Peer restraint is senseless practice

To the editor:

I'd like to express displeasure with a practice being utilized in a local youth facility, the Girardot Center. The practice in question, commonly known as peer restraint, involves employing youths to restrain another youth who loses composure or behaves irrationally. Restraint is commonly used in facilities to maintain safety of the noncompliant individual and those around them and is usually performed by trained staff. This is not the case at the Girardot Center, where children are used to perform restraints.

The children, ranging in age from 13 to 17, have been placed there due to various emotional and behavioral issues. Many have issues with anger management and aggression. It's incomprehensible that these youths are forced to act out aggressively, to tackle and restrain their peers. This is alleged to be therapeutic and is considered by the facility to be safer than staff restraint. I fail to see the therapeutic value and question how it is safer to have a group of youths restraining a peer versus trained staff performing the procedure.

These youths as well as staff members involved in these restraints have had clothing torn, suffered physical injuries and are being exposed to an element of violence which can be emotionally traumatizing. Restraint use in facilities has resulted in many deaths throughout history, yet it is considered an effective means of managing noncompliant youths.

I'm only one voice and hope others will speak out against this senseless practice. Let our voices roar out together in protest and be heard.

ANGELA ALCORN, Jackson