To start off with, like all our other posts, this is all very sensitive due to us sharing information when our students are during their most vulnerable times. We are not perfect but we do our absolute best.
A bit of background info: We are an independent autism specialist school. Our school has 20 students ages 11-19. They are all staffed 1:1 or 2:1 from the moment they get out their taxi until they get back in them.
Today one of our students worried us. We will call them 'Student A'. Student A is usually really good communicating and working with us to make every day as good as it can be. Today, they had a good first 2 hours but after that she stopped talking, withdrawing, doodling on the floor and walls. When her staff tried to talk or comfort her in anyway usually she would allow this but today she would push them away or hit them. Staff left her alone hoping she would calm herself down. That was for an hour.
Then a preferred staff member came to see if they could help but the same thing happened except she started to hit her leg (we believe this was trying to communicate her frustrations and need to be left alone). Staff gave her space again but then she started to bang her head against the wall a couple of times. They then intervened as little as possible but then she lost control and was hitting herself, staff and headbanging. Her staff radioed for extra support so then they held her arms and gave her deep pressure. She was still trying to push everyone away but due to the nature of the situation we couldn't let her hurt herself. We had cushions and mats on hand which we used.
She was then crying (which she rarely does) and we did our best to help her regulate. We had to have her in a positive hold (least restrictive) to keep her safe for over 3 hours. Majority of the time we were hugging and rocking her. She was exhausted but when she calmed down she was smiling again and went home.
We don't know what triggered this because she has not hurt herself like this before so it has worried us. She is very open about what is on her mind and we can't pick out anything that would make her react this way. Nothing happened in school, it was calm and quiet. We used all her usual Regulation tools which usually work. Parents have said nothing to us either.
We just feel like we failed her today because we couldn't do anything to help. I know we haven't and that we always do everything possible for all students. Safety comes first. We just don't have any clue why this happened especially because she was absolutely fine before.
