Chet Edwards Votes Prevention of Harmful Child Restraint

She was at work when someone from her son's school called
her and said there was a problem with her child, to come
there at once.

His name was Cedric and for some reason he was a special
education student at a Killeen elementary school.

When he was told he could not have his lunch, he began to
act out his displeasure.

The teacher decided to restrain Cedric. For some reason,
that individual decided to sit on the child. Though Cedric
complained of not being able to get his breath, the teacher
did not budge.

When Cedric's mother arrived at the school, she went to the
classroom where her son lay on the floor, motionless and
unresponsive.

Cedric died. The teacher smothered him to death.

That teacher is now working in a school in the Pacific
Northwest.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Labor and
Education Committee sat through several days of hearings
recently as parents told of how their children were
restrained in various ways - through the use of duct tape,
straps, physical holds, placed in isolation rooms, made to
stand in the corner, face the wall.

When the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in
Schools Act came to a vote before the full House, 262
members voted yea. Nay sayers numbered 153 and 16 were
reported as not voting, including Representative Nancy
Pelosi, Speaker, a California Democrat from San Francisco.

Representative Chet Edwards, a Waco Democrat from the 17th
Congressional District of Texas, voted yea.

The House of Representatives sent the bill to the Senate.