Showdown over shock therapy

[Anonymous]

In a replay of a contentious scene that has unfolded many times over the past 20 years, supporters and opponents of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center's use of shock therapy stood shoulder to shoulder in a State House hearing room yesterday as the Legislature considered sharply curtailing the school's controversial treatment approach.

more stories like thisPast efforts to prohibit all shock treatments have failed, but in an effort to break the logjam this year, some of the school's fiercest critics have offered a less aggressive alternative: Rather than an outright ban, the new bill would allow shocks to stop students from hurting themselves or others, but would prohibit shocks for more "minor" acts such as swearing, shouting, or failing to complete a task.

Critics, who have long condemned the center's shock therapy as cruel and barbaric, now say they have been partially swayed by years of testimony from allies of the special education school, largely parents, who have praised the facility as life-saving for mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed students.

Sponsors of the bill said they hope it would force the Rotenberg school, the only facility in the nation with such pervasive use of skin-shock treatments, to adopt a stricter standard for use of the unorthodox treatment. About 60 percent of the approximately 240 students at the Canton school can receive shock therapy under their treatment plans.

"Today we have an opportunity to act," said Representative John Scibak, a Hadley Democrat who is a cosponsor of the bill. "We cannot allow the status quo to exist."

But in daylong testimony before the joint House and Senate Committee on Chil dren, Families and Persons with Disabilities, more than a dozen parents, relatives, and school officials said the school was an irreplaceable haven for mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed children, many who have previously been heavily sedated or expelled from other programs.

In one of the most powerful defenses of the school, Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat from Boston, said the school has done more for his 31-year-old mentally retarded nephew than any other.

"He is alive today because of the [shock] treatment," Sanchez testified, while his nephew Brandon clung to him.

At the hearing attended by nearly 200 people, Sanchez said the Rotenberg school has a proud tradition of avoiding psychotropic drugs to control students, instead using shock treatments sparingly, as well as a reward system. Eddie Sanchez, Brandon's father, testified that the public has no idea about the nightmare that parents like him go through trying to find a safe educational environment for their severely retarded children.

"If you close the school, you take him home," Eddie Sanchez told the panel. "I can't do it."

Matthew Israel, founder and executive director of the 37-year-old Rotenberg Center, said the bill was hardly the compromise its sponsors contended. He said the legislation would gut the essence of his behavioral-control therapy. He said the bill would stop his staff from being able to administer shocks for outbursts and rebelliousness that can interrupt teaching in the classroom, as well as for behaviors that often precede violence or self-harm.

For instance, he said, students may be given two-second electrical shocks for getting out of their seat without permission because that act, in the past, has led to the student attacking a staff member. Similarly, a girl who has an obsession with pulling her hair out may receive a shock when her hand comes close to her scalp.

more stories like thisIsrael, who has weathered two previous attempts by lawmakers to close his school, said, "In order to treat, you have to treat the antecedent."

He also criticized another provision, which would require the center to get the approval of a panel of psychological experts every 30 days for each student who would receive shock treatments. The bill would also require evidence that the treatments were reducing a student's violent behavior and that no alternative was effective.

Israel, however, said it was wrong to think that short-term shock therapy would always reduce violence for the long term. He likened shock treatment to a "prosthetic," such as an artificial limb or a pair of eyeglasses, that may be needed over the long haul. He said students are not shocked frequently - on average, once a week, he said.

Lawmakers, however, asked about the night last August when teenagers were wrongfully shocked dozens of times over a three-hour period at one of the school's group homes in Stoughton. A former student of the group home posed as a supervisor in the central office in Canton, calling the group home and commanding one of the staff members to shock one student 77 times, another 29 times. The caller said he was giving the orders based on instructions from Israel and his assistant director, Glenda Crookes.

Israel, sitting next to Crookes, told lawmakers he was horrified by the incident, describing it as being like 9/11 to him. He said the school has since initiated numerous changes, which include improved supervision at group homes and barring central office supervisors from ordering shock treatments from a remote location.

The case is under criminal investigation. State licensing investigators looking into the incident relied heavily on a videotape, made as part of the center's round-the-clock monitoring of students and staff in the school and 38 groups homes in surrounding communities.

Lawmakers asked Israel whether a copy of the tape was available, but he said it had been destroyed after he allowed some state investigators to view it. In an interview earlier this week, Israel said he routinely keeps videotapes for about 30 days and saw no need to keep the video from the August incident.

The joint House and Senate committee has not scheduled a vote on the bill. Supporters say they hope the bill, sponsored in the Senate by Brian Joyce, a Milton Democrat, will be passed by the committee in time for a full vote by the House and Senate by spring.

Senate President Therese Murray appeared at the hearing and described the measure as "excellent."

As a result of the controversy over shock therapy, some states have stopped sending new referrals to the Rotenberg school.

At yesterday's hearing, Greg Miller, a former Rotenberg staff member, said he quit after three years because he could not bear to see all the shock treatments administered to students, especially for minor infractions, such as stopping their work assignment for 20 seconds or closing their eyes at their desk.

He said some students had so many scabs from the electrical shocks that there was "no other place on the student's body to place electrodes without placing them on top" of more scabs.

"Please stop shocking students for smaller behaviors," he pleaded to the committee.

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

[Che Gookin]

I want to choke a few of those so called advocates. HOW about we stop shocking those kids all together?

[Anonymous]

In one of the most powerful defenses of the school, Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat from Boston, said the school has done more for his 31-year-old mentally retarded nephew than any other.

"He is alive today because of the [shock] treatment," Sanchez testified, while his nephew Brandon clung to him.

Brandon has been strapped to a shock device for 19 yrs.

[Ursus]

Lawmakers asked Israel whether a copy of the tape was available, but he said it had been destroyed after he allowed some state investigators to view it. In an interview earlier this week, Israel said he routinely keeps videotapes for about 30 days and saw no need to keep the video from the August incident.

Given how copiously Israel documents each and every little thing, his familiarity with the court system, and his experience in having to defend his actions again and again, I find his destruction of this particular videotape very telling.

[Anonymous]

Official: Video Destroyed in Shock Case


BOSTON (AP) — A special education school destroyed videotape showing two of its students being wrongly given electric shock treatments despite being ordered to preserve the tape, according to an investigator's report.

One student was shocked 77 times and the other 29 times after a prank caller posing as a supervisor ordered the treatments at a Judge Rotenberg Educational Center group home in August. The boys are 16 and 19 years old and one was treated for first-degree burns.

The Disabled Persons Protection Commission planned to release the report Tuesday concluding that one of the teenagers was severely physically and emotionally abused by the treatments. The commission has referred the case to the Norfolk district attorney's office.

The videotapes compiled footage from cameras inside the home in Stoughton. An investigator with the commission, which examines abuse allegations and can refer cases for criminal prosecution, viewed the tapes and asked for a copy, according to the commission's report obtained by The Boston Globe.

But school officials declined, saying they "did not want any possibility of the images getting into the media." The investigator told the school to preserve a copy so state police could use it in their criminal investigation. A trooper later told the investigator the tapes had been destroyed.

School spokesman Ernest Corrigan said school officials worried the images would be leaked to the public, further disrupting the lives of the two students who were wrongly shocked.

Earlier this week, the school's founder and director Matthew Israel said the tapes were reviewed by several investigators and were not preserved because the investigation "seemed to be finished."

The Judge Rotenberg Center is the only one in the nation that uses shock treatments for its special education students, most of whom are mentally retarded, autistic or emotionally disturbed.

Parents praise the shock therapy as the only treatment that has helped their children, but critics say it's abusive and often administered for only minor infractions. State Sen. Brian Joyce, who has long sought to ban shock therapy from the school, said Israel and his staff should be investigated for obstruction of justice.

"I believe the tape was intentionally destroyed because it was incriminating," said Joyce, a Democrat. "I intend to ask the attorney general to investigate."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqyb ... QD8U8CD707

[Anonymous]

Parent details toll taken by shocks at group home

Blames poor weekend staff

A Taunton man said his 19-year-old emotionally disturbed son seemed to be thriving at a group home, run by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, before staff members were duped into giving him 77 punishing electric shocks one night last summer.

In his first interview since the incident, Charles Dumas said his son had difficulty controlling his aggression since he was a child and had been in and out of a dozen special schools. His son had been put on so many psychotropic drugs that "he was drooling," Dumas said.

Then in spring 2006, the Department of Social Services, which had oversight of his son's care, placed him at the Canton-based Rotenberg school, a residential special needs facility where over half of the more than 200 students receive skin shocks as part of a behavior-modification program.

Dumas, in a telephone interview Wednesday night, said he didn't like the idea of shock treatments, but soon noticed that his son's behavior was improving. His son wore a battery-operated device, with electrodes attached to various parts of his body, that administers 2-second skin shocks. In fact, in the first year and a half of his stay at the Rotenberg school, the teenager received a total of 10 shocks and none after October 2006.

But, according to graphic details from a state investigative report made available to the Globe this week, his son encountered a night of horror on a weekend last August, after experiencing 10 months without any shocks.

The incident, triggered by a caller who pretended to be a central office supervisor giving punishment orders, is now the subject of a criminal investigation. The case was also the focus of a State House hearing this week as lawmakers considered a bill that would severely restrict the school's shock-treatment programs.

The report, issued by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, outlined a motive for the hoax: The alleged caller, Stephen Ferrer-Torres, a runaway from the group home who has not since been located by police, asserted to other students that he had been bullied by Dumas's son and another resident, who received 29 wrongful shocks based on the caller's instructions, according to the report. The Globe is not identifying the two residents who were shocked because they were victims of abuse.

In the report, the commission gave a harsh assessment of the group home's staff. It found that three of six staff members assigned to the Stoughton group home had been employed for less than three months. Two had repeatedly failed basic training tests, and two had been on probation for various infractions.

After the hoax call came in at about 2 a.m. Aug. 26, according to the report, Dumas's son told staff numerous times that they were violating his shock treatment protocol and suggested that the caller may be a prankster. At one point, he said, "Get on the phone and find out what is going on. . . ." The 77 shocks he received were, in part, based on his unwillingness to passively receive the shocks.

The account in the report was based on videotapes of the incident from Rotenberg's surveillance cameras, which were shown to investigators before school officials destroyed the tapes in early October.

Investigators found that a half-hour standoff occurred in the hallway, with Dumas's son at one end and the rest of the staff at the other end, including Bartholomew George, a rookie employee who was in phone contact with the caller and initiated the shocks. Soon after that, Dumas's son took out the batteries of his shock device, holding them out like weapons, the report said.

But after that, the staff tied Dumas's son to a board, restraining all four limbs. The teenager, resigned to his fate, said, "Let them know I'm being compliant."

During the next hour, he received dozens of rapid-fire shocks to his abdomen and limbs, which in fact violated his treatment plan. At one point, he complained, "Mister, I can't breathe."

On tape, the staff recounted the reasons for different shocks, including swearing, verbal threats, and noncompliance. Of the two power levels of shock treatments used by the school, Dumas's son received the most powerful each time, school officials have said.

Shift supervisor Michael Thompson, on the job for two months, left the room at one point, saying he wanted to "either cry or throw up," the report said.

When it was over around 5 a.m., Dumas's son was not returned to his own bed, but placed, ironically, in the bed emptied by the runaway who allegedly placed the hoax call.

Dumas said in the interview that hours later he received a call from his son's therapist, telling him, "something terrible happened." Dumas, a single father, said he phoned his son that day, and his son told him he was medically fine, but was extremely scared and upset.

"He did get angry," said Dumas, who said he visited his son the following weekend.

A nurse's report indicated that the teenager, described by the father as about 6-foot-4 and more than 200 pounds, had "reddened areas on his torso, but that the skin was not broken."

Dumas said Rotenberg officials have been very responsive, transferring his son to a different group home and taking him off all shock devices. The state is also in the process of transferring his son to a different school.

After the incident, Dumas's son was also given many rewards and privileges at the school to alleviate his distress. The teenager was also given a cellphone for emergency use by the school, which has initiated a number of changes to address the problems raised by the incident.

Dumas said his son sees the incident as a mistake. The second victim of the incident has since left for another school.

The father said he has tried to keep perspective on the incident, blaming poor weekend staffing for what transpired that night. He said the home had many immigrants who had difficulty giving even simple directions in English.

"On the weekends, they have a lot of people who don't speak good English and are fearful of losing their jobs," Dumas said.

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

[Ursus]

Regarding the first article (two posts back), namely, Official: Video Destroyed in Shock Case...

Earlier this week, the school's founder and director Matthew Israel said the tapes were reviewed by several investigators and were not preserved because the investigation "seemed to be finished."

Does this response fool ANYone? Seems to be very typical of Israel... He knows better than anyone else does, re. what's best for his clients. He knows even better than the Disabled Persons Protection Commission investigating this latest fracas, and which "can refer cases for criminal prosecution."

The Disabled Persons Protection Commission had clearly requested a copy. How much clout does the DPPC actually have? Does a "request" carry the same weight as a legal warrant? It would appear that Matthew Israel is exploiting this potential ambiguity.

"I believe the tape was intentionally destroyed because it was incriminating," said Joyce, a Democrat. "I intend to ask the attorney general to investigate."

NO SHIT.

[Ursus]

In one of the most powerful defenses of the school, Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat from Boston, said the school has done more for his 31-year-old mentally retarded nephew than any other.

"He is alive today because of the [shock] treatment," Sanchez testified, while his nephew Brandon clung to him.

Brandon has been strapped to a shock device for 19 yrs.

He probably can't imagine life without it. Perhaps he's been well indoctrinated that he'll end up deadinsaneorinjail without that be-all-end-all grace of his life: the GED.

JRC does not seem to hold greater independence and a more fulfilling life as prioritized goals for its clients. Israel has spoken before of using the GED as a life-long treatment, similar to how a diabetic might need insulin.

[Ursus]

Regarding the first article (two posts back), namely, Official: Video Destroyed in Shock Case...

Here is a more flushed-out version of that same article, with a few more details...

Oh, man... OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE 101! And what kind of a brain-washed lackey is Ernest Corrigan anyhow? He's putting his neck right out there on the chopping block. When the axe falls, it's not going to be Matthew Israel who gets separated from his means of locomotion...



The Boston Globe
Report says shock tapes destroyed against order
By Patricia Wen
Globe Staff / January 18, 2008

Top officials at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center destroyed videotapes at the focus of an investigation into alleged abuse at one of its group homes after being ordered by state investigators to preserve the tapes, according to a report obtained by the Globe.

The tapes, a compilation of footage from video cameras inside the group home in Stoughton, recorded an August 2007 incident in which staff wrongfully administered dozens of shocks to two emotionally disturbed teenagers, after a caller posing as a supervisor professed to be delivering orders from the school's director and a chief aide. One student received 77 shocks, the other 29.

An investigator with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, which examines abuse allegations and can refer cases for criminal prosecution, viewed the tapes as part of her inquiry and asked Rotenberg officials if she could have a copy of them, according to the commission's report on the incident. School officials declined, saying that the school "did not want any possibility of the images getting into the media," according to the report, which was obtained by the Globe.

The investigator then directed the school to preserve a copy of the tapes for use by State Police conducting a criminal investigation. She was later told by a trooper, who apparently attempted to view them that "the images were not preserved by JRC."

Matthew Israel, founder and director of the school, did not return a phone call yesterday to discuss the tapes, but a school spokesman, Ernest Corrigan, said that school officials did not want to keep the tapes out of fear they would end up in the hands of the media or on the Internet, further upsetting the lives of the two victims in the Aug. 26 incident. He said investigators from the commission held an "exit interview" on Sept. 30 with school staff, leading them to believe there was no more need to keep the tapes.

In an interview with the Globe earlier this week, Israel said the tapes had been reviewed by several investigators soon after the August incident and were not preserved because the investigation "seemed to be finished."

He said the school normally keeps its recordings for about 30 days and then reuses the tapes.

Israel gave a similar explanation at the State House on Wednesday when asked about the tapes at a public hearing on a bill to restrict shock treatments at the school.

However, he did not mention being asked by state investigators to preserve the tapes.

The destruction of the tapes has led some critics of the school, the only one in the nation that uses shock treatments for special education students, to call for an investigation into whether Israel or his staff engaged in obstruction of justice.

"I believe the tape was intentionally destroyed because it was incriminating," said Senator Brian A. Joyce, a Democrat from Milton, who has long sought to ban shock therapy at the school. "I intend to ask the attorney general to investigate."

Lawyers with experience in state and federal prosecutions say that obstruction-of-justice investigations can be complex, but that they center largely on why a piece of evidence was destroyed.

"Any investigation would want to look into intent very closely," said Michael Ricciuti, a former prosecutor now in private practice in Boston.

The disclosure about the tapes occurs as the Disabled Persons Protection Commission is preparing for a public release of its findings Tuesday.

Its report concludes that one of the teenage students was severely physically and emotionally abused by the incident. The commission has referred the case to the Norfolk district attorney's office.

The Rotenberg school has more than 200 students, most of whom are mentally retarded, autistic, or emotionally disturbed. It has about 900 staff members.

Started by Israel in 1971, the residential school has attracted nationwide controversy for its unorthodox behavioral-modification techniques, which include the administration of two-second skin shocks as a way to deter violent or disruptive behavior.

Critics say that such shocks are often given for relatively minor infractions, such as swearing or leaving a seat without permission.

After failing twice in the past two decades to close the school, opponents have embraced a bill pending in the Legislature that would allow shocks only to stop students from hurting themselves or others.

Leo Sarkissian - executive director of The Arc of Massachusetts, a grass-roots organization representing people with intellectual disabilities - said he was outraged to learn that investigators no longer have the tapes, saying the destruction of the recordings shows "a lack of integrity" by Israel and his staff.

But Corrigan, spokesman for the school, said such assertions are unfair, adding that school officials voluntarily set up video cameras to monitor the staff and student performance.

"There is no obligation to hold on to these tapes for any length of time," he said.

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Anonymous]

In one of the most powerful defenses of the school, Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat from Boston, said the school has done more for his 31-year-old mentally retarded nephew than any other.

"He is alive today because of the [shock] treatment," Sanchez testified, while his nephew Brandon clung to him.

Brandon has been strapped to a shock device for 19 yrs.

He probably can't imagine life without it. Perhaps he's been well indoctrinated that he'll end up deadinsaneorinjail without that be-all-end-all grace of his life: the GED.

JRC does not seem to hold greater independence and a more fulfilling life as prioritized goals for its clients. Israel has spoken before of using the GED as a life-long treatment, similar to how a diabetic might need insulin.

In 1994, the Boston Globe reported that JRC shocked a 52 pound autistic male 5,300 times in just one day. That report was referring to Brandon Sanchez.

[Anonymous]

Only a federal law can close JRC. If it closes in Massachusetts, it can reopen in any number of places. We have to outlaw torture of children in this country.

There are parents who want this center - who want this treatment. If not in Massachusetts they will find a way to get the center rebuilt somewhere else.

There were people who wanted the gas chambers of Nazi Germany too. Some of them were parents. Some of them were educated people. Just because people want something does not make it right. We as a country must make a stand that torture of children - no matter what the reasoning - is always wrong.

[Anonymous]

JRC is violating Massachusetts restraint laws http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/123-21.htm

[Anonymous]

Didn't the move from Rhode Island to Massachusetts involve something similar?  In Rhode Island, they went by a different name, Behavior Research Institute... I was under the impression that the move to Canton, MA was due to local opposition in Rhode Island. The name change to Judge Rotenberg Center came after the first major legal battle in Mass., when Matthew Israel found himself a real champion on the bench.

Urs - not logged in

[Anonymous]

The Behavior Research Institute (BRI) was forced to shut down and move elsewhere following the 1990 torture and murder of Linda Cornelison.

[Anonymous]

Investigative reporter Lucy Gwin of the disability rights magazine MOUTH (785-272-2578: fax 785-272-7348) has seen important video footage smuggled out by an employee of the Judge Rotenberg Center. The footage shows a well-known high-level staff member carnally amusing himself while watching videotapes of himself previously inserting objects (including electrically charged objects) into body cavities of the children and teenagers brought to his office for the administration of this privately given extreme aversive technique which the staff member calls "probing."