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 Connect with the Experts Bio Section!  Gina K. Hammons Executive Director and Volunteer Parent Advocate Hi My name is Gina K. Hammons and I live in Hernando County Florida with my husband Doug and our 12 year old son Ethan, and our 9 year old daughter Bailey. Our son Ethan has Apraxia and Autism. Over the years we have had our challenges, but through Ethan's hard work, and the work of our wonderful therapy team and great teachers we have been making great progress! I started IPUT with the intent of sharing information with fellow parents, teachers, therapists, the greatest information I have received has been through fellow parents and being able to share this info with our community and through our community partners. I am a 2006 Graduate of Partners in Policymaking and the Wesley Award Winner of our class. Through IPUT and our list serves we hope to share and learn from each other. Welcome!
 Phyllis MusumeciFlorida Families Against Restraint and Seclusion
Hello Everyone,
My name is Phyllis Musumeci and I live in Palm Beach County Florida with my husband Gianni and our 14 year old son Christian. Christian was born with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and Autism.
Christian had many delays as a child but worked very hard in his therapy programs as a small child. When he was 2 years old I started teaching him sigh language and by the time he was 4 years old he knew a little over 500 signs. Teaching him sign language gave him a way to communicate while we continued with his speech therapy. By the time he was 4 1/2 he started talking and hasn't stopped talking since. He can be very repetitive with his speech but he tries so hard to communicate and continues to improve everyday.
We never had any behavior problems with Christian at home until 3 years ago. Two years ago we found out he was being restrained in public school because of behavior issues and not long after that we pulled him out of school because we were concerned that he was having a breakdown. Christian went from a very happy child to a very troubled, angry and frightened child. It took our family one year of therapy and very hard work to get Christian's behaviors under control. He is not the same child he use to be but he is doing so much better. Christian is currently on the public school Hospital Homebound program and we also home school him.
A little over one year ago I started reading everything I could get my hands on about restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities in hospital settings and public schools. It didn't take me long to find out that children in juvenile detention centers, psychiatric centers and even prisoners have more rights than our children with disabilities do in the public school system. For the past 12 months I have been working on my own and just recently with the Department of Education to create policies for Florida schools to follow on restraint and seclusion. My goal is to make the policies as tight as possible. My wish is to eliminate these horrible procedures from ever being used on our children but I am afraid that it's going to take a lot of hard work from many parents to ever make that wish come true. Once the policies are completed I will be working with my local legislators to create a bill to hopefully pass a law to reduce restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities in the state of Florida.
At the district level I am part of a Behavior Team made up of parents and PBC school district people. Our goal is to provide Autism awareness training to ESE staff and school police, bring in the CARD center to set up more training to help teachers and staff to better understand behavior issues and implement Florida's Positive Behavior Support project in all Palm Beach county schools.
Children with Autism and other disabilities who are having behavior issues in school need services, supports, and highly specialized attention—not restraint and seclusion. When implementation of an IEP, service, or treatment plan fails to achieve the desired or appropriate behavior, there must be a review and revision of the plan. Subjecting a child or youth to restraints and seclusion in such situations is equivalent to punishing the victim. No service or treatment plan should EVER include provisions for the routine use of seclusion or restraints. Seclusion or “time out” or any form of restraint are punishments that should be eliminated from the behavioral contracting and discipline protocols of schools. R & S is not a treatment it is a failure of treatment!
Best Regards,
Phyllis
Florida Families Against Restraint and Seclusion
Email: cvm514@bellsouth.net
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