The Federal Hate Crimes Bill has been revised and signed into law. Among important changes to the law is that crimes that are related to a person's disability can be considered hate crimes. It will be interested to see if this new law will act as deterrent to repeated acts of bullying, harassment and violence directed at individuals with disabilities. Given the the recent round of staff on student violence that has been reported in the press, this law is very timely.
Will this include schools who restrain and/or isolate students with disabilities?
Ed. that is possible depending on the facts of a case but not in the ordinary case even if violative of IDEIA. I would expect a much higher degree of culpability for criminal sanctions to be considered,
Posted by: Mekei | October 30, 2009 at 06:31 AM