Fornits
General Interest => Feed Your Head => Topic started by: DannyB II on June 30, 2010, 04:53:05 PM
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Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) MDRI on Nightline tonight 11:30pm - will be
discussing human rights abuses at the Judge Rotenberg Center, a
residential program that literally shocks youth into behaving.
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can you please provide a link?
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can you please provide a link?
Oz, I am trying to find it and I have had no luck so far, I thought I had posted the link, I usually do. Hang in there, I think it was on my facebook page. Sorry.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/t ... e-11060406 (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/treatment-torture-11060406)
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http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/t ... e-11060406 (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/treatment-torture-11060406)
See also this thread:
- Torture Against Children and Adults with Disabilities in the
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30425 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30425)
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http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/t ... e-11060406 (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/treatment-torture-11060406)
Accompanying article follows:
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abcNEWS / Nightline
UN Calls Shock Treatment at Mass. School 'Torture' (http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334)
School for Special Needs Students Defends Practice as Unharmful and Effective
By KATIE HINMAN and KIMBERLY BROWN
June 30, 2010
It may look like any leafy New England campus, but inside one Massachusetts school for special needs children, the method of teaching at work is anything but ordinary.
The Boston-area's Judge Rotenberg Center (http://http://www.judgerc.org/) educates and treats enrollees ages 3 to adult, all of whom are struggling with severe emotional, behavior, and psychiatric problems, including autism-like disorders. And for about half of the 250 students here, undesirable behavior means getting hooked up to a special machine and administered an electric shock.
The skin shock treatment, used only after both a court and the student's parents have approved, has drawn criticism for years. But after the release of a recent study by Mental Disability Rights International (http://http://www.mdri.org/), Rotenberg has come under the scrutiny of no less than the United Nations (http://http://www.un.org/en/), which is calling the school's practices "torture."
Watch the full story tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET
"To be frank, I was shocked when I was reading the report," said Manfred Nowak, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture. "What I did, on the 11th of May, was to send an urgent appeal to the U.S. government asking them to investigate."
Click HERE (http://http://abcnews.go.com/images/Nightline/HT_US_Report_4_30_10_100630.pdf) for the Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) appeal to the United Nations on electric shocks and long-term restraint at the Judge Rotenberg Center.
In a response to ABC News, the Judge Rotenberg Center wrote: "It is just as ridiculous to equate JRC's aversive therapy (which is court approved, on a case by case basis) with torture as it is to call a surgeon's knife cutting into flesh an 'assault with a dangerous weapon.' If a two-second shock to the surface of an arm or leg can stop a behaviorally disabled child from blinding himself through eye-gouging, from pulling out all of his own teeth or from starving himself to death, no sensible person would refuse to use such a humane treatment. The alternative is to be drugged into insensibility, restrained, secluded and warehoused in a state mental hospital--in effect, a form of living torture."
Click HERE (http://http://abcnews.go.com/images/Nightline/HT_MDRIReportResponse_2_100630.pdf) for the full Judge Rotenberg Center reply to the MDRI report.
In a 2007 interview with ABC, Matthew Israel, the doctor who runs the Rotenberg Center and developed the shock treatment equipment, had his own take on the line between therapy and torture. "The real torture," Israel said, "is what these children are subjected to if they don't have this program. They're drugged up to the gills with drugs that cause them to be so sedated that they essentially sleep all day."
The patients wind up in state institutions or warehoused in jails, Israel said.
For about half of Rotenberg's students, a mix of adults and children, shock treatment is a regular part of life, meant to help teach them to stop hurting themselves or others. Their cases are extreme. Many here cannot speak. And many are real dangers to themselves, such as the child who would bite and bloody himself from his knuckles all the way up his arm, so that it looked as if he had scales, his mother said. Or another student who gouged out his own eye and blinded himself.
The shock treatment "has no detrimental effects whatsoever," Israel said in the 2007 interview with ABC.
The treatment works by hooking the students up to electrodes worn on different parts of the body, which communicate with a small device carried around in a backpack or fanny pack. When the student engages in forbidden behavior, a staff member administers a shock. Some students wear the electrodes as much as 24-hours a day, seven days a week. And sometimes for years.
"The device is simply a device that administers a two-second shock to the surface of the skin that has absolutely no side effects and is extremely effective as a corrective procedure to encourage children not to show violent behavior, not to show self-abusive behavior," Israel said.
The skin shock is not used until a court and the child's parents have approved.
Shock Treatment: 'It Has to Hurt Enough'
The treatment is not painless, however. "And if it didn't hurt it wouldn't be effective," said Israel. "It has to hurt enough so that the student wants to avoid showing that behavior again."
(http://http://a.abcnews.com/images/Nightline/ht_Mark_Photo_2_100630_mn.jpg)
Marc Doherty, now 24 years old, pictured in 2007 wearing a backpack with a device to deliver skin shocks. Doherty is enrolled at the Judge Rotenberg Center. "When he stopped biting himself," said mom Linda Doherty, "when it went from 40 applications [of the skin shock] one week to 18 applications the next week, in my heart and soul I know it's the right thing for my son." (ABC News)
The skin shock is not used until a court and the child's parents have approved.
As a compliment to the punishment, Rotenberg houses a reward room, where students can buy prizes with points earned for good behavior.
"I'm quite confident that the procedures here are all based firmly on the professional literature of behavioral psychology," said Israel, whose theory of reward and punishment is based on work he did studying under the psychologist B.F. Skinner at Harvard.
The price tag per student at Rotenberg is $200,000 a year, and is financed by tax dollars.
Israel and his supporters say the school's system of reward and punishment is both appropriate and effective. When one student began his shock therapy, he repeatedly would hit himself over the head. And he had nearly starved himself to death. But thanks to the therapy, school officials and his parents believe, he has shown major improvements.
Another student, Mark Doherty started biting himself when he was seven or eight. Psychiatric drugs had rendered him zombie-like, often comatose and drooling, according to his mother. And years of other treatments were not effective. Fifty schools rejected him before he started at Rotenberg. The shock treatments he has received have made a difference, say his parents.
Mark, now 24, still lives at the center. But he is able join his family for picnics and at restaurants, a major success. And for the first time after the treatment started working, the Dohertys say, they can hug their son.
"When he stopped biting himself," said Linda Doherty, "when it went from 40 applications [of the skin shock] one week to 18 applications the next week, in my heart and soul I know it's the right thing for my son."
Mark's father, Richard, added, "It's definitely not the end of the rainbow, but it's the best for our son right now."
But Eric Rosenthal, an advocate for the disabled, disagrees. He says there are a wide range of other treatments available. "A person with a disability is vulnerable," he said, and should be considered distinctly different from an adult who chooses to undergo the treatment.
"A child with a disability, who has to get this day in and day out? The courts have approved it, but did anyone ask the child if they want to be there?" he said.
Rosenthal's recent report on the center's tactics is what spurred a United Nations official into action. For years after ABC first reported on Rotenberg in 2007, State Sen. Brian Joyce tried repeatedly to shut down the school, without success.
"If this same treatment were allowed on terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, there would be worldwide outrage,'' he said.
Now, after Rosenthal released his organization's report, the United Nations has become interested. "I've visited many countries where electric shocks are applied, unfortunately," said Nowak, the U.N. specialist. "Of course this is absolutely prohibited."
Nowak said that when he finished reading Rosenthal's report, he sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government, urging an investigation into the school.
"This is torture,'' said Nowak. "Of course here they might say, but this is for a good purpose because it is for medical treatment. But even for a good purpose -- because the same is to get from a terrorist information about a future attack, is a good purpose. To get from a criminal a confession is a good purpose.
To Rosenthal, there are two factors for the Obama administration to consider; the United States' international treaty obligations on torture, and President Obama's own reputation. "President Obama has staked his international reputation on ending torture and the world is now looking,'' said Rosenthal. "Are we gonna live up to our obligations and is President Obama gonna live up to his promise to end torture by the United States government?"
The issue is clear, says Nowak: "You cannot balance this. The prohibition of torture is absolute."
Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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There are an awful lot of JRC supporters who got mobilized for these responses...
Matthew Israel's usual response, parts 1-5, were originally posted in the order of parts five through one. I've reversed them for easier reading.
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Comments (http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/comments?type=story&id=11047334) for the above article, "UN Calls Shock Treatment at Mass. School 'Torture' (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30738&p=370909#p370895) " (by Katie Hinman and Kimberly Brown; June 30, 2010; Nightline), #s 1-25:
Posted by: 12of16nelly Jun-30
Sounds alot like a shock collar for a dog - effective in training and curbing undesired behavior. I don't think anyone would have let me use it on my children though - so why these children?
Posted by: KsDevil Jun-30
Shock treatment? That quackery was used 100 years ago and it never cured anyone. All it did was affect the neurons so that an active person became a doscile vegetative person. People who call themselves medical professionals using easy solutions because they are too lazy to deal with the situation. It is abuse.
Posted by: ghetyw Jun-30
If I had a severely damaged child and this treatment curbed dangerous behavior, it would be insane to deny the process. In fact. if I, myself, were prone to "gorging my eye out" or banging my head, bloody, or hurting someone else and there was a chance, in hell, that a two second shock would help me control that behavior; well, bring it on! You know what, having a cavity filled, a fractured arm set, a cut on the knee stitched, s splinter removed.. HURTS; so, according to the dissenting logic of this issue, should parents forgo this type of treatment because it ..hurts? Hello? I would give anything if science or medicine could cure these tortured little souls but, until, if and when, that happens, we must not allow our perchance for political correctness stifle any chance they have for a semblance of normalcy.
Posted by: edmind76 Jun-30
This school has been an absolute miracle for so many children and adults and their families. There are a lot of highly opinionated yet uneducated individuals out there who hide behind groups and titles who are quick to jump on the bandwagon to put down a place that has been the sole source of hope and the answer to so many prayers for thousands of students and parents. This place is not the house of horrors that it is made out to be by so many people that do not even have any first-hand knowledge of the place or its students-- these people want to give opinions, but do not want to visit the school. These people will write these articles that are laced with falsities, but do not want to interview anyone from JRC, or the parents, or take a tour. There is nothing scary or inhumane about a school that allows its students (who were, previous to admission, so dangerous and self-abusive that jail or death seemed their only likely future) to actually have a quality of life-- participate in academics, hold jobs, go on community outings. This quality of life may seem simple and expected to many, but it was 100% unattainable for these children before thay came to JRC. These students are special and have been turned away from thousands of institutions that could not handle their behaviors. Until people see JRC, talk to the staff/students/clients and sit face-to-face with a parent that has had every door slammed in his/her face for years and been told there was no hope for his/her child, or that he/she should just give up on his/her child... until people see the relief and get a sense of the gratitude that these parents have for this school and its founder, people are completely unable to form an educated opinion about this institution.
Posted by: JRCsupporter Jun-30
They are not talking about electrical stimulation to the brain. This type of treatment does not "affect the neurons in the brain and make and active person become a docile vegetative person”, it affects the surface of the skin, it does not go anywhere near the head or brain. It does not go through the body; it is localized to the area where the apparatus is located. It is used to decrease these dangerous inappropriate behaviors in order to teach the replacement behaviors they need in order to be safe. It is JRC's goal to remove the skin shock from the students program as quickly and whenever possible. When individuals are injuring themselves to the extreme like eye gouging, it is almost impossible to teach replacement behaviors or use any other kind of affective treatment for these individuals. Then these students have life threatening injuries/behaviors and no one can help them. I am not sure why medication, which is the answer to so many problems with these students/clients, is so acceptable. Sure in some situations medication could work but the damage is does to the body is criminal. Not to mention when they are put on high doses that puts them into a vegetative state. They are zombie like, they shake, they drool and they sleep for most of the day. Someone please tell me how that is more human than a 2 second skin shock that does nothing besides immediately stop that behavior so they can function in everyday life. They are happy and healthy and they are able to live for the first time in their lives. I understand how these reports may make is sound so awful but there are only bits and pieces of the truth here. You can not go by what you read or see it is amazing to me how false these reports are. If you have not visited JRC and have not seen the truth first hand, you cannot comment on this type of treatment. I agree that there are many wonderful treatments out there and JRC uses many of them in addition to skin shock.
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
Part 1 of 5 AVERSIVES AT JRC: A BETTER ALTERNATIVE TO THE USE OF DRUGS, RESTRAINT, ISOLATION, WAREHOUSING OR EXPULSION IN THE TREATMENT OF SEVERE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) , , , founded in 1971, is a residential education and treatment program in Canton, MA that provides behavior modification therapy, essentially without the use of psychotropic drugs, for 215 special needs children and adults from 7 different states. All of the students have at least one thing in common—they suffer from severe behavior disorders that could not be effectively treated by the many previous treatment programs and psychiatric hospitals they had been in prior to coming to JRC. Because of its zero-rejection, zero-expulsion policy, JRC serves the largest collection of individuals with difficult-to-treat self-abusive, aggressive and severely harmful behaviors in the country. JRC saves individuals from the mental and emotional pain, crippling disabilities, permanent injuries and even death caused by their otherwise untreatable behavior disorders. Before coming to JRC, many students were confined for years in psychiatric or correctional facilities or were living on the streets.The students who are treated at JRC have shown, prior to admission to JRC, self-abusive behaviors such as: gouging out their eyes, causing near-blindness; smearing ####; head-banging to the point of causing detached retinas and blindness or even stroke ; skin scratching to the point of fatal blood and bone infection; pulling out their own adult teeth ; running into a street filled with moving cars; or suicidal actions such as attempting to hang oneself, swallowing razor blades, taking a drug overdose, and jumping out of a moving vehicle or off of a building. Some students have shown violent aggression such as biting, hitting, kicking, punching, and head butting others.
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
Part 2 of 5. Some have pushed a parent down a flight of stairs, raped someone, tried to strangle a parent while the parent was driving, and beat a peer so severely that plastic surgery was required. Some have attempted to injure or kill others—for example, by pushing a child into oncoming traffic, smothering a sibling, stabbing a teacher, or slicing a peer’s throat. Some have attacked police and therapists. Some have set their homes on fire, lit a fire in school, and lit themselves or family members on fire. Some have engaged in prostitution, been involved in gangs, and assaulted others with weapons such as a machete and chainsaw. Fortunately, behavioral psychology has developed a treatment for these behaviors called “behavior modification” or “applied behavior analysis.” Simply put, this involves analyzing the causes of the problematic behaviors, eliminating events that “trigger” the occurrence of the behaviors, arranging rewards for desired behaviors, and applying corrective consequences (consequences designed to decrease problem behaviors, or aversives) for undesired behaviors.JRC’s treatment relies overwhelmingly on the use of positive procedures such as rewards and educational procedures. In fact, JRC has created a unique Yellow Brick Road Reward Area for its students that is found in no other program. However, in the case of 22% of its school-age population (and 41% of its total population), these procedures are not sufficiently effective to treat severe problem behaviors. JRC’s experience in this respect is fairly consistent with the scientific literature. Thee major literature reviews show that positive-only procedures are effective in only 50-60% of the cases (JRC’s positive programming is able to achieve better results than the literature reports because of JRC’s cutting edge reward programs.)
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
Part 3 of 5. For individuals who do not respond to positive-only procedures, most treatment facilities do the following: administer a cocktail of mind-numbing, sometimes addicting, dangerous, and often ineffective psychotropic drugs; use restraint, take-downs, isolation rooms, and/or warehousing (doing nothing); or expel the student, leaving the parent with no options at all . Instead of using these alternatives, all of which are problematic, JRC employs a corrective consequence (“aversive”) in the form of a 2-second shock to the surface of the skin, typically of an arm or leg. This treatment, which feels like a hard pinch , has been extensively validated in the scientific literature (113 published papers since the 1960’s ), is extremely effective , and has no significant adverse side effects . For some individuals it is only required at the beginning of their treatment and can be faded out gradually as their behaviors improve. Even in the minority of cases where it is necessary, it is used rarely (the median number of applications per week at JRC is 0 and the mean is 3), and its use is initiated only after trying positive-only procedures for an average of 11 months. JRC uses this procedure only with an extensive and extraordinary list of safeguards . For example, each individual’s treatment program that includes the use of skin shock must be pre-approved by a physician, the parent (who can revoke this consent at any time), included in the student’s IEP or IHP, approved by a human rights committee and a peer review committee. It also must be individually pre-approved and reviewed at regular intervals by a Massachusetts Probate Court Judge. , JRC has been licensed or approved continuously, throughout its 39 year history, by the state education, developmental disabilities and child care departments of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
Part 4 of 5. The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (“DDS”) has granted and renewed, ever since 1986, JRC's special certification to use aversive behavioral procedures. More than fifteen different judges of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court have, during the last 25 years, approved individual petitions, by guardians on behalf of incompetent children and adults at JRC, to allow the use of aversive therapy in individual behavior modification treatment programs . Thousands of loving parents—including professors at Harvard and NYU, as well as psychiatrists and pediatricians—have entrusted the care and habilitation of their children to JRC. Former JRC students have voluntarily come before legislative committees to testify that JRC saved their lives. 7 Certain well-intentioned, but ill-informed advocates object to JRC’s use of skin-shock and are constantly seeking regulations and legislation to ban the use of aversives. Because JRC is the leading example of a program willing to supplement positive behavioral supports, such as rewards, with skin shock as an aversive, in cases where the person cannot be effectively treated without them, JRC has become the focus of attacks by anti-aversive advocates. Characteristically, these persons are unwilling to rationally weigh the risks or intrusiveness of skin shock aversives against the benefits, and to consider whether using such aversives might be a better choice than the alternatives. They simply ignore the small population of people who cannot be effectively treated with psychotropic drugs and positive behavioral supports alone, and who are being warehoused and drugged into submission. In some cases, these anti-aversives advocates have been so dogmatic that they have contributed to a child’s death through self-abuse rather than allow him to receive life-saving therapy that includes aversives .
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
Part 5 of 5. Under state and federal law, non-disabled individuals have the right to choose aversive therapy to treat behavioral problems such as smoking and drinking. To deny persons with developmental or behavior/psychiatric disabilities the same right to treat their behavior problems with aversives would be to impose an invidious form of discrimination against those unfortunate enough to suffer from such disabilities.
Posted by: JRCsupporter Jun-30
They are not talking about electrical stimulation to the brain. This type of treatment doesn't "affect the neurons in the brain and make an active person become a docile vegetative person", it affects the surface of the skin, it does not go anywhere near the head or brain. It does not go through the body; it’s localized to the area where the apparatus is located. It's used to decrease these dangerous inappropriate behaviors in order to teach the replacement behaviors they need in order to be safe. It's JRC's goal to remove the skin shock from the students program as quickly and whenever possible. When individuals are injuring themselves to the extreme, like eye gouging, it's almost impossible to teach replacement behaviors or use any other kind of affective treatment for these individuals. Then these students have life threatening behaviors and no one can help them. I am not sure why medication, which is the answer to so many problems with these students/clients, is so acceptable. Sure in some situations medication could work but the damage it does to the body is criminal. Not to mention when they are put on such high doses that it puts them into a vegetative state. They are zombie like, they shake, they drool and they sleep for most of the day. Someone please tell me how that is more human than a 2 second skin shock that does nothing besides immediately stop that behavior so they can function in everyday life and be taught new skills and appropriate behaviors. They are happy and healthy and they are able to live for the first time in their lives. I understand how these reports may make is sound so awful but there are only bits and pieces of the truth here. You cannot just go by what you read or see it is amazing to me how false these reports are. If you have not visited JRC and have not seen the truth first hand you cannot comment on this type of treatment. I agree that there are many great "positive only" treatments out there and JRC uses more than most do.
Posted by: extrordinaryboy Jun-30
Think about the stress that person is under knowing they are going to be shocked---it doesn't help the body or the brain heal it triggers stress, anxiety, fear which open the door to infection, illness/disease, inflammation and not to mention constant state of anxiety for these people. How so very sad. It's the lobotomy equivalent in this generation.
Posted by: Andrea in VA Jun-30
The kind of torture perpetuated at this center merely substitutes psychological damage, including prolonged severe traumatic stress disorder, for the physical damage they're supposedly trying to prevent. How is that an improvement? Many of the people injuring themselves probably have sensory integration issues which may lead to what most non-autistic people would consider "ordinary" levels of stimulation becoming very overwhelming. Self injury, for some (not all) autistic people and others with sensory integration issues can be a way of managing overwhelming stimulation from the sights, sounds, and other sensations around them. If JRC spent more time figuring out the cause of self injury maybe they would do better at finding other solutions asides from torture, such as minimizing the amount of sound and other stimulation clients are exposed to.KsDevil: I think you're confusing the torture committed at the JRC with electroshock treatment. Electroshock treatment (which is still used with a small minority of patients with depression, sometimes with success and sometimes not) is done to the brain. What they do at the JRC is done to the body. But, yes, it hurts, and the effect on behavior is generally short term, not long term -- which means for many people at the center they have to keep on doing it for year after year. This can be enormously traumatizing for the students.
Posted by: MattthewLIsrael Jun-30
For a properly formatted version of the five-part submission I have made here, together with the footnotes (not included in the 5-part submissin) as well as active links to the full text of documents that are referred to in the paper, please see
http://www.judgerc.org/SummaryStatementAversives.pdf (http://www.judgerc.org/SummaryStatementAversives.pdf)[/list]
Posted by: lknepher Jun-30
Behavior is a form of communication and for people who do not have the ability to communicate verbally, then, that is the most dramatic form to make their point. My first question is have these kids had a full medical work up to see if there may be pain somewhere in the body. If not, this should be the first line of defense in order to see if there is anything that is not working properly and might be hurting. See if you can treat any medical issues and then see if the behaviors stop or diminish. I've learned with my own non-verbal son when he is not feeling well, that sometimes there are some strange behaviors that pop up. Once I get to the root cause, then, they disappear. For the kid who gauged his eye - did anyone think he might have a headache and that might be the issue - imagine having a headache all the time - how would you feel and react and what if you could not tell anyone what was wrong? How would you get your point across? These are things that everyone needs to think about and also rule out medically as well. And, I can tell you, the medical community is no better at treating and diagnosing these kids either. I have to be the one to tell the doctors what I think is wrong and I've always been correct and I've shocked them. We need to be sensitive to these people who cannot tell us verbally and can only show us what might be the problem without resorting to torture. And, shock treatment is torture - there is no way around that. So, to everyone who supports it, when you are in pain one day, try to let people know without verbally telling them - then let us know how that worked out.
Posted by: fishnferfood Jun-30
My cousin is like that. You need to be a little more forceful with him than just a slap on the hand. I being a retired electrician, thinks everybody should get a certain amount of shock treatment, it does wonders for sore aching muscles. At least those people are limber without sore muscles.
Posted by: lknepher Jun-30
Behavior is a form of communication - and these kids cannot communicate on the traditional sense. So, they resort to behavior to make their point. What I would like to know is if they have had a full medical work up with a sensitive doctor to see if in fact, there is a medical issue. For example, the kid who gauged his eye out - perhaps there was a persistent headache that was every day. Now, imagine if that were you and you could not tell anyone about it - how would you try to get your point made to someone to get help? Many times with non-verbal people with SIBs, once you take care of the source/cause of the pain the behaviors diminish. Instead of making them afraid to face more pain so they don't try to communicate - we should first consider a medical problem. For my own non-verbal son, I have had to become very sensitive to his pain and make sure that I go to the doctor and tell them what I think is wrong - and so far, I have never been incorrect on my gut instincts. So, before we as a society resort to torture for people who are already locked up and tortured in their own minds, it it our duty to see if we can alleviate pain and/or treat the underlying medical issues that is the cause of the behavior. I challenge you the next time you are in horrible pain, don't tell anyone about it, think of the best way to have someone understand you (and writing it is not an option either), then, have that person shock you everytime you use a bad behavior and let us know how you feel. All that will do is to make you stop trying to communicate that you are in fact, in pain and need help. Let's have some compassion and just because a person cannot speak does not mean that person does not feel pain.
Posted by: SpectreWriter Jun-30
Mixed feelings on it. It's not truly harmful, so in ways it's like a spanking that one can administer remotely, instantly (see also: Clicker training.) It's not inherently dangerous. On the other hand, listening to them may yield results that punishing the patients cannot.That a court approves it means next to nothing. Courts have approved of many things over the years. Question authority, decide each situation for yourself, individually.
Posted by: Parents Rights Jun-30
Please imagine your child has an incurable disease. No dinners at home. No pictures at family gatherings. No, you can’t even go to the movies together. Your child’s world is at many hospitals because one after the other has given up. Yes, they tried all kinds of medication, many not approved for children or for your child’s particular illness. All ineffective and many having horrible side effects. They tried different invasive procedures, but none of that worked to ease the symptoms of your child’s incurable illness. In fact, many times it just caused your child more pain. Pain without gain, but all medically approved so they say it is fine.You don’t know what to do - you have gone to the best doctors with their long list of letters after their names, gone to the best hospitals, and read the latest books whose authors, claiming if you just do A, B and C or C, D and E, then all will be well. You’ve tried everything that the experts have told you but to no avail, and so you go to an alternative medical center. You cannot believe it! Your child is now experiencing a quality of life- going to school, seeing movies - that seemed impossible. If you are a parent, you certainly know what I mean when I say that the most important, and I mean most important thing, is that your child is able to go home to see the rest of the family. WOW!!!!I know that there are some here who are willing to sacrifice my child because of their strict ideologies, others for political or monetary gain, and some for 15 minutes of fame. There is nothing I can do, nor say, nor show them to change their minds. However, to those who are truly, and I mean truly, looking out for my child’s well being, then just leave the Center alone.Signed, Parents Rights
Posted by: maxsmart99 Jun-30
Funny it is always the stick approach that people seem to like... are there any carrot approaches out there or are we fixated on sadism and forcing people to do what we want or else.... or else we administer more and more shocks and the turn up the volume a notch more? I imagine most likely our guantanamo approach coming out of the cold war era is more sophisticated than physical torture. Those hoods and gloves and earphones playing what at what volume round the clock along with sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation and childhood regression and I would imagine they don't even remember what they went through.
Posted by: ontheroad01 Jun-30
Someone needs to tell the UN that they don't have any right to question anything that goes on inside this country!!
Posted by: visit-cafety-dot-org Jun-30
Having been part of a research team surveying youth in abusive residential programs and received responses from JRC alumni, I can say that there is undoubtedly a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness that is utterly dehumanized and degrading to the point where its rather shocking and tragic that parents are so blinded and the Israel is so out of touch that he can rationalize his 'work'. While I empathize with the parents, their plight is somewhat irrelevant in so far as their desperation comes to influence their thinking and decision of where to place a child, particularly without consideration of ill effects or awareness of what living through that kind of experience is like. The youth experience is as much, if not more relevant to the decision that the parents sense of crisis. If you haven't lived through it, you have no idea what it is like to be in an an environment as tightly controlled at JRC. It'd be great for JRC to have parents live through the program for a few weeks, really see what its like...Of course if you cause someone pain associated with some behavior, they change that behavior. But change is not growth, not therapy, not help and that's what these kids (and adults) require. It takes zero sophistication to shock and awe - so to speak - in a totalitarian environment where 'students' have zero control, are required to submit unquestioningly and their identities effectively obliterated. Far more challenging is working with someone with the objective of actual growth, not simply change. I'm looking forward to seeing research on the impact of this program, and others like it, and see just how many folks graduate with PTSD. Surely some vindication will come to victims of this horrendous program. I imagine that number is quite high. As for the UN, its about time someone did the work MDRI has taken the initiative to do. Torture is not therapy. Our nation recognizes this, looking forward to the day that law is actually effectively enforced.
Posted by: gardoglee Jun-30
It seems interesting to me that this program is based on Skinnerian principles. Skinner was a brilliant researcher, but had some very strange ideas, such as putting infants into "Skinner boxes" for early childhood education. Skinner boxes are very commonly seen now as a class exercise for freshman psychology students, and it is white rats which are trained in them. You can train a rat to do amazing things, like playing basketball (no kidding, a rat can learn to shoot a ping pong ball throuh a hoop). Of course, at the root of the "training" you shock the rat, starve the rat, frighten the rat, and other techniques usually associated with terms like "brainwashing" and "torture" rather than "medical care". As others have said, if you waterboard a typical person for about ten minutes you can get them to confess to crucifying Christ. If you use enough electric shocks you can train a typical person to do or to not do just about anything. As an example, using Skinnerian techniques you could train a person to be so averse to eating that they would starve in front of a table full of food. The question here seems to be whether the ends justify the means. There are many people who believe strongly that sufficiently "good" ends can justify any means. There are others who believe just as strongly that no matter how "good" the intentions, immoral means are always immoral. Helping people with severe brain diseases to improve their functional abilities and to reduce self destructive behaviors sounds like a very good end which could justify many otherwise questionable means. Over the years techniques justified to this end have included forced sterilization, lobotomies, drugging with a myriad of chemicals, physical restraints, solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, pretty much all the things which JRC says they are superior to. And each of those practitioners claimed to be justified by the "good" ends, and superior to the others who came before them
Posted by: gardoglee Jun-30
@ontheroad01 - The US is a signatory to the UN Charter (1945), at the level of treaty. Treaty law has the same level of authority under US law as the Constitution itself. Therefore the US has, through it's voluntary entry into agreeement with other sovereign nations to establish the UN, granted the UN the right to comment on practices in the US with equal authority to the US Constitution itself.You do believe in the US Constitution, don't you?
Posted by: Wakeupandopenyoureyes Jun-30
Where is the outcry for the those children that are placed on medications that are not approved to use on children? Where is the outcry for those children and adults who are physically and/or chemically restrained all day because that's the only thing that can be done to keep them from hurting themselves or others? Where is the outcry for those families who can not get the support they so desperately need? I have witnessed hundreds of children and adults with behavioral disorders enter JRC in a drugged stupor with NO QUALITY OF LIFE. The amount of medications they are on is torture and yet these medications that are supposed to help are not because the behavior is still there and they still try to hurt themselves or others. Their families are so emotionally distraught and drained that they are almost afraid to hope that their son or daughter could possibly get better at JRC when everywhere else has failed. I have witnessed these same individuals tapered off their medications and with excellent "positive only" programming and structure SUCCEED. There are some cases in which their behaviors decelerate but are still present at levels which are dangerous to them despite all positive only approaches. In these cases, skin shock is used only after given parental, various agencies, peer/human rights committee, medical and court approval. Once in place, they SUCCEED. Not only do they get their life back or begin to live but there families get theirs back as well. I agree that this should not be used for everyone and JRC does not believe that either. It's a last resort type of treatment. However, if I had to choose between getting restrained or being in a drugged stupor all day over the skin shock (GED), I would say, "GIVE ME THE GED." It just seems strange that the other treatments which are described as "positive only practices" are acceptable when they involve physical, mechanical, and chemical restraint. That type of treatment will kill you.
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Comments (http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/comments?type=story&id=11047334) for the above article, "UN Calls Shock Treatment at Mass. School 'Torture' (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30738&p=370909#p370895) " (by Katie Hinman and Kimberly Brown; June 30, 2010; Nightline), #s 26-50:
Posted by:Wakeupandopenyoureyes Jun-30
Where is the outcry for the those children that are placed on medications that are not approved to use on children? Where is the outcry for those children and adults who are physically and/or chemically restrained all day because that's the only thing that can be done to keep them from hurting themselves or others? Where is the outcry for those families who can not get the support they so desperately need? I have witnessed hundreds of children and adults with behavioral disorders enter JRC in a drugged stupor with NO QUALITY OF LIFE. The amount of medications they are on is torture and yet these medications that are supposed to help are not because the behavior is still there and they still try to hurt themselves or others. Their families are so emotionally distraught and drained that they are almost afraid to hope that their son or daughter could possibly get better at JRC when everywhere else has failed. I have witnessed these same individuals tapered off their medications and with excellent "positive only" programming and structure SUCCEED. There are some cases in which their behaviors decelerate but are still present at levels which are dangerous to them despite all positive only approaches. In these cases, skin shock is used only after given parental, various agencies, peer/human rights committee, medical and court approval. Once in place, they SUCCEED. Not only do they get their life back or begin to live but there families get theirs back as well. I agree that this should not be used for everyone and JRC does not believe that either. It's a last resort type of treatment. However, if I had to choose between getting restrained or being in a drugged stupor all day over the skin shock (GED), I would say, "GIVE ME THE GED." It just seems strange that the other treatments which are described as "positive only practices" are acceptable when they involve physical, mechanical, and chemical restraint. That type of treatment will kill you.
Posted by: zaivala Jun-30
I agree that this is torture. I also agree that drugging these children is torture, with at least as long-term of effects. I was drugged for a constantly-changing carousel of "diagnoses" from age 12 until I took myself off all "medications" just prior to my 51st birthday. I went through a long list of failed jobs and relationships. I have now held a job for over 2 years and was just promoted to senior management of the small publisher for whom I work.The program mentioned that there were MANY OPTIONS, but did not discuss ANY of them.
Posted by: blw2blw2 Jun-30
The only proponents of this torture are those that push the buttons and never wear the skin probes. Sounds a little like a something you'd expect to hear coming from a concentration camp
Posted by: princessiu3 Jun-30
I am shocked and upset by this story. How is it possible that special needs students are being treated this way?? I work very closely with students of all ages with autism and other special needs what I have learned is a very important quote "EVERY BEHAVIOR SERVES A FUNCTION!" This is true for every person special needs or not. If you sit in a meeting and zone out, you may pick at a scab or your nails until they bleed.. you are now self injurous, However, your behavior served a functions: it may have helped calm your nerves or reduced your bordom. I understand that these students have much more difficult behavior to conquer but WHY are they doing these self injurous or self stimulating behaviors. As for hurting others, First what is that behavior communicating?? Have the families and caregivers been trained in non-violent crisis prevention training and response. There are safety holds that can be used to help keep others safe until the student has regained control. It is stated that "Under state and federal law, non-disabled individuals have the right to choose aversive therapy to treat behavioral problems such as smoking and drinking. To deny persons with developmental or behavior/psychiatric disabilities the same right to treat their behavior problems with aversives would be to impose an invidious form of discrimination against those unfortunate enough to suffer from such disabilities."Are these students capable of making the choice of using aversive therapy? If parents are making that choice do they get a chance to experience the shock everytime they bite their nails or rely on their nervous habit? I know my nervous habits and behaviors would be more apparent and more frequent if I knew I was about to be shocked. I couldn't imagine putting any child or other human being through this "therapy"I am sick that instead of listening to the behaviors and digging deeper for a reason for these behaviors they have resorted to SHOCK THERAPY! Who does that?
Posted by: louwilcox Jul-1
I see this as a powerful tool to help these kids - The people complaining have no valid alternative - they need to go find something else to complain about - the school looks like they are doing a great job!Lou Wilcox
Posted by: dbcmum Jul-1
I am appalled that the courts much less the Govt. would allow such atrocoties be done to these poor children. My son is a special needs child with behavioral problems (autism i.e. Aspergers) and just recently completed 4 years at a special school designed specifically for children with special needs namely behavioral, mild to severe. I have attended the school on numerous occaisions throughout the last few years at different times and have witnessed what the staff does in severe attacks by children. THere is NO form of shock treatment., nor any forms of devices used for physical restraint. THey simply place the child in a room that is padded wtih a minimum of 2 staff members in the room at all times. My son's school in each classroom has 1 teacher 1 aid, 1 school based therapist, and several other qualified staff available at all times. If needed, they can and do call 911, but as a last resort. All I ever see is love that is given to these children. As far as medicating them. its fine with me as long as you have a good repour with your child's phsychologist/phsychiatrist.. There are several different kinds of medications available that will NOT turn children into "walking zombies". I have also known several children that are/have attended regular public school systems. They are either currently doing well or have just graduated with a nearly perfect GPA. In summary, If you correcly train the teaching staff in the correct ways of caring/educating children with various forms of mental/physical dissabilities, you can accomplish anything. I agree with the majority of the posts on here....IT IS ABUSE. and should be stopped immediately.
Posted by: listening67 Jul-1
Being someone who has worked in this field for 20 years, I understand some peoples outrage at this form of "treatment" . I myself could not inflict this on someone and sleep well at night.On the other hand I can`t help but wonder if these persons that are so outraged have worked with individuals with these types of behavioral problems.Would this treatment of helped the many people I see everyday that have beaten themselves so badly, that it has caused blindness,deafness,neruological problems and have made it so they can not even go out and enjoy a family picnic, shop at the mall or go on a vacation like everyone else in this world takes for granted.Put yourself in the parents place..do you want to watch the child that you gave birth to suffer a life of self abuse?Think about it before you form a judgement either way,
Posted by: chretienm Jul-1
I have worked as a strong male RN for the past 7 years running units of children with severe mental disorders in two different mental hospitals.They range from 6 to 17 years old. I have participated in over 1500 restraints and seclusions of children and I can tell you that I wish I had this tool for behavior modification. I routinely help restrain patients with other strong staff who are attacking other children violently. I have personally prevented hundreds even thousands of blows from landing on children. I have seen near riot conditions go on for hours on end. I see children get beat down by peers every day with no justice for the victim, no recourse, no one able to stop the attackers in time.These are not ordinary kids. I have to give them shots of powerful tranquilisers to keep them from hurting others and themselves throughout the day. The shots HURT and they are considered painful by the children as are the restraints we put them under. Of course they don't like being restrained but if you do nothing they will beat up other kids all day long. I have treated victims with all sorts of injuries from being attacked.I can tell you with absolute certainty that there are many people who simply will not respond to anything less than a fear of pain. We can't leave them alone for even one minute without them attacking others. Every time we restrain them or give them a shot or pill I must do an incredible amount of paperwork. Praising or rewarding do not work with some patients. An unpleasant shock would train them much more efficiently than saying "Hey Johnny stop that." Many of them do not listen to a word we say. They only respect FORCE. You want to talk about torture, I will tell you what torture is. It is the child who gets beat up daily by the psychotic or conduct disorder patients or ODD or IED patients who have no conscious and fear nothing but big strong staff who can and will physically stop them from injuring others throughout the day. Martin Chretien RN
Posted by: philosopherboy Jul-1
The absolute worst thing about all of this is people don't care enough about these people to accept the fact that what is being done and has been done to these children for at least over ten years is not therapy it is torture of the innocent and most vulnerable.
Posted by: wow6971 Jul-1
The NWO order is upon us, and once again those who thought our Second Amendment was safe and our freedom of Speech, well you can kiss them good bye if we do not detach ourselves from the UN and the NEW WORLD GOVERNMENT. In the case of these children, I have worked with such cases and I can tell you watching them drugged and put in restraints was awful to put it in easy terms. People hear SHOCK TREATMENT and think high voltages of current streaming the body,but that is not the case. I have seen children rip their skin off, bite themselves so hard, they had to receive stitches. The small amount of pain received is unknown to them and the pain they self inflict becomes desensitized to them. The small amount of pain they may receive is not what they may be responding to, they are responding to a new sensation from an outside source, which is not under their control for say.
Posted by: davidwilliamoaks Jul-1
Interesting that the Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick does not seem to have anything to say about psychiatric torture going on in his own Commonwealth, with approval by his government. I encourage people to use Google to bring up his contact web page. Search for MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR CONTACT. And e-mail him a strong but civil message that he should speak out! I direct a nonprofit MindFreedom International, and Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) is doing a great job. MDRI is a sponsor of MFI, and we're really proud of that. GREAT JOB MDRI! Now, what are we all going to do about it? To read about further comments, see MindFreedom International's web site. Just google that... I've blogged a couple of times on it in our web site, the link to the blog is on the left hand side of our web site. You know, more than three decades ago I was a teenager in Massachusetts, and I experienced psychiatric human rights violations... That got me into the field of human rights in mental health, and I've been a community organizer on that topic ever since. So as a survivor of abuse in mental health, I take this TORTURE seriously. Thank you, United Nations representative on torture, for agreeing it's TORTURE. - David Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International
Posted by: SchwillRN Jul-1
First and Foremost- This is not Electro Convulsive Shock Therapy (ECT) which, by the way, is very effective for treating medication refractory Depressive Disorders. It is however described as a painful experience (unlike ECT because you are anesthetized). I believe that is the point. It is used to avert unwanted behaviors that seem to be harmful to self and others. The problem with this story is that it is biased (like most news stories). Where are the data that show injuries to these children. Where are the data that show malignant negligence on the part of the school. Are there outcomes data indicating how ALL of the children behave after years of aversive therapy. After those data are published as such and analyzed by non-biased, independent parties not running for re-elction or otherwise, then we can come to a conclusion. I am all for patients rights, especially those without a voice, but sensationalism is very dangerous and could very well jeopardize those who need help the most.
Posted by: ReinhardtvonMeinhardt Jul-1
This is not torture. The UN busybodies should be told to bugger off. This is Skinnerian, Operant Conditioning. If these patients are not responding to anything else and the only alternative is to hit them with so many psychotropics that they are semi comatose, then this is the legitimate treatment of last resort.
Posted by: greenhope47 Jul-1
Even though, I don't aprove traditional shock treatment, I think this is wonderful. It doesn't hurt neurons, it brings new hope for that kind of patients. I see it as a much better option, than drugs, streets, restraint or isolation. It's not torture at all, it's much more like giving safety sides for the hard walk they've had on the bridge of their lives. Let me tell you something, I've seen the "progress" (absolutely 0% in too many patients) in those mental hospitals. I've gone, because I'm a nursing school student, and then I see this option, and I see real progress in those users, that's amazing to say the least!!! I don't know about torturing methods, but I know the difference betwen effective treatments, and non effective ones, and it's that simple as seeing the patient relieved. Isn't that the purpose of medicine? To cure, to relieve? If they think about this treatment as a nightmare for the patients, they should get know better what is the cure for many kinds of cancer: chemotherapy, radiotherapy, non-pleasant diets. Are they something patients enjoy? Ofcourse not! But they offer cure, relieve, a better life. Well, I hope those who have such a huge amount of documents trying to make americans see this method as something terrible are able to offer something better than this to each patient and his/her family. I'm sure they don't have a remote idea of what is being in their shoes. And it's really easy to talk and to make judgements when you're not the one going through the hard situation, or the one dealing with it, and putting all yourself to help the people and their families.
Posted by: totdocmd Jul-1
Cynthia --I hope I am not the only pediatrician in America to write you about the children in the Massachusetts school who receive shock therapy for misbehavior. It is entirely possible these children have a medical condition known as Lesch-Nyhan Disease, in which they have abnormally high levels of uric acid. For some reason these children bite themselves so severely as to bite off their own fingers and toes. What is worse, they know they are about to bite themselves and are terrified, but they bite themselves anyway. Perhaps shock therapy for psychological disorders may at certain times be indicated, but it would not be appropriate for a medical illness that could be treated with pharmaceutical agents. I hope you follow up with this on a later broadcast to tell the public whether these children have been tested for a medically treatable illness.
Posted by: philosopherboy Jul-1
Good lord would you people use this shock therapy on your parents or grandparents if they developed some kind of issue where they couldn't help but hurt themselves or others or would you be empathetic and learn how to help them in a non-violent way?
Posted by: PHBBT Jul-1
Cynthia I am curious as to why you did not try the alternative to the shock therapy. Why not try some of the many psychiatric drugs these children are forced to take for a month or two, and then let us know just which treatment is torture. (By the way, no one ask these kids if they want to be on these meds either)
Posted by: anon123123 Jul-1
Congrats on covering such abuse. I thought it interesting that you drew parallels to Guantanamo, and held up the UN as an authority on the subject of torture.I would like a similar story on Guantanamo Bay. And let's hear what the UN has to say about that.Thanks.
Posted by: cwin493 Jul-1
Remember the handshake buzzer we played with as kids? Remember the battery shock science experiment? How about the bedwetting alarm mattress? A low voltage, short duration zap is much like a rubber band snapped on the wrist. These "shocks" aren't heart stopping, body-wrenching, convulsion-inducing, confession-producing torture of Guantanamo, and other places. Go volunteer at the school or a school like it in your area for a week. Your local public schools would love special ed volunteers. If you think you can cure the most severely disabled with your words only, then you get right in the middle of the problem. Otherwise, ease up.... and the UN can mind their own business.
Posted by: huffpuff232 Jul-1
Speaking as someone that actually knows people who work at the center, I can assure you that this is operant conditioning, used as a therapy, and not TORTURE, as people are so quick to call it. Torture is how children were treated, and sadly, are still treated, in some special education classes, where they are left to rot, or strapped to beds to prevent injurious behavior. The sort of behavior being prevented kept one of the folks I know in the hospital for a week after she was suddenly attacked by one of the students. The student wasn't able to give a rational for their behavior, and as far as I know, the school wasn't able to find a reasonable cause for the behavior, such as you or I might understand. I also speak as someone who has used, and seen used, psychoactive medications and tranquilizers. The "brain buzz" familiar to those of you who take SSRIs is far worse, in my opinion, than a short burst of corrective electricity, and is a very mild side-effect compared to some of the medications regularly used on persons with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorders, and even autism. Congratulations on covering this "torture", ABC, perhaps next you can cover the "torture" of more people who are doing their best in poor circumstances. I also hear there's a war on somewhere, and some sort of judge being approved by someone for something. Can't remember, though, becuase network news fluff pieces seem to have rotted my frontal lobe.
Posted by: wimsey176 Jul-1
My daughter has been a resident student with JRC for over 9 years now. She was born with a genetic disease (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex) which, among other symptoms includes autistism, echolalia, perseveration and mental retardation. She is very combative and quite strong. We tried every kind of behavioral program with her to no effect. The physical pain she inflicted upon herself through the use of a variety of restraint techniques was itself a reward and reinforcement for her behaviors. Now, through JRC's comprehensive program of behavioral contracts, positive reward and reinforcement and aversives, she is able to do things we never thought she would: she is mostly self possessed, eats appropriately with her peers, and completes tasks and chores given her under supervision. Torture? Her atlernative was a drugged mind and a padded cell. That's torture. And as an aside, no ohter program wanted her, or has wanted her, in the past 9 years. That should tell you something about the depth of JRC's compassion for our "forever child." wimsey1 in Attleboro
Posted by: keegan021985 Jul-1
Interesting that ABC did not consult ANY Ph.D's in behavioral science, nor any MDs specializing in working with childredn with such disabilities. On the surface, the uneducated viewer will see this as horrible, yet it appears Dr. Isreal has amassed significant data that demonstrates this is effective. If the UN, or the media, want to harpoon these methods, then please present a consensus of scientific data to support that position. Also, neither of the two 'experts' offered their opinions as to what alternative therapies could be utilized. Great unbiased reporting, ABC.
Posted by: 1facts Jul-1
part 1I have identical twin brothers and a daughter with autism. I am also a practicing psychiatrist who completed a fellowship at the Seaver and New York Autism Center. One of my brothers banged his head into sharp corners requiring surgery. He was in the hospital for five and a half months and despite having a staff member present with him around the clock he continued to need repeated suturing for repeated head banging. This all occurred despite a cocktail of five medications with their adverse effects of obesity, tardive dyskinesia, loss of ability to verbally communicate, drooling and excessive daytime sedation. The board of education told my mother that no educational facility would accept my brother and she was requested to waive his right to an education. Furthermore, the medical insurance was running out and my parents were told they could be held responsible for hospitalization costs. I remember my father wondering if the hospital could take our house. However, through my mother's physician she was informed about the Judge Rotenberg Center. He has been there for nineteen years and doing quite well on no medication. We have taken him on trips to other states. I would also like to state that the reporter who did the story for Mother Jones misidentified herself to me as a reporter for the New York Times. She did not use my interview for her story for which she already knew her conclusion.My other brother was functioning quite well at that time and as an adult had a full time job for three years without any medication and was travel trained. He moved into a New York State OMRDD (Organization of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) funded agency residence while holding this job. He lost his job after a fellow worker teased him and he became agitated. Subsequently, he became obsessed with setting fires and has tried to set a peer and himself on fire.
Posted by: 1facts Jul-1
part2He is a frequent flyer in the hospital and has failed positive behavior supports with functional analysis and at least fifteen medication trials but not without having obesity, tardive dyskinesia, sedation and seizures from them. A few months ago at a family gathering he became agitated, obsessed with material, and he hit my 99 year old grandmother in the face. We cannot get the help he needs thanks to the anti-aversive zealots. He was best friends with his identical twin and they cannot live together due to the same extremists. He is over 21 and therefore has no legal right to an appropriate placement. Eric Schopler, originator of TEACCH states, In What’s Holding Up "Aversives" Report by C. Holden in Science, 1990 Aug 31; 249 (4972):980-1: He calls the critics "self serving ideologues" who drastically oversimplify the issue with emotional arguments and are making a fortune going around doing workshops on how to never use aversives. There are over 112 peer reviewed articles to support the efficacy of skin shock treatment for behaviors. For a discussion of some of these articles, please review Lerman DC, Vorndran CM, On the Status of Knowledge for Using Punishment: Implications for Treating Behavior Disorders, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 2002, 35, 431-464. Furthermore, the research on positive only treatments shows significant limitations, including defining "severe" behaviors such as spitting at a teacher or throwing school work off the desk, (Foxx, RM. "Severe Aggressive and Self-Destructive Behavior: The Myth of the Nonaversive Treatment of Severe Behaviors," in Jacobson, JW, Foxx, RM, Mulick JA. Controversial Therapies for Developmental Disabilities, Lawernce Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2005, pp 295-310), not the behavior my brother had, banging his head into sharp objects requiring surgery.
Posted by: IrenesMom Jul-1
My daughter is in JRC now. Since she was 8 years old she started to be very aggressive, self abusive, dangerous to the other people. All these 6 years we followed "wide variety" of other options coming from doctors. She was heavily medicated: she was drooling, sleepy, none responsive but her aggression and dangerous behavior remained the same. We are working people, so we have private health insurance, which doesn't cover any service she required by her health condition. We pay taxes, and our daughter was not getting any help, except those scary medications. The only advise we have to put her into mental hospital or institution. Shame on you, ABC. You put a dirt on JRC, but didn't mention any other alternative therapies, because you know: there are none and nobody can offer anything!!!Irenesmom.
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For whatever reason, part 3 out of the series of five comments posted by 1facts, starting near the end of the previous page and ending near the beginning of this one, is missing...
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Comments (http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/comments?type=story&id=11047334) for the above article, "UN Calls Shock Treatment at Mass. School 'Torture' (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30738&p=371117#p370895) " (by Katie Hinman and Kimberly Brown; June 30, 2010; Nightline), #s 51-75:
Posted by:1facts Jul-1
part 4In addition many “advocacy” groups that are against aversives have their conferences and socials sponsored by pharmaceuticals. These “advocacy” groups will not tell you that risperdal received FDA approval for autism despite that placebo controlled trials did not differentiate between mild and severe behavior in their outcome measures (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;347:314-21). These “advocacy” groups will also not inform you that in placebo controlled trials of abilify, self-injury in persons with autism did not improve significantly more in abilify treated children than in children in the placebo group (Pediatrics 2009; 124:1533-1540) (Mount Sinai School of Medicine Advances in Autism Conference, Power to Placebo: An Update on Pharmacotherapy in Autism by Dr. Bryan King, 4/11/2010), but the FDA approval was still granted for self-injury in autism. These “advocacy” groups also will not tell you that in more recent studies 50-60% children with autism without clinical seizures have epileptiform discharges on EEGs (Mount Sinai School of Medicine Advances in Autism Conference, The Autisms and the Search for Meaningful Subtypes by Dr. Sarah Spence, 4/11/2010) and that the above medications will increase their risk for seizures. Using aversives decreases and even stops the need for psychotropic medications as it did in my brother. If a pharmaceutical company spoke out against aversives it would appear suspicious and would even be counterproductive so instead they fund “advocacy” groups to do it for them. I have tried the skin shock but I refuse to try risperdal and the like because I know psychotropic drugs could seriously harm or even kill me.
Posted by: IrenesMom Jul-1
One more additional comment about tax payers money. Hey ABC guys, do you know any school which does not use tax payers money?
Posted by: 1facts Jul-1
part 5 Just as there are staff the at the Department of Education who have never met my daughter, read any of her evaluations or visited her school feel they know better than I what is appropriate for her, so too, the above authors who have never met my brothers, read any of their evaluations, or visited their placements feel they know better than I what is appropriate for them!Please do not support stopping this therapy. If this occurs, it will surely be my brother's death sentence.
Posted by: Tiggeriffic62 Jul-1
I can't believe many of you would rather see a child drugged up and locked up in a room or strapped to a bed or chair so that they can be contained. What kind of a life is that for them. I think that that is torture. You are not letting them know what a normal life for them can be. I have work for JRC for 14 years and have seen first hand what many of the student/clients have been like when they came in and what they are like now. They can go out and be for them be a normal part of the community. Rather then being locked away like many instituations will do to them because they can't be bothered with them. If you can handel a bee sting then you could handel what the shock would be like. I my self have recieved an application and the reaction that the news reporter displayed was over played and over reacted.
Posted by: JW0425 Jul-1
I worked at JRC for a little over 5 years, and I can say that the use of skin shock therapy has made a difference in the quality of life and decreased severe self-injurious behaviors in these children and adults. If you look at the studies done, the majority show that the use of skin shock therapy to treat SIB's showed a dramatic decrease in the occurrence of such behaviors, in most cases bringing them down to zero levels. And these are studies not only done by clinicians employed at JRC. Look up the research done on this topic. Also, the gentleman that they interviewed from the U.N. Reporter (spelling) and the reporter from Nightline brought up that these children are restrained and then given the skin shock. That is not true at all. Staff are not allowed to hold the student in any way when giving a skin shock application, so please get your facts straight, especially when bringing them to the president of the United States. The fact is, I no longer work there for my own reasons, but none of them had to do with how the students were treated. Listen to the parents and look at the studies and data available. I can tell you that I have seen some dramatic transformations in these kids/adults, so please look at it without bias, and make your own judgments after acquiring information. That is all I ask.
Posted by: BostonMag Jul-1
For more on JRC, read Boston Magazine's investigation of the school here:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/ ... king_truth (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_shocking_truth)[/list]
Posted by: Ted_Faraone Jul-1
Very few people approach skin shock therapy with an open mind. It is used only when all other approaches have failed and after an adversarial hearing is held in court (in which the subject is present and represented by counsel) to determine if it is appropriate. Thus far it has passed nearly 30 years of legal challenges in the US. There may not be another controversial treatment that has endured as much scrutiny. It does not treat underlying conditions which may cause destructive behavior nor is it intended to do so. It treats only the dangerous behavior by conditioning the person at risk to associate it with discomfort.
Posted by: TheBigWatchDog Jul-1
These are therapeutic treatments that show proven results. The UN should not be involved, these are not war criminals. The UN let all those out of Gitmo. This Country is just nuts anymore. These are special needs kids that are often dangerous to themselves and others if not treated this way. I guess the UN should sanction Lobotomies and lifetime institutionalization after they are rendered non functional.Then what do they do? Then where do they go? This is elective therapy that the families pay for. The other way , becomes a taxpayers problem. Back Off UN you have enough problems with your own job.
Posted by: sumuchmore Jul-1
I think the tone of your reporting about the work done at The Judge Rotenberg Centre was intended to paint a negative image of the Centre. You could have done more homework perhaps. We should be carefull to not confuse what is conventional with what is best. Even though you don't mention it, It is extremely obvious from the video that those children are beautifully well cared for and loved by the personel. Conventional treatment would drug these kids out of their minds. Speaking of the children having no say about the shock treatment, they obviously don't have any say when they are drugged by Doctors who think it is the only way they can help the children and their parents.
Posted by: katemillerss Jul-1
I am disgusted! They just don't want to waste the time with the other effective treatments. I couldn't sleep last night, having these poor kids in my thoughts. I hope that the UN can shut them down! It is cruel and inhumane!
Posted by: kgrosso1 Jul-1
As a parent of a child with autism, I find it DISGUSTING that this school is allowed to do this to our children. I am sure you could modify anyone's behavior by repeatedly shocking them with electricity! There are other HUMANE and EFFECTIVE ways to modify behavior as opposed to SHOCKING children as young as 3 years old with electricity. This school should be shut down!
Posted by: spktruth Jul-1
This is an outrage! My son was at the Center for many years. Prior to enrolling my son would bang his knee against nose breaking it several times. He had pica behavior and would eat his own ####. In his special school, he threw himself threw a plate glass window, cutting himself head to toe. So drugged up like a vegetable. My son is autistic, mute and 6'6. After years of training at the Center my son now resides in a group home with 4 men. He delivers meals on wheels, and other givebacks to society. I would never submit my son to "anyone or anyother facility" to do these procedures. Dr. Israel and his staff are so highly technological, every thing is documented via tv and supervision at the time of the treatment. I never believed my son would live past 25 with all this severe disabilities. We are not talking about a child with mild moderate disability. Most people have never seen these behaviors as they are hidden away from society. To compare the beneficial, theraputic treatment at this Center to Gitmo takes a midget mind to comprehend as this legislator obviously has. We parents worry what happens when there is no JRC for our children. We are talking about a small percentage of people who would need this therapy and its life or death. My son is alive and well, happy because of the treatment he received. Only the most ignorant, uninformed uneducated people could make some of the coments here...you have not walked in our shoes, or our childrens shoes. We are not idiots. WE are highly educated parents not willing to allow our children to be warehoused in the backward of facilities never to be seen or heard from again. My son is happy, I am happy and thank God I found this school when I did.
Posted by: Cheryl C. Parker Jul-1
The "good" doctor makes a leap when he says that the alternative to shock treatment is institutionalization or drugs! There are so many alternatives...why don't we first consider WHY a child behaves in a challenging way? perhaps when we examine WHY, we can address it! People with disabilities are already abused at staggering rates (about 90%) in this country, and then those who are supposed to help are using torture as a method of behavior modification! A century ago people believed that those with disabilities couldn't feel pain, we used to do dental procedures without anesthesia, and thank god we have learned this not to be true! Are we so barabric that we could believe it is OK to shock kids? There are alternatives, I see it work every day! Perhaps we need to look at our culture as well. What does it say when the school can get a court and parents to buy into this? For me it proves that we continue to see people with intellectual disabilities as somehow "less than" the rest of us! Most of us would never let someone shock our typically developed kids, but because these kids have disabilities it's OK? I think not! Next they'll be talking "cure". Hitler had a "cure" for disabilities, euthanasia...that's where this kind of approach and thinking leads, just consider the eugenics movement! We should be ashamed that we allow this to happen in the US!
Posted by: TeamCropDusters Jul-2
Have they heard of positive reinforcement for behavior modification?
Posted by: j3rr Jul-2
As is the case with many who argue against things they don't understand, these criticisms are based on pure ignorance. If you have never seen the heartache of a parent whose child has to be placed in restraints (physical or chemical) because they have found it attention getting, or otherwise rewarding to bite themselves and others incessantly, you have no right to judge these procedures. These are not individuals, in most cases, who are engaging in these behaviors because they are depressed or anxious, or hungry. These individuals suffer from severe neurological impairment that doesn't allow them to process the world as others do. THERE IS NO RATIONAL, EXPLANABLE REASON WHY THEY DO THIS! This is dangerous behavior . Healthy individuals have a sense of self-preservation. These individuals do not. So, if the choices are drugging a child up, letting him bash his head into a concrete wall routinely, or mild shock, those who would not choose the latter are the ones guilty of cruelty. As another commenter said, go visit or volunteer at a center for severely neurologicaly impaired chidren who self-injure, stay for a few days, then render your opinion. Otherwise, mind your own business, and leave these grief-stricken parents and tireless professionals alone!
Posted by: j3rr Jul-2
Re positive reinforcement-I don't think you get it! This is a last resort in virtually all cases. These individuals don't respond to positive reinforcement as effectively as others do. Oh, and you obviously missed the part of the article where they talked about the reward room for patients to receive rewards for positive behaviors.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-2
My name is Brian A and I was a student at JRC from September 1998 to January 2004. Prior to me entering JRC at age 12, I was in and out of several psychiatric hospitals and failed in two alternative educational settings.My behavioral problems really began to escalate when I was 8 or 9 years old. I was on several medications including Tegretol, Haldol, Ritalin, Risperdal, Depekote, Prozac and Paxil. At age 10, my behavior become dangerously out of control. While in school, I would climb on furniture, climb under furniture, mouth off at the teacher, run out of the classroom and would have to be chased down by school staff. I would disrespect authority figures, yell, swear, exhibit inappropriate sexual behaviors in school. I would even try to stab myself with a pencil. I would become physically aggressive with my teachers and would have to be confined in a small padded room. In December of 1996 I was moved from a co-ed class with a 10:2 student/teacher ratio to another elementary school a few towns over and placed in a all male class with a 6:2 student/teacher ratio. That changed delivered little improvement in my behavior and academic progress. At home, I spent most of my time sleeping or being a couch potato, a debilitating side effect of all the medication I was taking. During the time that I was awake, I would disrespect my parents, be aggressive towards my parents and siblings, throw tantrums, destroy property, and would spend hours on end crying. In November of 1996, I spend three weeks in a psychiatric hospital. In February of 1998, and also in May of that year, I spent another three weeks in a psychiatric hospital. After my third hospitalization, my parents and school district finally came to the conclusion that I needed to be placed in a residential school. After visiting numerous schools in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, my parents chose JRC.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-2
(Brian A cont)In September of 1998, I was placed at JRC. Within three months of being at JRC, I was taken off all of my medication. My first few months at JRC were very depressing. For the first month or so of being at JRC, my behavior was much more under control that it had been for a very long time. However, once I became acclimated to the program, my behavior began to deteriorate. I would once again display the same inappropriate behaviors that I did in public school. I would be frequently restrained and placed in a small room. JRC would employ an elaborate scheme of behavior contracts and punishments (not the temporary skin shock). Such contracts included earning a small snack and 10 minutes of free time for going an hour without exhibiting inappropriate behaviors, earning a preferred breakfast for completing my morning routine without incident, being able to order take out for going a full day without displaying inappropriate behavior, being able to attend the weekly BBQ and go on field trips for going a week without displaying inappropriate behavior, and so on. Punishments that JRC would employ involve me spending the day in a small room with a staff person whom I was forbidden from socializing with, going to bed at 7pm, having to do schoolwork or chores on the weekend without being able to socialize with my housemates. Other punishments included being deprived of foods that were rewards. For example, if everyone else were having pizza, I would be served peanut butter and jelly. I would also be put through a ball task, which involved me needing to place 250 foam balls, one at a time, into a trash can while wearing mitts, a task that is very unpleasant. Although I would have occasional bouts of progress (staying on contract for two months at one point), I made no sustainable progress in 1998 through most of 1999.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-2
(Brian A Part 3)In the fall of 1999, JRC and my parents had decided that it was time to give the GED a try. I reluctantly agreed to the GED and decided not to fight JRC's attempt to place me on the device. I figured that although unpleasant, the GED would deter me from displaying behaviors that would result in me being restrained and losing out on the rewards that came with the program. In December of 1999, I was placed on the GED. For the first month or so that I was on the GED, I displayed few inappropriate behaviors, however, once I became acclimated to the fact that I was on the device and was aware of what the GED felt like, I would start displaying lots of more minor behaviors that were not treated with the GED. Once on the GED, instances of me acting out became fewer and more far in between. Although when my contract was broken, I would display lots of inappropriate behaviors, but I would be selective as to not exhibit GED behaviors, although I would occasionally slip up and receive a GED application. By the spring of 2001, it had been several months since my previous major behavioral incident. JRC then began to rapidly fade me off the GED (although the fading process started nearly a year prior, bouts of behavioral episodes impeded the fading process). In July of 2001, I was completely faded from the GED and was moved into a less restrictive residence (apartment), with a student/staff ratio of 4:1. In the apartment, I enjoyed many privileges, such as grocery shopping, going on weekly field trips to the movies, to the arcade, YMCA, local parks etc. I even attended a few sporting events, including the Providence Bruins, Harlem Globetrotters, and even a Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park. I was also given independence to move about the residence and school unsupervised. All of these were privileges I could not even dream of prior to being placed on the GED.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-2
(Brian A Part 4)From September 2001-September 2002, I would have a few bouts of behavioral incidents and was placed on and off the GED. However, in October of 2002, I was faded from the GED for good. In the fall of 2002, I attended a culinary class at Blue Hills Technical school, and in November I worked in the computer department as an in school job. Also, I began preparing for the New York Regents exams, and in 2003 I began taking the Regents exams. In the fall of 2003, it became clear to JRC, my parents, and school district that I had accomplished all I could while at JRC and in January 2004 I was transitioned back to public school in New York and mainstreamed. I moved to Florida in August of 2004 and graduated from high school with honors in May 2005. Since then, I took and passed a couple of college courses and had a few jobs, including a seasonal position working for a bank as a data capture specialist, a job that I obtained because of my quick typing skills that I acquired while at JRC. Currently (as of March 2010) I am employed at a call center working as an IT assistant and data entry clerk. I’m very active with my church and currently head up some of the functions within the church. Although I have lived independently since leaving JRC, I currently live with my parents, which I don’t mind all that much because that makes it much easier financially on both them and I.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-2
(Brian A Part 5)About the GED, it saved my life. There are lots of opponents to this controversial, yet potentially life-saving treatment, and understandably so. For someone who has never had the kind of problems I had nor has dealt with anyone who has my kind of problems, when hearing about the GED for the first time, it is only natural to cry torture. However, in reality, being on the GED is a much nicer alternative than being warehoused in a hospital, incarcerated, or being doped up on psychotropic drugs to the point of oblivion. A brief 2-second shock to the surface of the skin sure beats out spending my days restrained and drugged up on drugs and not making any academic progress. I did not like being on the GED when I felt like acting up because it prevented me from being able to do so. But in the end, I'm thankful for the GED because of the enormous progress I made with it and have continued to make once I no longer needed it. Some people may wind up spending the majority of their life at JRC while being able to enjoy the benefits and privileges the program has while others, like myself, are able to go on to live an independent life. The bottom line is, if those who opposed the GED had their way, I would currently be locked up and heavily medicate at a hospital or in jail or possibly even dead. So for those who have set out to ban the GED please don't.
Posted by: linda1954doherty Jul-2
I am the parent that was seen on the program. It is so much more then what was shown on the program. Our children are torturing themselves. This treatment is stopping them. My son's arms where nothing but open sores oozing #### from his continual biting. He had been on so many anti-biotic that he was starting to build up tolerances to the anti-biotic that was fighting the infections from biting. For ten years he had a one on one aide 24/7, and he still bite himself. If he builds up tolerance to enough anti-biotic and there is nothing to fight infection he would either become septic and die, or his arms would become gangerous and have to be amputed. Because of the 2 second skin shock he no longer bites himself. Legal prescribed medications put my son into a coma for 8 days. He now is medication free and has a higher quality of life then he has had in decades.Linda Doherty
Posted by: dragonflyface Jul-2
I have a child with "mild" autism who engages in self injurious behaviors. There have been times when I have thought that I would love to have some kind of little button to push and give a small shock to make him "snap out of it". And his is only "mild"! I can't imagine how hard it is to have a child who is on the "lower" end of the spectrum. You people who express your horror and advice need to realize that all the other methods; reward/punishments,etc... have been tried and failed at the point where the shock treatments are begun. We have tried everything, and for some, nothing else works. How is this any more abusive or torturous than spanking type punishments? Where is the outrage for that? It doesn't shock them to the point where they are writhing on the floor, it's a small superficial shock. If you had to watch your child hurt themselves over and over, you would be willing to try nearly anything. Stop being so judgemental!
Posted by: MLR30 Jul-2
Opponents of this school are exactly the people who have 1) No formal education in behavioral science and research and 2) No real life experience dealing with the severity of these disorders. Shame on them for not opening a book and doing some reading. We live in a country where guess what... you can read a book for free! I am sure you have a local library near by or better yet, do some research online. If you can open your mouth and comment about the subject, hopefully you can sit down and read about it as well. People need to stop expressing from their hears, and start reading what is fact.Congrats to the school for such a phenomenal scientific breakthrough and offering a hopeful alternative to an almost hopeless situation.
Posted by: HealingHandsASL Jul-2
When we try to train people in ways that we would not even train a dog....Since the previous writer to is clearly not aware of the research conducted on people shocking people "Obedience to Authority", and the "Prisoner and Guard" research study done in the 1960's at Stanford... No research has ever been done on shocking PEOPLE for years and years. The school is on shaky grounds and, I, as someone who has been in facilities would never trust anyone to have such awesome power - to deliver pain.Thank you for showing the world what we in Massachusetts have been fighting for years.Yes, you can make someone do almost anything of you hurt them enough. IS this an awesome scientific breakthrough? No. Is it hopeful? No. They offer no long term alternative to a life that must be a horror to live through. Please continue to make the case to free these 'Prisoners of Pain".
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Comments (http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/comments?type=story&id=11047334) for the above article, "UN Calls Shock Treatment at Mass. School 'Torture' (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30738&p=370909#p370895) " (by Katie Hinman and Kimberly Brown; June 30, 2010; Nightline), #s 76-87:
Posted by: Alyson Bradley AsPlanet Jul-3
This sort of thing really upsets me, being neurologically quite different myself, the bullying and discrimination bad enough growing up for me, but this sort of treatment unbelievable, horrendous and I feel many have know about this for years and I feel this is just a start, their are many other places, individuals who treat some like animals... I so wished we could turn the tables and they could live the rest of their lives the way they have treated others... (asplanet.info)
Posted by: sal11209 Jul-4
As an academic in the field of behavior modification, this school's methodologies have been challenged and upheld numerous times. The safety net to protect those with disability is that both the parent and the court have to agree that this is the best course of action to help identify, isolate, and reinforce replacement behaviors from the self-injurious ones being observed. To call the 2 - second shock a form a torture is equivalent to calling the packing of an infant in ice with a severe fever as waterboarding. There are safety and medical personnel on staff to observe any risk of medical injuries for those wearing the sensors. Skinner's work at Harvard had and has been widely accepted in supporting those individuals with a wide range of neurological and cognitive impairments. Please research the topic before jumping on the proverbial bandwagon of a sensationalized story.
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
The JRC is violating human, civil and legal rights and we all know it. Many who are silent on this are the same folks who cry out against the torture of animals and terrorists. What about these students?
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
Matthew Israel says that it is either this electric shock or being drugged up to the gills, sleeping all day, in prison, or institutions the rest of the people's lives. How dishonest! A professional doctor should know better and I submit this is in violation of certain ethics to even make such a ridiculous claim. There are numerous problems I see with the JRC. First and foremost is the FACT that the students' civil rights, human rights and some legal rights are being violated by Israel and his staff.Furthermore, talking about BF Skinner and the fact Israel studied at the same place and the same time as Skinner, does not mean Skinner would approve of what is being done. Skinner likely would have found a valid, progressive, humane, and effective way to help people. Israel is using archaic measures to say the least.Parents, what about positive behavior therapies, OT, DT, LT, MT, SLP, AT, PT...? I know these therapies are a lot of effort, costly, and one has to put forth great efforts, but the alternative CANNOT be to electrocute your children. If parents were to be using these "treatments" at home, they would be arrested and lose their children to government agencies. Why is this acceptable to anyone? In the year 2010, we still see huge abuses and discrimination against people with disabilities and I will do everything I can to ensure it stops. DOWN with the JRC NOW!
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
Sal11209- I would ask the obvious question: have you had the minor 2-second shock administered to your body? Several times per day for years? Even if it were accurate to state that academically speaking this 'treatment' has held up against all arguments, what about the fact that this same 2-second (allegedly) shock would be subject to desensitization? Are they combating that possibility with upping the voltage? What are they doing? More of the shocks? Longer durations? It is painful and even Israel admits this. Professionals are on hand? What qualifies them as professionals? A GED and some 'training' on how to administer the shock and spy on the students 24-7 via monitors? What makes this appropriate to an academic, a parent, a professional or a human with a heart and mind? Sal, you believe this is fine because of what you have read, perhaps. However, are you considering the pain these people feel? The rights that are being violated?Do you believe that disabled people have no rights? The parents and a court allegedly have to approve of a student's placement and subjection to the shocks. Does a Judge and a parent understand exactly what will be happening to the students? I submit that from here onward the parents and the Judges must first go through a day of shocked each time they do something considered to be inappropriate. I also submit that a parent is not a therapist or doctor and cannot make the call as to whether this electric shock 'therapy' is valid or acceptable. Nor can a Judge unless he or she is also a therapist or doctor expert in these disabilities. The alternatives to the inhumane shocks include but are not limited to: OT, PT, DT, positive BT, SLP, MT, LT and AT.I believe anyone who suggests these are 'fine' need to realize you are only one car accident, fall, or stroke aweay from being 'disabled' yourselves. You can find yourselves as vulnerable to the abuses any day. So why accept it is ok for 'others'?
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
I cannot believe what I am reading! A) The UN does have a right to be involved. If you do not like that, maybe you should have (years and years ago) fought it out with our nation's leaders when we decided to be a part of the United Nations.B) The shocks are inhumane. The alternative is not "lobotomies" or more archaic mentions that you stated. The alternatives are EFFORTS put forth by parents and therapists and educators. C) You cannot say 'all other approaches failed" when you never tried even half of them. 21 days is the length of time something should be tried before seeing any effects. You tried each other alternative for at least 21-30 days first? On kids as young as 3 years old? No you did not. D) I cannot believe the alleged posters here (I suspect they are all one in the same pretending to defend the horrors and I hope I am right) are saying we are "nuts" for calling this abuse out.E) In the year 2010 this should not be acceptable anywhere in the worldF) I you think the torture of humans based on their disability is "fine" then you relinquish your right to ever complain about the torture and abuse of terrorists, animals, prisoners, or yourself. If it is ok for the "others" it is ok for anyone. Even yourself. And yes, as a parent, professional lay advocate, mediator, well-researched academic, pre-law student, among other things, I have every right to speak out, stand up and take action against places like this. I have seen severe disabilities and manifestations. Torture is not acceptable. Humans are to be the highest form of all animals. Can we please behave accordingly?
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
Israel is preying on desperate parents and leading them to think that without his torture methods, their kids will die or be lost causes in society.How many folks graduate from JRC?Are we mentioning the fact that MANY of the residents, students there are kids in foster care or kids who have no one, often from other states? They are used like property to feed and enrich the abusers.Whoever has no problem with that can enroll as students before commenting again.
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
To the person posting under the name 'Matthew L Israel", please quit using the argument that all the students who are being shocked would otherwise be violent killers or committing suicide. Most of us know better. I would love to talk to any parents who really and truly think this is their only option.
Posted by: EmilyMalabey Jul-4
To Linda Doherty, I am very sorry you have been led to believe this is the only answer for your loved one. However, it should never be an option for anyone. I am sure you would feel that way if it were your body being shocked several times a day for years. Finding out what the behavior's source is and then finding ways to help is more work for parents and therapists, but it works and it is necessary. Shocks are not an option and if you did this in your own home, you'd be arrested for child abuse.
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-5
Too all of those who are speaking in favor of JRC I commend you for doing so. To those of you who are speaking out against this treatment, is your opinion based on your experience in dealing with loved ones who bang their heads to the point of brain damage, bite off pieces of their tongue, or pull out clumps of their own hair? Or is it based on what you believe is best for individuals who are not in your care and whom you have no experience in dealing with? No parent consents to this treatment until after they've spent years trying everything in the book to stop their children from exhibiting these kind of dangerous behaviors. Some claim that there are options other then skin shock or heavy medication, and for 99.99999999 percent of the population there is. But for the minuscule population that this treatment is designed for there is no option C, D, E, etc. The only effective options are either A) skin shock or B) having medication. And for some of them B doesn't even work.
Posted by: debhemgesberg Jul-6
Gentle Teaching is a humane way to support people with disabilties to live meaningful lives, even with "severe maladpative behaviors". I personally would rather take medication, even if I was zombie like and drooled, than to be shocked repeatedly for behavior I had little or no control over. How safe do these kids feel? 2 seconds of being shocked at a time, surely feels like a long time to me; and I have a secure understanding of time. What about the long term abuse and trauma from the "therapy" have we considered how that affects thes people? This is TORTURE. If applied to another population it would be seen as such. Shame on the officials who have endorsed these inhumane practises would you endorse this for one of your loved ones?
Posted by: former jrc student Jul-6
If I had a loved one who was banging their head to the point of brain damage, biting off a piece of their tongue, or ripping hair from their scalp and nothing I've tried has worked then yes I would place them on this treatment. When it comes to this treatment I can speak from a prospective that many of you can't. I've experienced the shock as well as being doped up on drugs and as insane as it sounds I much preferred the shock. With the medication I spent much of my time sleeping or being a couch potato while I spent much of my awaken hours hurting myself or others while making no academic progress. With the shocks I was able to enjoy time with my family, go to the movies, etc. But more importantly it allowed me to focus on my academics like never before. As mentioned in my previous post it allowed me to eventually graduate from high school. While I was on the shocks it was never used to treat behaviors that I had little to no control over and in the 5 1/2 years I attended JRC I have never witnessed it being used on any of my peers for behaviors in which they had little to no control over. I respectfully ask that those of you who have no experience in dealing with individuals who have these kind of problems that you please stop pretending that you know everything about something you know little about. And I respectfully ask that you stop telling these parents who are faced with such a difficult decision that they're wrong by you pretending that you know what's best for their children.
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See also this thread:
Torture Against Children and Adults with Disabilities
It was really a terrible incident. They dignify that using electric shock is a treatment not a torture. Organization or people behind this scene should go into jail because they violated the law.