My first one

This week I had to restrain a child for the first time. I had come to the school to observe him and some other students who were running out of the building. While I was there he kicked and hit his teachers, threw various objects while laughing and tried to run out of the building several times. This is an unhappy kid. At one point the staff could not seem to get him into his classroom as he kept heading for the outside doors and they didn't seem to want to use a restraint or were unsure if it was OK. He was hurting people and trying to run out of the building and after 30 minutes of trying to calm him down I felt like I had no other choice. As soon as I had him restrained he totally calmed down. I asked him if he was calm and he said yes. The principal asked if he wanted to use the blocks in his room and he said yes. I told him I would let him go if he promised to walk to his room with me while holding my hand the whole time. He said OK. So I left go (this was maybe 3 minutes later) and we walked to his room. He went in and played happily with blocks. For a little while anyway.
I was happy to have not had to struggle with him and also that it was brief. I wish the little guy was happier though. We spent about 2 hours working on recommendations for his team today. It will be a little while before things really turn around for him though because the school year has started off so poorly for him and he's got a lot of unmet needs. I imagine he completely hates school.
It was a scary and intense experience for me. I can only imagine what it's like for him.