GOP: Law banning child abuse in schools will lead to ‘government takeover’

A proposed law designed to prevent child abuse in schools has been lauded by children's protection advocates, and slammed by House Republicans as an unnecessary expansion of federal government power.

The House of Representatives last week passed the Keeping All Students Safe Act, which for the first time sets minimum national standards for practices such as the use "seclusion rooms" or forced restraint of unruly students.

The bill would ban the use of "mechanical restraints" such as tying children to furniture, and would allow seclusion and physical restraint to be used only when there is "imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff."

Though the bill was a bipartisan effort in reaction to a government report last year that found "hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death" related to the practices, it was opposed by a vast majority of Republicans, who said the bill amounted to an intrusion on states' rights and the ability of local school districts to determine their own policies.

In all, 145 Republicans and eight Democrats voted against the bill last week, which will have to get the Senate's and the president's approval to become law.

rest at http://rawstory.com/2010/03/law-abuse-schools-government-takeover/