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9-year-old Gabriel Poirier died on April 18th after being wrapped by teachers in a weighted blanket. The June 19th Canada.com reports that a coroner has ruled that Gabriel died of suffocation—-news which his parents were shocked by, as the school (in St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, south of Montreal) reported that he had died “‘naturally and calmly.’”
In the early afternoon of April 17, Gabriel Poirier began to disturb his classmates with loud noises. His teachers gave him two warnings to calm down. When he continued misbehaving, one of the teachers took him to the corner of the classroom and rolled him into a weighted blanket, which is sometimes used to calm autistic children.
With his arms by his side, the heavy blanket was tightly wrapped around Gabriel’s small body at least four times, the coroner’s report said. With only the “tip of his toes” peaking out, he was left on his stomach, his head covered, for more than 20 minutes.
Gabriel eventually stopped making noise. The teacher went to check on him, turning him onto his back. Gabriel appeared “listless and blue in the face,” the coroner’s report said.
The teacher called 911 and the school nurse performed CPR. The boy was already in a deep coma, however, and died the next day in hospital.
Gilles Poirier noted that Gabriel was small, weighing 53 pounds (24 kilograms); the blanket weighed 40 pounds. At a news conference, he said this of his son: “‘He was a very gentle boy…….Sometimes he was loud, but he was never aggressive or violent. I just don’t understand how this happened.’”
I don’t either—-my son is much bigger than Gabriel and has certainly had more than a few moments of being loud. What helps Charlie is to recognize that he is trying to communicate—-that the noise-making is a sign of something and not just a “behavior” that needs to be stopped—and to focus on teaching him other ways to express himself. And what can one make of the school district saying that Gabriel died “‘naturally and calmly’”?
I have a 7 year old son who weighs 45 pounds. He has autism. We use a 7 pound weighted blanket at night time for him. 40 pounds on a 53 pound child would be crushing!! You are supposed to weigh it by 10% of your childs weighted plus 2 pounds. If the school doesn’t understand how weighted blankets should be used why did they use one? I hope these parents file a wrongful death suit against the school!!! What they did was wrong horribly wrong!!
The weight blanket in this case was misused. There are specific garments and tools that provide the simulation of a bear hug. A weight blanket is not one of these tools. They are to be used as blankets and should only be laid under and not rolled into like a burrito. Such a terrible loss.
This is why staff should never touch the children,they should always call parents,caregivers to come see abt the child when the child is having problems of any kind,this is also why most daycare center will not take special need children because they aren’t train and refuse to pay for staff to be train and that’s fine better not to do if you don’t know how,this is why I don’t u/stand how families get upset when the school call saying they can’t handle ur child I wish they had call this child family 1st.
Anywhere a parent of an autistic or disabled child send their children to be supervised or educated should have qualified people on staff to handle these situations, it’s more the case they have hired the wrong person for the job. This is a school board (Teachers Union)who has hired some one on seniority rather than qualified and able to take on the job. It’s horrible this poor boy and his family have endured this, I fear harm coming to my son and have battled for his safety since his enrolment in Jk. Parents are involved daily in there lives and are called more than for any child in regular classes. I have been called to schools over incidents so many times I am unemployed again. The teachers unions have regulated themselves into such a mess the children suffer, and this is one such case I believe. I have had EA’s and CYW’s I have fought for and lost because some fool has more seniority over them and My son pays that price and gets hurt because someone doesn’t understand how to handle a situation, hence I get called again. I have been lucky to finally have a wonderful CYW last year and this, who has solved problems and gave my son and I peace of mine. He’ll be 21 Oct and out of school. Fight for these kids and demand like never before to have the right people with them….our taxes pay for that.
This is an outrage!! Pressure therapy is very effective if done properly..this teacher was so wrong..you only wrap once and never leave unsupervised!! Before ever doing this kind of therapy they should of been educated on how to administer this kind of therapy. Society as a whole are still very undereducated on how to cope and understand how Autism affects an individual.
This is very sad. There is a better way. Cannabis for autism. Google it and see for yourself.
I was very sad to read this account. I have been making and marketing weighted blankets and vests myself for 9 years, but whoever made a 40 lb. blanket to be used on a child was obviously not aware of what they were doing. My blankets are 5 lbs. and more can be added if the OT wants it, but the childs weight and age have to be taken into consideration, for just the reason that this story is about. This 5 lbs of weight is usually enough, sometimes 8 to 10 lbs. would be appropriate. I have made 20 lbs. blankets to be used on adults in the local mental institue but never that much for a child. I once was requested by a parent to make a 20 lb. blanket for her 2 y/o but as I told here I would not because the child could die as this poor child did. I hope this does not discourage parents from using weighted blankets as they can be very helpfully to get children with autism ot other sensory integrative disorders to sleep through the night restfully. I have many parent that have contacted me and reported how happy they are that their child can now sleep. If you are interested in seeing some successful weighted blankets made by an OT assistant check out my website. http://www.neeweightedproducts.com. Thanks for giving me a opportunity to hear about this tragic situation and my condolences to the family of the child. Sueotseamstress
I am filled with so many emotions right now. My heart goes out to Gabriels family. I am terrified of the public school system that is why I chose to homeschool my son and take him to outside therapy. He is non-verbal and I can’t stand the thought of someone harming him and him not being able to tell me.
They committed murder on this child!!! Why are they not in jail????
First of all you should only use a weighted blanket that is 10% of your body weight… for a 53-pound boy that means that anything heavier than a 5-pound blanket would be dangerous to put on him, let alone roll him up in!
40 pounds?! That’s 75% of his body weight and extremely dangerous in and of it’s self!
A sad, senseless tragedy.
1416 days ago
[...] Boy Dies Wrapped in Weighted Blanket 9-year-old Gabriel Poirier died on April 18th after being wrapped by teachers in a 40-pound weighted blanket. [...]
Ditto CAICA
http://www.caica.org/
And I can see it happening to a child like my son.
I am sure ASAN is aware of this and will bring it to their attention.
Google “restraint asphyxia.” Look at the number of times apparently “well-meaning” service providers have inadvertently killed people in their care. Isn’t it time that training on restraint asphyxia became a standard protocol for all special ed and support service workers and first responders?
Kristina, you’ve blogged on several other similar cases. This is happening all to frequently — and especially in our community.
Wow, correction time (I’m getting sloppy recently!).
“I don’t know. I even hear my dad using the rhetoric of discipline in regards to my daily issues (particularly sensory issues), and I’m seventeen and in college!”
There, better!
Cliff
“When will they realize that they cannot discipline autism out of children?”
I don’t know. I even hear my dad using this rhetoric, and I’m seventeen and college!
Another individual I know had his son just diagnosed with Asperger’s. He’s apparently been trying to “talk” his kid out of it, and even has kind of been harsh on his wife about it (go figure). I mean, I know the guy well-enough to be smart, but there seems to be a reaction to try and treat it as a phase and dismiss it as some easy bad parenting. A lot to work on, all be told.
Cliff
I’m with Kathi Magee. One of our local schools has also used both weighted blankets as well as padded rooms as punishment, instead of as pre-emptive self calming interventions that the students desired.
I blogged about the blanket thing over a year ago here.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Joe
It’s the seeming cover-up from the school that particularly troubles me—-not that the whole story doesn’t, too.
The usual formula for how heavy a blanket should be is 10% of body weight plus one pound. Being an adult who just can’t seem to get enough propriceptive input, I sleep with a 15 lb weighted blanket (the heaviest I could find), a bedspread, and a quilt. I cannot imagine using something this is almost my full body weight, and I don’t understand how that was even aloud to be in classroom.
A 40 pound blanket?? Good grief. The one we have in my classroom (9 – 12 year olds) is 10 pounds, and I was told that it was too heavy for some of my smaller students.
Wow.
Makes you wonder who initially provided the blanket (and the protocol for it) to the teacher.
If a public stoning were legal, I would say line up the school board, administrators and any staff member that played a role in this inoccent little boy’s death and aim well!
This story cut to the core of many problems our children face. Untrained, undertrained staff using therapies as punishment. This is how Cherry Hill NJ took the concept of a safe zone/ quiet room and turned it into a padded punishment closet.
When will they realize that they cannot discipline autism out of children? When will they become part of the solution of “teaching” our children skills instead of torturing them?