It boggles my mind that this guy Israel justifies the shock treatment by saying that the ONLY other alternative is drugs. Is he living in the dark ages? I guess if the kids started doing other treatments to get better, nobody would come to his meat factory.

Here's a very detailed article on the JRC, including the number of children who have died there, including a 12 year old who was shocked roughly 5,000 times a day (before they upped the voltage in 1990).

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_shocking_truth/page3

"...JRC has always believed in punishing not only the negative behavior, but also the actions that presage it: A face-slapper could be shocked for simply raising his hand. This is called "treating the antecedent." A lot of things can be antecedents at JRC: yelling, refusing a teacher's order, talking out of turn...

...One student was shocked for stopping work for more than 20 seconds. A second, a girl with cerebral palsy, was shocked for moaning and reaching out to hold a staffer's hand. A third was shocked for closing his eyes for more than five seconds. A fourth was shocked for urinating in her pants; Miller says she'd asked for over two hours to go to the bathroom. A fifth was shocked because he yelled when he saw another student about to be shocked.

...Miller says this last scenario played out all the time. He remembers a staffer warning him to always announce to the class when he planned to reach for something in his pocket. The one time he didn't, the four kids he was walking to the bathroom screamed. "All of these behaviors had to be consequated with a GED electric shock," Miller says. "There were no exceptions—a scream was a scream, a grab was a grab, and we had to follow court-approved orders." And if they didn't: "Staff would get evaluated, and might even lose their jobs."

...What pained Miller, made him physically ill, was the anxiety on a student's face the moment before it happened. One with the initials C.L. gave out a high-pitched "No, no, no" and then tried to keep his mouth closed to avoid subsequent punishment. J.G.'s voice escalated to a squeak while speaking quickly in Spanish. A.T., by contrast, was strangely emotionless during the shock, but shortly thereafter would moan, quietly, to himself...

...Every hour, staffers must rotate the electrodes so they don't burn the skin. (Though the school denies the GED injures students, Greg Miller says burns happened often enough that JRC staff had a name for a student going off the machine so his skin could heal: a "GED holiday.")

We can't do better than THIS?

I find this sickening that parents and professionals would resort to shocking children and adults with autism. Perhaps if these children had positive behavior support (that was implemented correctly) when they were younger, their behaviors would not be so severe.

I also agree with the post that there are often reasons for behavior - communication, overstimulation, etc. Positive behavior support takes time but does work. Behavior modification needs to be done consistently and correctly by every person who is in contact with the child. Often this does not happen and/or negative behaviors are reinforced, and then the negative behaviors increase.

As a parent, I have been there when my child had severe behaviors, and through consistency with a behavior plan, the behaviors decreased and/or are eliminated. I also know other children with severe behaviors when given positive behavior support who have had the same outcome. No shocking needed!

In my opinion, there is never a justifiable reason for shocking (basically torturing) a child with autism. We don't even torture criminals in this manner. So how is it acceptable that we treat these children with autism like animals with shock treatment? I find it barbaric no matter what results they claim. I am sure if you shocked me everyday, you could modify my behavior too to do whatever you wanted. Very sad story.

I would like to see all of you parents using this type of treatment on their child to line up right next to them and do it to themselves and see how they feel and turn out. How can anyone think that electricity the one thing we cover up for the fear of our infants and toddlers being injured by is OK to do to these kids. I AM JUST SICKENED BY THIS. I am a parent of a child with Autism and behavior issues and would never even think of doing something like this. Deal with it is what you need to do they are human's who need your love and support not torture just because you can't handle it, or don't want to handle it. YOU ARE SICK PEOPLE.

Okay thousands of parents have been able to treat their children biomedically, homeopathically, detox, etc. And their children have made great improvements. If parents are figuring this out, what about the rest of these so called schools for children and the professional staff? Can they not read and research? Or only read and research the latest new spin of Anti Pyschotic medications, and continue to use Electric shock.
If you were sick and in pain, and you were contiinually shocked for your behavior. Eventually parts of your soul would shut down, and become more like a zombie. Electric shock is like spanking and we have heard for years from research what spanking does over time to children.
Why is MA lagging behind in this area of understanding the true underlying reasons of autism?

What happens to these kids when they grow up and leave JRC?
I bet those same behaviors remerge only worse over time.
The name of the school tells it all, rotten for sure!!!

Creating another "Snake Pit" shock treatments were proven useless in the 60's. We need not repeat history.

And let's not forget where many children who attend JRC are sent from- The New England Center For Children as a past commenter pointed out:

"Though I've met parents who have their children at the school who opt out of drug treatment, NECC pushes and prescribes antipsychotics and other drugs routinely. And when the children don't improve from the Skittles reinforcements and Risperdal regimen, the center has referred the failures to the Judge Rotenberg "shock" Center (page 3 of JRC's own "executive summary" on some of NECC's referrals: http://www.judgerc.org/posonlyprograms.pdf ; then go to page 7 for details of NECC students being drugged and restrained up to 70 times per week ).

JRC is the repository for children so drug damaged that they'd die if they took another pill but who's behavior has become so problematic that no other institution will take them. I view places like NECC as a kind of "feeding tube" for places like JRC, both because NECC exerts its considerable influence in preventing further research on environmental cause and because of its practices. So much for NECC's "positives only" philosophy if they drug and restrain to this degree and if the end result is landing at JRC. Positives only is a mischaracterization."

The kids are nothing but data and guinea pigs to the scum who run these places.

karen said
And WTF is that $100K paying for? Has the cost of *electricity* gone way way up in MA lately?
My Humble Answer;
These schools have tremendous expenses, they have 3 shifts a day of staff, these are residential schools that have to get each kid up, dressed, cleansed day after day. then there is the teaching staff and an afternoon shift.
I will bet the students are cleaner than your autistic child at home, if you have one. If not you can not really imagine the staff that is needed and needs to be paid.

"As a parent of an autistic child I can imagine cases where this is the better option. If this helps permanently improve behavior and prevents harm from long term prescribed drug use it may be the best option. Remember, the drugs currently used to control behavior are not harmless."

Really? I have news for you. This isn't treatment. It's torture. Torture "works." That's why the former administration defended its use on terrorists. I'm floored that a significant number of people in this country -- including our leaders -- can express outrage when it comes to torturing our enemies, but stand silent and when its done to the most vulnerable among us.

Hey, I have an idea, if the methods used at Judge Rotenberg are so effective, lets apply them to every facet of our lives. Overweight? The heck with yoyo dieting! Just have someone follow you around and give you a zap in the shorts every time you reach for a Twinkie.

Any national figure who can legitimately take credit for shutting this place down once and for all will likely get my vote come election time if they're running for anything, no matter which party they're in. It just comes down to basic human decency.

Withyoualltheway wrote:

"I don't know what to think about the Rotenberg Center. I have friends whose child is there- he was violent and destructive, despite being heavily medicated. He is now off all meds and able to come home to visit, which he couldn't do before".

It's good to hear about any child improving. But a lot of the drugs pushed on children with autism have side effects like OCD, violence, suicide, self-injury (cutting and trichotillomania in NT children). Maybe you provided the answer yourself-- is it possible he's less violent because he's off medication, not because he was enduring shock? How long do behavior modifications last when the message is "Don't hurt yourself or others or I'll hurt you?" Usually abuse is the key to why individuals grow up violent, not ususally the reason they aren't violent. Children with autism are still human.

The fact that JRC doesn't use drugs and the high rate of tardive dyskinesia among students (neuroleptic induced condition) both hint that the school might only be allowed to exist because it's secretly the repository for drug-injured children.

There's an autism school in Massachusetts which makes parents sign contracts saying they won't attempt gluten-free/casein-free diet or "alternative" autism treatments. The school demands vaccine compliance. I've seen court documents for the transfer of students from this "exclusive" school to JRC when the Skittles & Risperdal form of ABA and daily restraint and seclusion regimens offered by the school fail.

Makes you wonder if perhaps more appropriate diet, less drugs and restraint and fewer vaccines might have helped prevent worsening behavior to begin with. Why wouldn't anyone advocate that before torture? Rhetical question-- we all know why.

Some say that electric shock applied to the right places can correct many of the deceptive behaviors of pathological liars.

I'm just saying.....

I'm sure the photo you chose isn't from the Rotenberg Center but it still proves the point. Look at the child's belly - totally distended. A perfect example of how medicine- and education - are missing the big picture. Behaviors stop when the medical problems are corrected. No shocks needed.

The unfortunate thing also in all of this is the lack of support to families where they think this is a viable solution. I cannot think how someone could do this to their child, however parents have for many years. I'm not judging them, however isn't there something wrong with our society that allows this but refusing to obtain what a child needs to alleviate challenging behaviors. Unfortunately too these challenges are caused by undiagnosed healh issues and the shocking doesn't make that go away.