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Parents of autistic child suffocated by blanket in school want better guidelines

Article online since June 18th 2008, 23:00
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MONTREAL - The parents of an autistic child who suffocated after a teacher rolled him up in a heavy blanket want stricter guidelines on the use of restraints in Quebec schools.

Nine-year-old Gabriel Poirier died in hospital last April, a day after the incident at a school for special-needs children in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, about 40 kilometres south of Montreal.

A report by coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier says the boy was being noisy in class and was asked by a teacher to calm down.

But after two warnings, he was taken to a corner of the class and rolled up in a therapeutic blanket.

The report says Poirier, who weighed 53 pounds, was placed on his stomach and then had the 39-pound blanket wrapped around him four times.

His head was inside the blanket and only the tips of his toes were visible.

When a teacher went to check after 20 minutes, the child wasn't moving and was in a coma.

His father, Gilles Poirier, told a news conference Thursday he had a hard time two weeks ago when the coroner handed over the report explaining how his son died.

"It was pretty hard to hear what happened," he said.

"But I'm pretty happy with the report because the only thing I want is for things to change. .I never want that to happen to anyone again."

Poirier said the blanket had been used on his son in the past to calm him down but not in the way that led to his death.

"We've known that they were using it. .but on him, not around him," he said.

"Not in a way that he couldn't breathe. .not in a way that he couldn't get out of the blanket."

Therapeutic blankets, often stuffed with buckwheat or steel balls, have been used for several years to relax autistic children and prevent behavioural problems.

Jean-Pierre Menard, a lawyer for the boy's parents, says they want Education Minister Michelle Courchesne to set up a legal framework which establishes how restraints should be used in schools.

"We're asking the minister to put in place the same regulations that exist in the health system where there are a lot of restrictions," Menard said.

Menard added the goal is to limit "as much as possible this kind of technique."

Poirier said some specialists know how to use the blankets but that educators and teachers are not as well trained.

Menard said the parents plan to file a claim for compensation against the Commission scolaire des Hautes-Rivieres school board in the coming weeks.

"We already have the mandate to do that," he added.

In her report, the coroner concluded the child's death was violent and could have been avoided.

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