Representative Hull are banning together again to make this a bi-partisan effort."We talked about mental health being an issue today," says longtime Senator Royce West.