The Wall Street Journal – by LISA FLEISHER
A group of New York City parents are trying to prevent public schools from sending children who have severe temper tantrums to the emergency room against their parents’ wishes.
The hospital trips can leave parents with costly medical bills, and parents often have to leave work early to pick up their children. Advocates for children with special needs say a solution would be for schools have better trained therapists and educators.
More than 22% of the 15,130 calls for ambulances placed by schools in the 2011-12 school year were related to disciplinary infractions, according to Legal Services NYC, which sued the Department of Education and Fire Department of New York for the data.
City schools spokesman Devon Puglia said the schools put a priority on learning and safety. “Our school leaders make decisions in the best interests of children—be it instructionally or otherwise,” he said.
Nelson Mar, an attorney for Legal Services NYC who is representing the parents, said fire department protocols say that children can be transported by EMS against a parent’s wishes only when the child’s life is at stake, or if it is clear that even a small delay will jeopardize the child’s health.
“In some ways the schools are treating the hospital emergency rooms as timeout rooms,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Manhattan federal court, asks that the city be prevented from sending students to the hospital when there isn’t an immediate medical need, and asks for training for city and city schools workers on the issue. The suit also asks for a jury trial and for money for the parents, but doesn’t specify how much the parents are seeking.
A spokesman for the fire department referred questions to the city.
Katrina Jones, 28, one of the parents suing the city, said she had to switch to the night shift working corporate security for a midtown office building because of the frequent calls to pick up her 5-year-old son, who was acting out, including screaming, jumping onto desk and throwing himself into lockers, according to the lawsuit. A psychiatrist recommended medication, but she said she was reluctant to start her child on drugs so soon.
She has enlisted her mother, brother and other family members and friends to act as emergency contacts so they can run to the Harlem school if there is a problem.
“Anytime my phone rings, I just pray that it is not his school,” Ms. Jones said.
Dr. David Listman, director of the emergency department and former head of the pediatric emergency department at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, said it is a common problem. “I think these days, schools don’t feel comfortable dealing with these issues,” he said.
Dr. Listman said he had a child in his emergency room Friday who had been sent by a school. He said students sometimes come in combative and aggressive, which can leave schools with no choice. But he said many times, students’ behavior is more moderate, such as screaming or pushing furniture around.
For students who already have psychiatric diagnoses or are on medication, there isn’t much an emergency room can do, he said. Hospitals, however, are obligated to evaluate students once they are sent.
“A parent who didn’t want their child even brought to the emergency room can end up stuck here for six, eight, 10 hours until they can see a psychiatrist,” he said.
One mother suing the city, whose son has autism, said the frequent calls to pick up her son forced her to stay close to school to try to prevent the frequent hospital trips.
“My life was basically just dropping him off, staying in the area, not doing anything else, walking to the library,” said the mother, who asked not to be named.
Robert Ungar, a spokesman for EMS unions, said emergency workers are supposed to respond to true medical emergencies. “Schools should not be wasting lifesaving and rescue resources to resolve their discipline problems,” he said.
One mother involved in the lawsuit said the Grant Avenue Elementary School called an ambulance to pick up her 5-year-old son four times in three months in fall 2012. The Grant Avenue principal didn’t return requests for comment.
The mother said that the first time, she was told by school staff members that they weren’t able to calm her son down and “he had been jumping, running around and hitting people.”
In November, she rushed to the school before he was transported and asked if she could take him home, but school and EMS employees said he had to be taken in, the lawsuit said. That time, the boy was sent to the hospital “for ‘not listening’ and because he ‘refused to sit on a rug,'” the lawsuit said.
When Legal Services started to intervene on her behalf, the school stopped calling an ambulance but required that the boy be picked up every day at 11 a.m. for a month, according to the lawsuit.
The mother said her son is now suspicious of police officers and hospitals, and doesn’t want to go to school. “He feels like he’s always a bad kid, and he’s always in trouble,” she said.
Write to Lisa Fleisher at lisa.fleisher@wsj.com