Guidelines for Ethical Use of Manual Restraint in Public School Settings for Behaviorally Disordered Students

Abstract

Practitioners have at their disposal many empirically validated strategies for managing aggressive behavior. In addition, the legal and ethical implications of these techniques have received considerable professional attention. An exception to this is the use of manual restraint. Data suggest the use of this procedure is common in public school settings; however, a comprehensive discussion of its legal and ethical implications has yet to emerge. The purpose of this paper is to review the advantages and disadvantages associated with manual restraint and to present procedural and ethical guidelines governing its use in the public schools.