|
 Restraint
Policies, Charges Under Review
Kalamazoo Gazette, August 25, 2004
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org.
A year ago
today, Michael Renner-Lewis III woke before the sun rose. It was
Monday, the first day of school. All weekend, he'd talked
excitedly about this day, and now he was up before 5 a.m.,
blaring his music and waking his mom.
Please, Michael, she said. Turn it down.
He dressed neatly, as he always did. Blue jeans, brown belt,
striped shirt. His head was shaved, his fingernails clean. He
was a lanky, handsome boy, and, at 15, he had traces of a beard
and mustache. He ate a bowl of noodles for breakfast, tidied his
room and caught his ride to school.
When he walked into Parchment High School that morning, by all
appearances he was healthy and happy and ready to start the
school year.
That was the day Michael Renner-Lewis III died.
It was a day that changed the lives of his family and teachers,
a day that spawned a $25 million lawsuit and a police
investigation, a day when something happened that no one
expected or planned, that no one can change.
At about 12:30 p.m., Michael, who was autistic, experienced what
looked like a seizure. When he recovered, he reportedly grew
combative, and at least three adults restrained him to try to
calm him down. According to the autopsy report, the restraint
lasted at least 30 minutes. At some point, Michael stopped
breathing. By 2:50 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
A year later, the wrongful-death lawsuit Michael's mother
brought against Parchment and others hangs in the balance, as
does the Kalamazoo County prosecutor's decision whether to
criminally charge anyone in Michael's death.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department won't release the
report of the incident until the prosecutor makes a move. The
major players in the case have retained lawyers and are saying
very little.
In the meantime, a panel is researching the possibility of a
statewide policy on restraint, and a local lawmaker has
introduced a bill hoping that a change in the law could prevent
another death such as Michael's from happening again.
The Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, a defendant
in the wrongful-death suit, has devised new restraint
procedures. Portage Public Schools, which was not involved in
the incident, created its first restraint policy.
Michael's mother sees these changes as progress. But Elizabeth
Johnson said she still doesn't understand what happened on Aug.
25, 2003.
She finds herself reading autopsy reports rather than report
cards and attending press conferences rather than parent-teacher
conferences, and she doesn't know why it has to be that way. The
son she used to take CD shopping and cuddle with on the couch is
gone. In his place is a lot of confusion and, for now, plenty of
anger.
"Michael was treated unfairly," Johnson said. "This was
something that shouldn't have happened to someone like Michael."
'A terrible tragedy'
The $25 million lawsuit, filed in March, names as defendants
Parchment schools, their superintendent and four employees as
well as KRESA, its superintendent and two employees. Michael was
a student in a KRESA program that was housed at Parchment High
School.
The suit accuses some of the defendants of restraining Michael
for at least 45 minutes, even as he lost consciousness and died.
It says other defendants witnessed the restraint but didn't call
law enforcement or emergency-medical personnel until 1:58 p.m.
It blames the defendants for Michael's death.
Both Parchment and its employees and KRESA and its employees
deny that claim. In their answers to the suit, both admit that
employees restrained Michael, but not "brutally and violently,"
as the suit alleges. KRESA's response admits that its two
employees "and others used their hands and arms to reasonably
restrain Michael for his safety and for the safety of others."
Though he won't discuss details because of the pending lawsuit,
Parchment Superintendent Ron Fuller has maintained that
Parchment employees did the best they could. He said some
employees have sought counseling to cope with what happened.
"It's a terrible tragedy," Fuller said. "A young person died in
our school."
Michael's wasn't the only restraint-related death in a Michigan
school. In Saginaw, a young boy with mental and developmental
disabilities died earlier this year in a similar incident. Both
events led the state to form a task force that is researching
restraint and seclusion with the goal of presenting the state
Board of Education with a statewide policy.
And in June, state Rep. Alexander Lipsey, D-Kalamazoo,
introduced legislation in Michael's name that would bar schools
from using physical restraint except in emergencies and require
training for certain staff members. Current state law only
broadly addresses corporal punishment within schools. Some
educators have called the bill too limiting and impractical. It
sits in committee.
Stacy Hickox, an attorney with the Michigan Protection and
Advocacy Service, said she'd like to see state discussions about
restraint move faster. She said her office has long taken calls
complaining of restraint in schools and saw an increase in
complaints after Michael's death.
"I think awareness has definitely increased, but, beyond that, I
haven't seen a lot of change," she said. "On the other hand,
people are talking, which is a positive."
Fuller said Parchment will continue to follow state guidelines,
but other districts are drafting their own.
Portage adopted its policy in January, and KRESA, the county's
intermediate school district, finalized its restraint procedures
last month. Those guidelines detail training requirements for
KRESA employees and require that staff report any restraint that
lasts more than five minutes.
They also require that staff members immediately release a
student who demonstrates physical distress during restraint.
Questions
Michael's death was accidental, according to his autopsy report,
but it was caused by prolonged physical restraint, with autism
and a previously undetected heart condition as contributing
factors.
Elizabeth Johnson wants to know more than that: Were the KRESA
and Parchment employees who were involved in the incident
trained in restraint? Hickox, who has been involved in the case,
said the records she has received indicate that they weren't.
Garrett Boersma, KRESA's assistant superintendent of special
education, said that isn't true, but he declined to elaborate.
Fuller declined to comment.
Why didn't the staff members call for help right away? Johnson
said Michael had never had a seizure before; the autopsy
indicates it might have been caused by an underlying heart
condition. Some 90 minutes apparently passed between the start
of the Michael's seizure-like behavior and a call to paramedics.
Again, Fuller declined to comment because of the pending
lawsuit.
Will anyone face charges in the death? Kalamazoo County
Prosecutor James Gregart hasn't made a decision yet and won't
talk about the case. He is awaiting the results of toxicology
tests. "I've been doing cause-of-death rulings for 30 years," is
all he would say. "Not one of them has been easy."
Nobody involved believes that anyone intended for Michael to die
that day. But the fact is, he did, and Johnson thinks someone
should be held responsible. So, a year later, she's still angry.
She and her twin daughters moved from Portage into a new house
in Kalamazoo Township earlier this year. It didn't feel right
without Michael. He's there, but only in the shrine she's
constructed in the living room, made of the CD he listened to
that last morning, pieces of his artwork and newspaper clippings
about his death.
It's "the worst feeling any mother can feel, for them to come
and tell you your child went to school and didn't make it home,"
Johnson said. "It's a living nightmare."
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
|
