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School system to adopt new restraint policy
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The Effingham County Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a new policy on restraint or seclusion, which will limit the use of physical restraint and require specialized training for faculty.
 
Passing the local policy has been mandated from the state Board of Education’s July decision to ban seclusion rooms and restrict the use of physical restraint. The state BoE was prompted to act after a 13-year-old Gainesville student hanged himself in 2004. The student, who attended a school for those with emotional and behavioral problems, reportedly was left alone in a seclusion room in his last hours.
 
“But we don’t have any kind of seclusion room, nothing like that (in the Effingham school system),” said Superintendent Randy Shearouse. “… So that’s an issue that we didn’t have to address because we don’t have that in place.”
 
For the complete story, see Tuesday's edition of the Effingham Herald.