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Parents and educators urge Blue Valley to revise emergency safety interventions policy
Summary
Multiple parents and longtime educators told the Blue Valley Board of Education during open forum that Policy 3522, governing emergency safety interventions and restraint, discourages compassionate responses to students in mental-health crises and should be revised to allow professional judgment and nonpunitive supports.
Members of the public used the board’s open forum on Oct. 13 to press the Blue Valley Board of Education to change Policy 3522, Emergency Safety Interventions, arguing the policy’s current wording discourages compassionate, preventive interventions for students in emotional crisis.
Several speakers described situations where children in distress were calmed by staff and said the district’s policy could punish those same actions. The comments focused on how the policy defines restraint and when staff may use physical force.
Parent Jenny Stille said she is “outraged” by the application of Policy 3522 and that her daughter’s past traumatic episodes were handled by teachers who “put humanity and her needs first.” Stille said the policy as applied risks penalizing the compassionate responses that helped her child.
Parent Casey Edelen, who identified…
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