Restraint Reduction Network BILD Conference CoProduction AutisticRadio.com VX EP4 Calums Law

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The Autistic Radio ConferenceTour 2025 is a co-production with
Build the Restraint ReductionNetwork and Autistic Association.
We are open to co-productionswith professional organizations
where our ethics and interestscoincide and align this short series

(00:24):
of short podcasts demonstrate.
Cooperations that are possiblerecordings with people at the
conference speaking openly, clearlywith equity in the communication,
hello again at Autistic Radio.
We are continuing at the BILDConference, the conference where

(00:47):
we're trying to reduce the use ofrestraint on various people who,
for good reason, need interventionsfrom practitioners in the state.
I have with me today,Sunday Rather special.
You may have heard of Calum's Law.
Please introduce yourself.
Calum's Mummy.

(01:08):
Hi everyone.
My name's Beth Beth Morrison andI'm Calum's Mommy Call is a young
man who, um, he's a young man now.
He's 27.
And he has autism.
Cerebral palsy, epilepsy.
Quite profound learning disabilities,when Ka was 11 years old, , he was
in a special school, , didn't havea lot of language, didn't have a lot

(01:31):
of understanding of instructions, oneday he was riding, especially adapted.
Disabled in an empty school gymhall, but apparently Calum's wasn't
following the teacher's instructions.
So the teacher decided to pull Calum'soff the bike and he got a fright.

(01:55):
He kicked her and that resultedin four staff taking Calum
face down onto the floor.
He was 11, but he woreclothes for a 6-year-old.
He was a very tiny little boy.
He had quite a lot of developmentaldelays, so physically he was really
tiny and the took him face down on thefloor with such force for a total of

(02:15):
40 minutes until he couldn't breatheany longer and he lost consciousness.
He urinated, threw his clothes onto thefloor, and then the staff picked him up.
He was quite floppy, so they strapped himdown in a wooden chair, a bit like a heath
field chair that's used for children thathave got mobility issues and can't sit.

(02:38):
They strapped him down in that and theystood over him with an egg timer to show
him visually that he was being punished.
Let me know what happened.
They simply got him dressed in clothesthat weren't his own, and they put his own
clothes that were urine and soaked in aplastic bag, sent him home on the school

(02:59):
bus, and when he came home to me, hislips were blue and he collapsed in my arms
and he said, I dizzy mommy, teacher hurt.
And that was the start of ajourney that I never, ever thought
that I would be on as a mom.
. I became very vocal becausehow could they do that?
I didn't even know that they coulddo that to a child in school.

(03:21):
This was a special school.
I thought they were specially trainedin understanding children like Callum.
I thought that Callum would get theextra love and care and he didn't.
So I started to look for what was theguidance on using this in schools, and I
found that in Scotland we had no guidance.

(03:44):
If we didn't have guidance,then we really had to have it.
So I spoke to other parents andrealized , I wasn't alone in this.
And other parents would tell me,Beth, that happened to my child.
I did a petition back in 2014 to theScottish government, and in 2015 I gave
evidence in the Scottish Parliament aroundwhat had happened , and what I was hearing

(04:08):
was happening all over the country toother children like, and that started a
10 year campaign, approaching a memberof Scottish Parliament Daniel Johnson,
MSP, and I asked if there was any chancethat we could take up a member's bill

(04:28):
because all the guidance that we'd got.
Around the use of restrainingand seclusion in schools.
It wasn't statutory and I felt itwasn't working because if it wasn't
statutory, nobody had to do it.
There was no mandatory, , askto record and report.
That were happening.

(04:48):
And over the last decade, I'd hadover 3000 families in Scotland
alone that , sought me out, andsaid, this has happened to my child.
I started to keep records, Istarted to keep data, and what
I then found was that it was allhappening to children that were.
Neurodiverse had learning disabilities,had very little language, very

(05:11):
little means of communication.
Those children, they use behavior tocommunicate because it's all they have.
So their distressed behavior, whichwas, , brought out of unmet needs
because the environment wasn't right.
The person supportingdidn't know how to respond.
Um.

(05:31):
There was no training.
Staff felt as though, you know,they were completely powerless.
They didn't know what to do.
And an idea formulated in my mind thatwhat we needed was statutory guidance
to protect these children in law.
We needed mandated recording andreporting of incidents because a
lot of the parents were telling me,I didn't even know that this was

(05:53):
happening in schools, as I hadn't.
I hadn't been told either.
Another thing that I wanted wastraining and support and resources for
staff, so that's why I am here today.
I'm a trustee of the Restraint ReductionNetwork, the support that I've had from
the RRN has been absolutely phenomenal,and I think without organizations like

(06:15):
this that are shining a light on whatis really barbaric practice, I'm sorry,
I don't have another word for it.
We need to shine a light on this.
We need to raise awarenessthat this is happening.
My research is telling methat it's small children.
They're all neurodiverseage between two years old.

(06:38):
Two years old and up to about eight, nine.
Now I'm not saying it's nothappening after that, but the
problem is mainly primary schooland it's mainly in the early years.
The children I supportare the most vulnerable.
They have no languageor very little language.
They are already dealing with.

(06:59):
Really awful issues.
Sensory processing problems.
They can't handle the bright lightsand the noise of the classroom.
And because they're distressed,because they're communicating, I
can't cope in this environment.
They've been subjectedto things like restraint.
And the other thing we've got isforced isolation, where they're put

(07:22):
into rooms, isolation rooms, they'relocked in, they can't get out.
It's all hidden.
I call it a dirty little secretbecause that's how it feels.
, Callum didn't even really understandat the age of 10 11 what school
was he had so little understanding.
He was functioning atthe level of a toddler.

(07:45):
And we don't expect toddlersand infants and babies to go
to school and sit there nicely.
Look at the teacher feetflat on the floor and comply.
Why was Callum expected to do that?
He had no means of communication.
He couldn't say.
I need help.

(08:06):
So the only way that he had was throughhis behavior and that incident , 15
years ago Now, I wasn't in the room.
I couldn't possibly know what happened.
All I was told was that Callum refusedto follow the teacher's instructions,
Callum refused to follow a certainroute around the empty gym hall.

(08:29):
I wonder why he was pulled off thebike just for that, for non-compliance.
If I had been pulled off a bikephysically by somebody bigger than
me, I, you know, would I react?
I absolutely would.
Would they take me to the floorand restrained me by force?
I don't think so.

(08:49):
Why are we doing it to a child?
I've never called for a banon the use of restraint.
I do believe that there are timeswhere we may have to use restraint,
physical force to keep a childsafe from harming themselves,
safe from harming other people.
I believe that, you know, if a child'srunning into the road in front of a car,

(09:12):
yes, please make sure you hold them back.
If they're going to jump into deepwater, yes, please hold them back.
If they're at serious risk of harmingthemselves or serious risks of harming
others, yes, please hold them back.
But what I'm seeing is the use ofrestraint and seclusion in schools

(09:32):
on small vulnerable children.
Of behavior that is linkedto their disability.
I think it's being used as a form ofphysical punishment, and that's wrong.
So Daniel Johnson, MSP, has a member'sbill in the Scottish Parliament.
It's at stage two at the moment, whichmeans it's at the amendment stage.

(09:54):
We we're confident that Calum's Lawwill pass, and what we're asking
for is statutory guidance for staff.
Mandatory reporting and recordingof incidents and mandatory training
resources and support for staff.
We're not saying thatanything has to be banned.
We still have a duty of care, but weneed to be very clear in what we are

(10:17):
doing behind those closed doors inschools because our children can't tell.
They can't go home to theirmummies and daddies and say, this
happened to me at school today.
And often parents like me.
Had no idea that this was going onuntil the child came home with bruises
and injuries that were unexplained.

(10:39):
We have to be very clear of whatwe're doing, how we're treating
our most vulnerable children.
There has to be a duty of candorto communicate with parents and
if something has happened, parentshave a right to know what that was.
How do we remedy that going forward?
So that's why I'm here today.

(10:59):
If anybody would like any more informationabout Calum's Law, my email address is
Calum's mummy@yahoo.com, or you'll findme on social media under Beth Morrison.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you so much, Beth.
You have put everything soclearly, . You've done your thing,
you've done your thing beautifully.

(11:20):
I know you're listening.
I've met you in the Scottish Parliamentand I know a number of MSPs occasionally.
Listen to autistic radio.
Please listen to the testimonyof Beth and support the bill.
Thank from everybody here at AutisticAssociation and Autistic Radio.
Thank you to you, Beth.
Thank.

(11:40):
we speak our words.
We listen, we speak our words, we listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.

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