Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) has filed a report and urgent appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture alleging that the Judge Rotenberg Center for the disabled, located in Massachusetts, violates the UN Convention against Torture.
The rights group submitted their report this week, titled "Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center," after an in-depth investigation revealed use of restraint boards, isolation, food deprivation and electric shocks in efforts to control the behaviors of its disabled and emotionally troubled students.
Findings in the MDRI report include the center's practice of subjecting children to electric shocks on the legs, arms, soles of feet and torso -- in many cases for years -- as well as some for more than a decade. Electronic shocks are administered by remote-controlled packs attached to a child's back called a Graduated Electronic Decelerators (GEI).
The disabilities group notes that stun guns typically deliver three to four milliamps per shock. GEI packs, meanwhile, shock students with 45 milliamps -- more than ten times the amperage of a typical stun gun.
A former employee of the center told an investigator, "When you start working there, they show you this video which says the shock is 'like a bee sting' and that it does not really hurt the kids. One kid, you could smell the flesh burning, he had so many shocks. These kids are under constant fear, 24/7. They sleep with them on, eat with them on. It made me sick and I could not sleep. I prayed to God someone would help these kids."
I almost don't know where to start in expressing my outrage and disbelief that this is happening to disabled children in the United States of America. I am not typically made physically ill by the horrible things I read about or see on television but this one was the exception.
I have worked much of my life with children, including children and teens with behavioral difficulties, and I have NEVER seen such a barbaric approach used before.
Though I share JRC's dislike for the overuse of medications to treat children with severe emotional problems I certainly would never advocate replacing them with 45 milliamps of electricity! This is how abusive pet owners keep their dog from peeing on the floor! NOT how so-called "educators" teach children to overcome their disabilities and learn to trust adults and respect appropriate boundaries!
Dealing with children who have severe disabilities and behavioral problems is extremely difficult and emotionally exhausting, but this kind of punitive shortcut is certainly NOT the way to speed up the process or make the children more manageable. I cannot imagine how satisfying it must feel to a staff member who has just been kicked or pinched by a difficult student to "teach them a lesson" by shocking them into submission, or how often that kind of power must get abused.
This school needs to be shut down immediately, and the people who participated in this conduct need to be kept away form children for the rest of their life. If a person who sexually abuses a child is restricted from having contact with them ever again, I cannot imagine the penalty for what these people have done should be any less severe.
And not that I want to connect every topic back to Sarah Palin, but as we all know she has crowned herself as some sort of advocate for children with special needs.
Well Ms. Palin you have the power to bring an incredible amount of attention to this horrible situation. I dare say you could probably get the facility shut down or, at the very least, have its policies completely revamped. If I had your kind of name recognition I certainly would not hesitate to use it to bring justice to the children abused by this facility..
So in the name of the special needs child who has served you so well in your desire to make money, Trig Paxson Van Palin, will you not take a stand for these children, and do everything in your power to protect them from this kind of abuse in the future?
That is of course, unless on the issue of protecting children with special needs, it turns out that you are once again a hypocrite?
We heard that. Will Sarah?
ReplyDeleteI thought the name was Trig Paxson Van Palin, not "Trip Von Paxson Palin" -- or are you trying to tell us something?
ReplyDelete... and also, too, I totally agree that this despicable and inhumane treatment needs to be stopped immediately, and all of the people who participated in this torture need to be punished.
ReplyDeleteNo gina, just a typo. I fixed it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis is atrocious. I can't believe this is happening! ... Close these doors immediately!!!! Send everyone responsible to prison. Absolutely horrendous.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the lawsuit against the state and then governor Palin over the drugging of innocent children in state care? Is the Trigg that had Down Syndrome in an institution now? I know they claim he is in Anchorage where no one can see him. Where actually is he? It must be hard to keep him hidden. We do know Sarah, it looks like Bristol now, abandoned the poor child.
ReplyDeleteTroopers mum on remains Monday, May 3, 2010 11:43 PM AKDT
MAT-SU — Officials are still trying to identify human remains found in the woods in Houston.
Alaska State Troopers tracked down the body after a neighborhood dog brought a skull home on Friday. The body appeared to have been there awhile, troopers said Saturday, but they didn’t say much else.
That silence continued Monday.
This is something name recognition persons like the Palins could take on and bring on good for special needs. The Kennedy family is not without flaws, but they did do lasting and good things for children. Not just blowing smoke. It is a waste for Bristol to keep doing her part to bring more babies into the world that need to be adopted and the special ones could end up in institutionalized.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin's children are All well behaved in front of the cameras. She could start with teaching others how she does it when she has so much on her plate.
From the "Optional intensive treatment if rewards alone are insufficiently effective" link on their website. It appears after a cursory look that the parents were testifying to a committee at the State House that was considering whether or not to ban the shock treatments at some point. I don't have more time right now.
ReplyDeleteParents testimony (videos)
1. JRC Parent Mesa: I have a daughter who has a life now!
2. JRC Parent Biscardi: It does work! It stops him from being in a padded cell, on drugs.
3. JRC Parent Emmick: My daughter is thankful for her skin shock treatment
4. Sister of JRC student (Smith): Ban on aversives is death sentence for my brother.
5. JRC Parents Mesa, Biscardi, Emmik, & Smith answer questions (Part 1)
6. JRC Parents Mesa, Biscardi, Emmik, & Smith answer questions (Part 2)
7. JRC Parent Goldberg (1): “is it more humane to drug my son until he can barely stay awake…?”
8. JRC Parent Coughman: I don’t know what I would do if I never got him there!
9. JRC parent Alleyne: “They refuse nobody.. I cannot deserve better.”
10. JRC Parent George: My son is no longer in diapers or on medication…and he can work on the computer.
11. JRC Parent James: "I was screaming at a door where no one heard my cry!"
12. JRC Parent Bryant: My son asked to go on skin shock treatment.
13. JRC Parent Harrison: My son has been [psychotropic] drug free for 9 year and he’s improving.”
14. JRC Parent Slaff: “JRC did save my son’s life. That’s the best I can tell you!”
15. JRC Parent M. Perazzo: Certain extreme behaviors need extreme treatment.
16. JRC Parent A. Perazzo: We can visit any time we want. That makes us feel good when we leave our loved ones at JRC.
17. JRC Aunt Presley: Finally he is starting to make improvements. Please don’t take away our right to choose.
18. JRC Parent Famolare: “Everything else had failed. JRC was a well kept secret.”
19. JRC Parent Rodriguez: “If I didn’t take my son off the streets he would have been killed. I can see that he is improved.”
20. JRC Parent Doherty: In 6 mos. he was on no meds, no longer biting himself, a human being
21. JRC Grandmother Byron: Grandson doing beautifully on positive programming.
It looks like the only thing missing is an endorsement from James Dobson.
Oh my God. This is what happened to mentally ill people under Ceauşescu in Romania. I am physically sick. I am going to contact John Kerry's website. Ted Kennedy must be turning in his grave.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important for anyone reading and reacting to this post to at least read the Center's reply to the accusations.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.judgerc.org/EmailToMinton.pdf
I am a regular reader of IM and have no connection to the Center, but I at least read their side of it, where they show proof of MDRI's distortions. Whenever we have any kind of serious issue like this brought up, I think it is best to know the whole story.
That doesn't mean I'd approve of these methods. But it sounds like they treat the severest of the severe cases of patients who do great harm to themselves through self-mutilation and uncontrollable behavior. A world most of us don't have a clue about, but it does exist. I am related to people who have to deal with these issues through their work in education and child services.
I don't think Palin could contribute one helpful thing to this situation.
Just saying.
Well now you have the old gal by the ###, see if she did anything she would be acknowledging that she reads this blog...if she doesn't do anything she is showing her true self. GOOD JOB
ReplyDeleteWOW! When I started to read your story, I thought you must have been mistaken, that this institution was not in the US, but in the former USSR, where they did use this type of treatment all the time.
ReplyDeleteShaking my head in total disbelieve and in absolute horror, that this actually is happening TODAY, in OUR COUNTRY, the USA!
I don't know what will happen. I mean, you read all those positive answers that Hoken posted from parents.
Who wants to bet that NOTHING will happen - or that they will close this facility, just to open it under some religious name/pretext - and nobody will be the wiser or will protest any more.
Scarah probably agrees with this type of criminal behavior. Remember her words - "Obey!"
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of abusive treatment by Dominionist parents beating their children into submission starting as tiny babies. They have parenting books about it. down to describing the instruments used to beat them - age appropriate torture. Leah's posted about it. They should all be rounded up and tossed in exactly this type of institution for life.
I think Sarah Palin should at least make a public statement condemning this situation after research confirms it is indeed not acceptable medical practice. (As if she researches anything.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is time for her to Put Up or Shut Up on this and the oil spill.
If she continues to downplay the oil, spill, she is simply proving her inability to understand issues.
I spent over 25 years of my life teaching children that were multi-disabled. Many of these (most) also had severe behavior problems. It sickens me that a school still exists ANY WHERE, that endorses this type of "instruction". This isn't the 1950's...we are so much better than this. I really doubt we will here anything from la Palin. Anything coming out of her mouth will just make things worse.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't know that it will do any good, but I did contact Kerry's office.
ReplyDeleteI can think of a few people who need some fixin' and reformin' at this school.
ReplyDeleteRe: parents' testimonials. Where are the childrens' testimonials? Parents do not have the right to sign away those of their children. I do believe that has already been litigated.
ReplyDeleteAs a rehab counselor, and a sociologist who has studied groupthink and the Milgram Experiment (subjects were asked to do something that went against deeply felt moral beliefs, in that case, applying electric shocks because the authority figure demanded it of them, even though they knew they were causing pain)showing that video to new employees and telling them it was like a bee sting was critical to the success of that procedure (and training the parents). Sad.
I know nothing of this school/institution, but I can't even imagine using their methods on any child, but I don't have a disabled child.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do know one thing and that is 'please don't hold your breath waiting on Scarah to be an advocate in assisting children with disabilities. She does not want to be bothered because she MUST make more money and no matter how much she makes for her repeated idiocy they deem as 'speech', it will NEVER be enough for her. She doesn't have time to help anyone but herself. She will ONLY advocate for herself.
Sorry but i thought this was the George Bush school of law?
ReplyDeleteThanks for noticing this issue Gryphen. For many years members of the autistic community all over the world have been trying to get this stopped. Aspies For Freedom has been campaigning against JRC as long as they have existed. It has been well know to the authorities in this country that this has gone on for a long time. They have done nothing. One of the problems is many parents are not happy they did not get a "normal" child and are willing to have their child tortured to get them to behave more "normal". People with mental illness or developmental disabilities are also tortured in the prison systems in this country in various ways. The people administering the shocks are usually just high school graduates. JRC has been using PR techniques to make their treatment sound like they are giving people with no hope a life and they get the parents to give heartwrenching testimony about how they saved their child's life. They have a more manageable child because they are terrified to do anything.
ReplyDeletehttp://motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/school-shock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9-xXfgQiTU
I'm reminded of that one mom who wrote, so poignantly, a post on Mudflats back when McCain was still running for President in '08. She was remarking on WonderWomb's blase attitude about running for VP of the entire country with 4 children plus a DS baby. She'd had a DS child herself and said the effort it took to raise him and fight the system every step of the way for help with his care totally consumed her last 21 years. She ended by saying that every woman must have a choice in the matter, and if she'd had it to do over, she would not have taken her pregnancy to term.
ReplyDeleteThis Judge Rotenberg Center for the disabled sounds like a place where parents can put children 'out of sight and out of mind' because they cannot or will not take on the responsibility for raising them themselves. I'm quite sure that for many parents this place is a 'godsend' and a great relief. But is this really better than terminating a pregnancy when you KNOW your child will be disabled? These children already exist in an endless living hell that is just exacerbated by torturous treatment.
Is $P wrong and G-d does sometimes give people life situations they are not equipped to handle?
Someone said that until someone has lived with a severely disabled child, they do not know what it is like. Okay. However, there are standards of practice (and electric shock is NOT one of them) on how to work with these children. This country does a poor job of caring for the disabled, but with passage of the ADA and other legislation (another reason to keep Republicans out of power after Bush's damage to those laws), advocacy such as Gryphen's to open our eyes, there is help and support available to parents. Enough? No. But likely more than most people are aware is out there.
ReplyDeleteI have to object to the comment that "These children already exist in an endless living hell..." They do not. Although trained to work with persons with disabilities in general and having worked primarily with substance abuse and mental health clients, I do have experience working in a residential facility as a teacher and working with persons with a variety of physical and developmental disabilities. Even those in which my task was helping them through the acquisition of a disability, rarely would I characterize someone with a disability as living in hell. We as humans are remarkably strong, resilient, and capable of adapting. It is usually those around the individual who have a limited perspective of what a good life should be who create the living hell.