Tell NY Governor Cuomo to CLOSE Barbaric Rotenberg Electric Shock Center

Managing Editor's Note:  By now you are likely familiar with the Abu School known as The Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts.  Named for Judge Ernie Rotenberg (who used to play golf at my Dad's club when I was a kid and was suspected of using a foot wedge a la Judge Smails, I'm told) this school employs aversive conditioning - which means they use pain to stop behavior.  It is the placement of last resort for families of children with severe, even dangerous behaviors.  There is a petition on Change.org - we encourage you to leave a comment expressing your disgust that American children are treated worse than animals and terrorists. The verbiage from the petition is below. Click here to sign. Thank you.

Last month, in a trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center, lawyers for Andre McCollins played graphic video of his torture by contingent electric shock for seven hours in the name of treatment. Andre is from New York, as are the majority of the Judge Rotenberg Center’s residents (as many as 60%), where their tuition (over $250,000 per year per student) is largely paid by public funding from the state or school district.

New York Senator Martin Golden and Assemblywoman Joan Millman have filed legislation (S6294A-2011 and A9084A-2011) that would revise the social services law to prohibit any form of public funding to any school or program that uses aversive interventions, specifically naming contingent electric shock.

In the past, New York banned the use of contingent electric shock on any student from New York, but there is still a large student population at the JRC from New York supported by public funding.

If these two bills pass, this piece of legislation could potentially result in the permanent closure of the JRC. The majority of the JRC’s revenue comes directly from New York, and if New York permanently cuts funding to any facility, school, or program that uses aversives such as electric shock, which is explicitly named in the legislation.

We urge you, the New York Legislature, and the Governor of New York, to stand up for the rights of people with disabilities and end all funding for the JRC or any other facility that uses aversives. The JRC has come under repeated criticism from professionals in the field of developmental and intellectual disabilities, disability rights advocates including disabled people, and the families of people with disabilities. Yet the Massachusetts legislature has repeatedly failed to pass legislation banning the use of electric shocks.

Now you have the power to potentially close the JRC for good by eliminating the JRC’s primary source of funding. Students from New York may no longer be receiving electric shocks, but New York taxpayer dollars are supporting the JRC at over $250,000 each year for each student from New York, and that money goes directly to supporting the JRC’s use of contingent electric shock.

Stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to support torture, and vote for S6294A-2011 and A9084A-2011!

Comments

[Robert M. Howley]

I like the comment about prisons. This is horrible stuff. N matter how bad their behavior this is not what a humane society does. We got in trouble for water boarding people who plot to kill us? This sounds like a North Viet Nam POW camp.

[Jenifer Parker]

where is the ACLU for these American's rights?

[oneVoice]

Yvette,
Just because other people or even the parents gave up on these very sick autistic children - They still have to be treated humanly and with the greatest care and respect.
Where is the social worker,the nurse,the support person,
where is the continuity of care for these children???
Where is
is the doctor who assessed these children and where is the care plan to support these children??? I do not see care,I only saw a helpless disabled child screaming for help,I saw abuse, I saw torture.This is not a good care,trust me I am
a health professional. JRC needs to be investigated!!!

[aeylias]

I agree!

[AutismGrandma]

I saw a program on TV where the attorney for JRC was attempting to counter-spin the statements made by a previous employee, who finally quit his job there due to the continual shocks being given these children for the slightest infractions, such as getting out of their seat, tearing up a paper water cup, etc. He was even instructed to shock one boy who kept approaching him for a hug. The people in charge of this institution are the ones who are really SICK and "capable of DANGEROUS BEHAVIORS" while they claim they are doing this "for the benefit of the inmates" (ooops I mean "patients")

This was a brave young man to come forward and tell his story for the sake of these helpless children imprisoned in this dungeon of torture. When is someone going to come forward from the government agencies to blow the whistle on what is really going on with the vaccines?

[John Stone]

Yvette

The first comment said it was mindless evil. You are dealing with neurologically impaired children who will likely have a host of other medical problems and you want to torture them to make them better. Even if in some way there was some external improvement to their behaviour this would still be wicked in the extreme.

I have recently been looking at two nice suited gentleman who also think that it is alright to lock up autistic chldren in wooden boxes for hours at a time. I just don't know how anyone thinks this stuff is OK.

[Teresa Conrick]

Yvette-

"Remember, they are the people who are sent the cases of autism that everyone else gave up on! Clearly, some people have no clue how difficult some cases of autism are and how desperate parents become."

Are you joking or do you work for them? I have no patience or tolerance to excuse the fact that shock treatment is nothing else but a punishment. These children are so ill that they are hurting themselves and lashing out at others. To shock them to stop is like putting a knife under a woman in labor. It distracts them BUT does nothing for their intense and chronic medical issues. It makes them live in FEAR and submission to a sadistic environment.

If anyone cared, they would look into WHY these children are so "difficult." It is not hard to run labs and do medical interventions that address the REAL reason for them being "difficult." Inflammation, infections and immune dysfunction can create PAIN. How many of these children are on Risperdal? Please read what it can do - http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/05/risperdal-and-s100b-prolactin-tumors-and-tardive-dyskinesia.html

There are other ways to prevent children and adults from harming themselves or others --safely! Here's a training session in NY soon - http://www.crisisprevention.com/Training-and-Events/Nonviolent-Crisis-Intervention-Training-Prog-%28124%29

Why not have this be the policy?

[Yvette]

Agree with first comment. Don't be so quick to judge this center. Remember, they are the people who are sent the cases of autism that everyone else gave up on! Clearly, some people have no clue how difficult some cases of autism are and how desperate parents become. After years of failed interventions and seeing their autistic children suffer in schools, they are drawn to a program that will take their child's case when everyone else gave up on them. So even if you disagree with the program you must ask yourselves, what led to the autistic person ending up there in the first place? It was because everyone else, including those who oppose this program, didn't help.

[Close it]

It still exists because many people with autism do not have access to biomed. Psychotropic drugs are making these people more violent, more self-abusive, and all-around worse. Closing it down won't solve the underlying problem (although I'm certainly in favor of closing it, of course.) We need to keep fighting for biomedical treatments to be accepted by mainstream med.

[Karen Wood Fuller]

This would never be allowed in a Jail. Where are all the civil rights attorney's?

[wewillwin]

Just sick. We should all be up there storming the place--can't believe it still exists.

[Jan]

I remember almost 20 years ago when I was calling the state legislature and writing letters to the editor of the local newspapers asking how this could be happening in a civilized society to our most vulnerable citizens. it is truly frightening that we still can't get this torture chamber closed!

[jan houston]

Went with my middle son on a field trip yesterday, to Medieval Times. We walked through the dungeon, where all the old instruments of torture were on display. The only difference between then and now is the methods. Society is not civilized. we just put a different spin on the torture.
We still attack those who cannot defend themselves. In the middle ages it was women and the very poor. Today, those in our society who cannot defend themselves: men, women, and children who have disabilities.

[oneVoice]

This is not the middle ages.How can you treat our children
like this ???!!! They do not deserve any money or funding.
Close it,lock it and stop the ABUSE forever!!! Aversive conditioning does not work. Humanity had lowered itself to abuse.I can not believe this is happening in 2012.Shame on
you JRC.

[candace]

close it down!!!!!!!!

[Mengele Lives]

Mindless evil. They sould be in prison, not just denied resources. The world has gone mad when in a supposedly decent and civilised nation children are routinely tortures to punish them for their disabilities. The inability of of the US nation to do anything about this atrocity year on year speaks volumes.