Child Torture Is Fun!

[Anonymous]

BOSTON -- State officials are investigating complaints that staff at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center gave three people -- including two teens -- unnecessary electric shock treatments after receiving a prank phone call from someone pretending to be from the office of the school's founder.

Initial investigations showed that a former student at the school allegedly called in orders for electric shock treatments on Aug. 26 and the Rotenberg center self-reported the prank call and unnecessary treatments the day after they occurred, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday.

Nancy Alterio, executive director of the state's Disabled Persons Protection Committee, confirmed that her agency is investigating a complaint that an adult at the a residential facility in Stoughton run by the Rotenberg center received unnecessary shock treatments after the phone call.
 

The complaints have also been referred to the state police and the Norfolk District Attorney's Office, Alterio said.

"The so-called prank call ... was an isolated, unprecedented incident that occurred more than three months ago," the school's senior counsel, Ernest Corrigan, said in a statement released Monday. "We immediately reported it to the appropriate state agencies and the local police."

The state Department of Early Education and Care said it investigated a complaint about two youths -- ages 16 and 19 - who were given unnecessary shock treatments on Aug. 26 after someone claiming to be on the staff of Dr. Matthew Israel -- the psychologist who founded the school -- called the residential facility and ordered the treatments.

"We found that there were breaches of internal control procedures that happened in this particular case," Campbell said. "We take this very seriously."

Two state legislators called on Gov. Deval Patrick to take quick action to put strict regulations in place for the use of shock therapy.

"In a word, this incident is horrifying and it would be immoral for the Legislature and the executive branch not to react strongly and swiftly," said Sen. Brian A. Joyce, who has previously sponsored legislation to ban electric shock therapy.

"This incident has already been addressed and resolved through changes made to JRC's security and operating procedures. Those changes were reported to JRC's state licensing agency as part of their investigation," Corrigan said. "We have modified procedures to assure that an incident of this type cannot occur ever again."

Campbell said the school has submitted a corrective action plan that is now being reviewed by the agency.

Kenneth Mollins, a New York attorney who has filed several lawsuits against the Rotenberg center alleging the mistreatment of children at the Canton-based school, sent a letter Monday to Patrick and various state agencies, calling on the state to investigate the complaints, which were first reported by The Examiner newspaper, of Washington.

"The governor needs to take a look and see what's happening here. There is nobody overseeing the store. If somebody can just call and ask that somebody be shocked, there is a significant problem," Mollins said.

The center, believed to be the only school in the nation that uses skin-shock punishments to stop violent behavior, is no stranger to controversy. It has survived two attempts by the state to close it amid allegations that its unorthodox methods amount to abuse.

Massachusetts was required to pay the center $580,000 after it unsuccessfully sought to close the school following the 1985 death of a 22-year-old student who suffered a seizure while restrained and forced to listen to static noise.

More recently an investigation was ordered to determine if a shock device malfunctioned, causing burns to one student. The center also agreed to stop referring to staff members as psychologists if they have not been licensed with the state.

On Monday, the center defended its use of the intensive treatment methods.

The procedures are applied "only after obtaining prior parental, medical, psychiatric, human rights, peer review and individual approval from a Massachusetts Probate Court," Corrigan said.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14 ... etail.html

[Nihilanthic]

I seriously wonder when they're going to take in the wrong kid and a riot beats the doors down.

 :-?

[Anonymous]

smark kids

[Anonymous]

More Gory Details Here:

Two special education students at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton were wrongfully delivered dozens of punishing electrical shocks in August based on a prank phone call from a former student posing as a supervisor, a state investigative report has found.

School staffers contacted state authorities after they realized they had been tricked on Aug. 26 into delivering 77 shocks to one student and 29 shocks to another, according to Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Early Education and Care, which drafted the report. Both students were part of a Rotenberg-run group home in Stoughton for males under age 22.

The Judge Rotenberg center, which serves about 250 adults and children from across the country, has been under fire for more than two decades for its unorthodox behavior-modification treatments, including electric shock treatments. Its defenders say that the school takes in troubled students, some with self-damaging behavior, who have been rejected by other schools. The center, which Massachusetts officials have tried twice to close because of its treatment methods, focuses on serving people with autism, mental retardation, and emotional problems.

Ernest Corrigan, a spokesman for the Rotenberg center, said the school contacted law enforcement "within hours" after discovering the prank, and that such an incident has never before happened at the school. Corrigan said they have instituted new safeguards to prevent such occurrences. He also said that while the school regrets the incident, the two male students who received the wrongful shocks did not experience any serious physical harm and did not need medical treatment afterwards.

The shock devices, which are strapped to some students' arms, legs, or torsos, deliver two-second electric jolts to the skin. The devices are controlled remotely by teachers.

State officials said the identity of the prankster is known to law enforcement authorities, but they would not release his name publicly and he has not been arrested. The identity of the staffer who was fooled into administering the shocks has also not been released. State officials indicated that some disciplinary action took place, though they would not specify what it was.

According to records from the Disabled Persons Protections Commission hotline phone log, there are repeated complaints about the incident. One entry said "the caller claimed that the shocks were approved, however, they were not."

Based on the prankster's call, one of the students was also wrongfully placed in four-point restraints, limiting mobility of all four limbs.

Critics of the Rotenberg school say the case shows that school officials have failed to live up to their public promises to deliver electric shocks only sparingly and with great oversight.

"This shows a systemic breakdown at the center," said Leo Sarkissian, executive director of ARC of Massachusetts, which represents people with cognitive and developmental disabilities. "It only takes a phone call to instigate shocks to this degree."

Top officials in New York and Washington, D.C., where many of the center's students originate, have called for a stop to the controversial shock treatments at the school.

Yesterday, in a prepared statement, state Senator Brian Joyce called on officials to more strictly limit and regulate the use of shock therapy in the state.

"This incident is horrifying and it would be immoral for the Legislature and the Executive branch not to react strongly and swiftly," Joyce said.

Corrigan, the spokesman for the center, said he is confident the August case will not be repeated, and he hopes this episode "will not be used to overshadow the good work that we do for those who have no where else to go."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... ith_shock/

[Ursus]

Zealots administer torture in the name of treatment.  The staff is so removed from passing judgment on their actions, it took them a while to question the veracity of their deeds.  106 shocks were administered before those actions were ceased.  Why do I have no faith in JRC's statement that "such an incident has never before happened at the school," hmmm?  How many times have "just a few shocks" been administered in error?

People's gut reaction to this incident underscores just how wrong this mode of behavior mod is in the first place.  The egregiousness of it puts it in stark relief.

How did it come to light?  Was it the repeated calls to the hotline that made JRC aware of the prank?

The place is fucked up.  Everybody knows it.  The set-up is ripe for mistakes, and they have happened several times already.  Maybe not this badly before, but still they have happened...

[Anonymous]

Massachusetts State Senator Brian A. Joyce has been trying to get the place shut down.

Here's his contact info:

Senator Brian A. Joyce
State House, Room 413 A
Boston, MA 02133
Office: 617-722-1643
Fax: 617-722-1522
Email: BJoyce@senate.state.ma.us

[jjpinks]

"The governor needs to take a look and see what's happening here. There is nobody overseeing the store. If somebody can just call and ask that somebody be shocked, there is a significant problem," Mollins said.
um.....ya think??? Pretty scary that all it takes is a phone call and you can have someone's brain toasted there.

"The procedures are applied "only after obtaining prior parental, medical, psychiatric, human rights, peer review and individual approval from a Massachusetts Probate Court," Corrigan said.
The fact that they even have the equipment to do such "treatments" is really freakin scary! And the fact that they didn't contact anyone before doing it (like they say they do) should tell the government something. These people do this crap all the time and like they said above "nobody is overseeing the store". Wake up America and realize that you now have 3 generations of kids that are being abused this way. What is it going to take??? damn.

Sorry for the rant.

[Ursus]

See also these threads:

http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=24520
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=24541

[Anonymous]

The recent prank incident is being covered by sources like USA Today, Fox News, and the Associated Press, which means that now is the time to contact the governor:

Deval Patrick at 617-725-4005 out of state or 888-870-7770 in state.

[Anonymous]

what should we say if we called?

[TheWho]

what should we say if we called?

Happy Holidays? Maybe to start with

[Anonymous]

The official report:

http://arcmass.org/Portals/0/DEEC%20JRC ... 1-1-07.pdf