The Boston-area special needs school Judge Rotenberg Center enrolls students ages 3 to adult, all of whom are either autistic kids or are struggling with severe emotional, behavioral or psychiatric disorders. Those students who display undesirable behavior are subjected to a treatment which the United Nations is calling “torture.” Judge Rotenberg students are all subject to shock treatment.
Article source: Autistic kids subjected to shock treatment at Mass. School by Personal Money Store
’Aversive therapy’ for autistic children not torture, as outlined by JRC
Calling the JRC’s treatment of autistic kids in extreme situations torture is just like calling a physician using a scalpel on a patient assault with a deadly weapon, claim JRC representatives. They claim that shock treatment in short bursts is humane when in contrast to the alternatives of either allowing emotionally disturbed or even autistic kids to cause themselves or others physical harm or otherwise medicating them into a lobotomized state. Head JRC doctor Matthew Israel told ABC that the real torture for autistic kids and others is the latter. He stated that JRC’s shock treatment “has no detrimental effects whatsoever.”
Just a two second skin shock
The Judge Rotenberg Center uses a small device that administers a shock when necessary as a form of behavioral therapy, as outlined by Israel. Students are only subjected to the device after a court and (within the case of autistic kids) parents or caregivers have to approve. Allegedly, the short shock hurts just enough to dissuade JRC students from destructive behavior. After periods of good behavior, students are rewarded with points. In total, the Judge Rotenberg Center houses such students for $200,000 per year, taxpayer financed.
UN and advocates for disabled condemn this special treatment
Eric Rosenthal, an advocate for the disabled, created a report that prompted the United Nations to become involved within the JRC’s activities. Massachusetts Sen. Brian Joyce has tried to shut down the Judge Rotenberg Center but was unsuccessful. The United Nations reference America’s international treaty stance on torture when talking about the JRC’s shock treatment of autistic children and other students. The argument is apparently that if the United States shouldn’t be administering shock treatment to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, how can any home soil organization be allowed do it to children?
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ABC News
abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334
Surgeon Sherwin Nuland discusses the development of electroshock therapy (Editor’s Note: A small amount of NSFW language is used):
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