Shocking Judge Rotenberg Education Center Shocks Children

2007-09-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Did you hear about the school that's getting away with torturing kids? Yeah. Neither had I until I saw this Mother Jones article here: School of Shock. I'm going to reprint the most terrible highlights of the school and then I am going to show you the website of the school. Then I would advise you to visit the article in its 6 page entirety unless you are a woman who needs her makeup flawless. I was crying inside of a minute at the first several paragraphs.

The Mother Jones article was written by Jennifer Gonnerman and published August 20, 2007. It's headed up with the following:

Eight states are sending autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled kids to a facility that punishes them with painful electric shocks. How many times do you have to zap a child before it's torture?

This is not intended to be an unbiased accounting. What I am writing here has one clear intent: To stop the abuse of children. Being autistic, bipolar, ADHD, OCD, or suffering from Post Traumatic Stress are simply not good enough reasons to shock a kid. And since when has mental retardation deserved infliction of pain?

My beloved brought up a decent point of consideration to me, though, as he knows I can throw reason out the window when my own PTSD, ACE/ADD, or HSP has been touched. He actually took the time to watch one of the video's of the Judge Rotenberg facility at their website so we discussed some situations in which maybe "shock therapy" might work. The only situation I can even get close to thinking it maybe *could* be feasible would be if the child is chronically trying to harm himself more than a dose of shock would.

But even in that situation I would have to try medication first because what we're talking about in this situation is a low functioning mentally retarded or severely emotionally disturbed child. Even after exhausting medication, are we so low functioning ourselves that we can't get a psychologist to work with such a child while utilizing maybe 4 point restraints? I mean, hurting a child, even if he does harm himself... This isn't considered humane is it?

B.F. Skinner be damned - I studied him too. Apparently Dr. Matthew Israel was a huge fan.

When we send dogs to obedience school do we allow the trainers to shock our dogs? And speaking of dog training, I'm even against those zapper training kits that train your dog to stay in the yard and from what I understand even that shock is lower than the 2 second bolt of electricity going through the children at the Judge Rotenberg Center.

As summarized by the Boing Boing article, "Torture School Subjects Students to Lethal Punishments", I guess the reader would have to decide if any positivity outweighs the negatives:

Staff shock kids for "nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance" and once threatened to shock a girl who sneezed and then asked for a tissue.
Some students must "earn" meals by not displaying certain behaviors. Otherwise they are "made to throw a predetermined caloric portion of their food into the garbage."
When students enter and leave the school each day, "almost all" are wearing some type of restraints, such as handcuffs or leg shackles.
"Students may be restrained"--on a four-point restraint board or chair--"for extensive periods of time (e.g. hours or intermittently for days)."
Some students are shocked while strapped to the restraint board.
A "majority" of employees "serving as classroom teachers" are "not certified teachers."
Rotenberg's marketing reps bestow presents on prospective families--"e.g. a gift bag for the family, basketball for the student."
Although the center has described its shock device as "approved" by the fda in its promotional materials, it "has not been approved."
The facility collects "comprehensive data" on behaviors it seeks to eliminate, but "there was no evidence of the collection of data on replacement or positive behaviors."
The facility makes no assessment of the "possible collateral effects of punishment such as depression, anxiety, and/or social withdrawal."

I really do not advocate for simply believing everything on the internet one reads...even if it is on Boing Boing or MotherJones but because this "school" is mirroring closely my own psychologically warping experiences at a residential facility called "Straight, Inc" [minus the shock 'therapy'?] I cannot help but to believe the credibility.

If only 10% of the Mother Jones article is true - and I happen to understand the validity of at least 80% being true based on my own experiences - the Judge Rotenberg Center needs to be shut down. I believe the writer was a credible and reliable witness as she visited the place, spoke with Dr. Matt Israel and provided historical accountings of the school's past controversy. I would encourage every person reading this to spend 20 minutes and read the entire 6 page article and decide for yourself.

As for me, I have already decided.

Originally published at my old Samsara Shakti Sept 5, 2007 @ 2:42pm but I think I had a spam virus cause Google yanked me. Fortunately I had a lot of these articles archived. :)

Samsara's Shakti

Shocking Judge Rotenberg Education Center Shocks Children