Teaching tool or restraining device?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

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Body sox are meant as a therapeutic device for kids to explore their space.

A therapy okayed by the Pinellas County School District to calm kids is being questioned by parents.

It's called a body sock, but some parents call it a restraining device.

The district said body sox are good teaching tools. The family said it's a restraining device used to discipline their son.

Body sox are designed to help kids explore their three-dimensional space, according to web sites about the device.

"I don't like it at all," said Patrick Holt, the boy's father. "I don't think it should be used on anybody."

Calming device or restraining order?

Watch and learn more about the body sock.

Holt felt that way after learning a Pre-K teacher at Pinellas Central Elementary put his 4-year-old son in a body sock Friday.

"My wife saw my son try to open up the body sock and the teacher's aide went ahead and had him put it back up," Holt said.

The Holts wondered what was going on, especially since they said their son was the only student in a body sock. Bay News 9 was shown their son's journal, which the teacher records daily.

Patrick Holt said his 4-year-old son was crying when put in the device.

She wrote he was having a good day. But after the parents complained she wrote, "In reference to the body sock; it was not used for disciplinary reasons. It is used as a tool for calming children down."

But then she added, "The verbal warnings given to [the boy] prior to its use were not working. If I wanted to 'discipline' him he would've been in time-out ."

"You were giving verbal warnings because you were doing something prior to its use of putting [his son] in it," Holt said. "So, it was kind of, it seems like the body sock is used for disciplinary reasons."

The school board won't discuss the incident because there's an open investigation. But it did confirm body sox are approved for use and aren't considered restraining devices.

"It has been used in some of our exceptional student educational classrooms as a very calming therapeutic and well received type of strategy to calm students down," school board Director of Communications Andrea Zahn said.

But the Holts said it was anything but calming for their son.

"He was crying very, very hard," Holt said. "Which also causes his asthma to kick in and sometimes he gets sick and everything like that."

The family said the principal admitted the therapy did not work.

School board spokesperson Andrea Zahn said body sox have been used as an effective calming device for children.

"They did apologize, said it was wrong," Holt said. "The only thing that we wanted from them was to send a letter out to let them know what might be going on to their kids."

Holt said the school was not willing to send that letter home. That's when he contacted Bay News 9.

Holt also said he plans to send his son to another school.

The Holts aren't alone in their criticism of how the body sock was used. According to our Health Team 9 psychologist, Dr. Steve O'Brien, the body sock should not be used to calm unruly children.

"It's probably a questionable practice to use something like the body sock that is basically designed for creativity and for visual spacial awareness, to use it in a way to try and calm children down," O'Brien said.

But the Executive Director of the Teachers Association, Jade Moore, who's in charge of looking out for teachers, said they should be careful when using body sox in the classroom until the school board develops better techniques and restrictions.

Click here to e-mail Josh Rojas, the TV reporter on this story.