Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn
Catholic Education Office

Restraint of Students

Related Policies:

Child Protection
Complaints
Discipline
Legal Responsibility and Authority
Occupational Health and Safety
Supervision of Students

Purpose:

This policy is designed to provide staff with a clear understanding of the acceptable degree of restraint that may be employed with students in their care.

Policy:

Use of physical restraint in the school context is only acceptable in situations where there is a immediate risk of harm to the student requiring restraint or to others.

In certain circumstances, restraining a student to protect property may be appropriate as an intervention of last resort.

Staff must be mindful that such situations can often occur spontaneously and sometimes in an emotionally charged environment, so it is important that expectations and parameters of behaviour are clearly understood.

Definitions:

Reasonable
Action which is fair, practical and sensible in a given set of circumstances.

Restraint
Limiting or controlling movement.

Procedures:

Should it be necessary to employ restraint, it must be the absolute minimum requirement to achieve a state of control where alternative means can be employed to further modify the situation.

To avoid the occurrence of situations where restraint might be necessary, every effort at risk minimisation must be made thought vigilant supervision and practical environmental design.

Staff are accountable for any use of physical restraint that is used with students or others in the school community.

Behaviour management plans, written in consultation with parents / guardians, should provide guidance to staff members when managing the behaviour of students who are prone to hostile or violent behaviour.

Staff members must consider the characteristics of the individual student requiring restraint and the circumstances surrounding the behaviour before using any force to restrain a student. Staff members should, whenever possible, seek the assistance of other staff members before restraining a student.

A staff member is not required to put himself or herself into a situation where his or her personal safety may be at risk in order to restrain a student. If a staff member judges that he or she is not physically capable of intervening to restrain a student who is in imminent of harming himself, herself or another person that staff member should seek help immediately.

References:

Nil

Forms:

Nil

Last updated on December 2, 2006