Moment autistic boy is 'brutally' wrestled to the ground by special school staff in shocking footage - as academy says criticism of 'brutal' restraint is a 'difference of opinion'
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Disturbing CCTV footage has emerged of a 12-year-old autistic boy being violently restrained by five adult staff members at a special needs school in Leeds.
The clip, described by a restraint expert as 'too brutal, unnecessary and, in my view, unlawful', shows the boy being wrestled face-down to the floor in a padded seclusion room – a space meant to help children calm down.
The footage, filmed at Springwell Leeds Academy's North site in October 2023, was obtained by the boy's mother, Zoe, who was horrified when she saw what had happened to her son.
'This is a child and these are five grown adults in a school where he's supposed to be safe,' she told the BBC.
'A calming room should be a room for children to calm down with blankets, teddies and soft lighting. Not a padded cell. You wouldn't put an animal in there.'
In one 50-minute recording, the boy can be seen trying to kick staff before swinging his arm towards them. He is then taken down and held in a prone position for three minutes.
Eric Baskind, a senior expert in institutional use of force, reviewed the footage and slammed the restraint as excessive.
'They just dragged him [into the prone position],' he said. 'That would have been really traumatic, and it would have escalated the hostility in the situation, which is the exact opposite of what they ought to have been trying to do.'
Education consultant Elizabeth Swan added the move was 'unreasonable, excessive and unnecessarily prolonged', describing the seclusion room as resembling a 'holding cell'.
Experts also raised serious concerns about the broader use of such rooms, which are often labelled 'calming', 'quiet' or 'safe' spaces but have been used to detain young children – sometimes for prolonged periods.
Academy defends staff as 'caring professionals' and says restraint criticism is a 'difference of opinion'
Despite the outcry, Springwell Leeds Academy's chief executive, Mark Wilson, insisted there was 'no case to answer' after three separate investigations – including one by Leeds City Council – found no wrongdoing.
He claimed the incident was typical of what happens in schools 'from time to time' and dismissed the expert reviews as a 'difference of opinion'.
Mr Wilson also criticised the footage as 'selective' and 'misrepresentative', saying it lacked important context and audio.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said those cases were 'horrendous' and 'must never happen again.'
She described the footage of her son being restrained as the 'most degrading, dehumanising and undignified video' she had ever seen.
The investigation also uncovered that in some schools, children as young as five have been locked in tents, seclusion rooms – and even cages. One young boy described his experience of being detained as 'horrible'.
'It was just very scary because they can put me in there for as long as they want,' he said.
Campaigners are now calling for an outright ban on such practices, which remain largely unregulated in England.
While new laws will require schools to notify parents when force is used from September, there is still no legal duty to inform them if their child is placed in seclusion.
Gemma Grant, from the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, said: 'Seclusion rooms are outdated and inhumane. They should be banned.'
It comes after parents at Whitefield School in Walthamstow, north-east London accused authorities of a 'cover-up' over treatment of pupils in so-called 'calming rooms'.
Staff at the school have been shown hitting and kicking students at the special school, which is one of the largest in the UK with about 370 pupils.
Six employees were proven to have abused 39 children with disabilities between 2014 and 2017, inquiries found - but there have reportedly been no prosecutions.
Police repeatedly provided information to the Crown Prosecution Service as part of a three-year investigation but no one has been charged, according to another BBC probe.
Some of the children were seen on screen self-harming while left in the padded rooms at the school for hours on end.
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