Does NH State Law Prohibit the Use of Breathing Restraints on Students?

Sure does look that way!

Requiring students to wear a mask for school, or athletics is by definition mandating a physical restraint. A mask “[o]bstructs a child’s respiratory airway or impairs the child’s breathing or respiratory capacity or restricts the movement required for normal breathing.”

Not to mention that mask-wearing is emotionally and developmentally abusive since masks severely restrict interpersonal communication (how many kids can properly hear their teachers these days?), cuts people off emotionally from others, and habituates wearers to obedience to arbitrary dictates.

And hey, humiliation and emotional trauma anyone? State law also prohibits “Any technique that unnecessarily subjects the child to ridicule, humiliation, or emotional trauma.”

Why are we allowing our schools to violate state law? Probably because this is another one of those statutes that King Sununu would suspend if he had a clue it existed. And because voters, and that includes those who didn’t bother voting, elected the clowns running our school boards, towns, and cities across the state.

TITLE X
PUBLIC HEALTH

CHAPTER 126-U

LIMITING THE USE OF CHILD RESTRAINT PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS AND TREATMENT FACILITIES

 

126-U:4 Prohibition of Dangerous Restraint Techniques. –
No school or facility shall use or threaten to use any of the following restraint and behavior control techniques:
I. Any physical restraint or containment technique that:
(a) Obstructs a child’s respiratory airway or impairs the child’s breathing or respiratory capacity or restricts the movement required for normal breathing;
(b) Places pressure or weight on, or causes the compression of, the chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen of a child;
(c) Obstructs the circulation of blood;
(d) Involves pushing on or into the child’s mouth, nose, eyes, or any part of the face or involves covering the face or body with anything, including soft objects such as pillows, blankets, or washcloths; or
(e) Endangers a child’s life or significantly exacerbates a child’s medical condition.
II. The intentional infliction of pain, including the use of pain inducement to obtain compliance.
III. The intentional release of noxious, toxic, caustic, or otherwise unpleasant substances near a child for the purpose of controlling or modifying the behavior of or punishing the child.
IV. Any technique that unnecessarily subjects the child to ridicule, humiliation, or emotional trauma.

Source. 2010, 375:2, eff. Sept. 1, 2010.