Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

State Challenges School Using Shock Therapy

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

Officials in Massachusetts are taking steps to clamp down on a controversial school that uses electric shocks to address behavior problems in kids and adults with developmental disabilities.

In a legal filing last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley moved to end a court order that has limited the state’s regulatory authority of the Judge Rotenberg Center since the 1980s.

The Canton, Mass. facility, which serves children and adults with developmental disabilities and those with behavioral and emotional problems, is believed to be the only one in the country using electric shocks to address behavior issues.

For years disability advocates have likened the methods used at the Rotenberg Center to torture, leading the U.S. Department of Justice and the United Nations to investigate.

Patrick fights Rotenberg shock therapy decree

Excerpt from: The Boston Globe (click for full article)

 

The Patrick administration filed a motion Thursday challenging a court decree that has allowed one Massachusetts school to continue for decades the controversial practice of using electric shocks to control children and adults who have developmental dis­orders or other special needs.

While some families and others connected with the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton argue that the skin-shock procedure is necessary to treat people with the most severe conditions, others say it is tantamount to torture. Disability rights advocates and some former patients have worked for years to shut down the ­center.

The state’s motion comes two months after federal health officials said they would stop paying for treatment at Rotenberg. If approved, it could mark the beginning of the end of that decades-long debate.

Advocates Want School Using Shock Therapy Defunded

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

A national coalition of disability advocacy groups is calling on the federal government to stop providing funds to a Massachusetts school that uses skin-shock therapy on students with disabilities.

In a letter sent earlier this month to health and education officials in the Obama administration, 20 groups including The Arc, the Autism Society, TASH and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law called for federal funds being sent to the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass. to be halted.

The request was made in light of a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent to the school in December citing concerns over the devices used to administer electric shocks.

“It is time to take drastic and significant action in order to compel the Judge Rotenberg Center to change its treatment of some of the most vulnerable young people in our country,” wrote the coalition known as APRAIS in their letter to Cindy Mann at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and Michael Yudin at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

FDA meets on school electric shock device used on disabled students, warns of violations

Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full article)

 

The devices used by a controversial Canton, Mass., school to administers painful electric shocks to its disabled students for treatment was the subject of a meeting today held by US Food and Drug Administration regulators who say the Judge Rotenberg Center is using unapproved and illegal machines.

The meeting also drew a handful of protestors to the FDA's Maryland campus.

The meeting and protest are just the latest development in a series of actions against JRC since video of former student Andre McCollins being restrained and shocked for hours was played in court.

The video, first aired by FOX Undercover, went viral, prompting petitions and protests to stop the shocks.
Critics call it torture, but the center says the device is only used with court approval to stop destructive behavior like self-mutilation.

Feds Warn School Over Shock Therapy

Excerpt from:Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning a Massachusetts school over its use of a controversial skin-shock therapy with students who have disabilities.

In a letter sent to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center earlier this month, FDA officials said the devices used to administer electric shocks at the school “violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Act) because your facility has failed to obtain FDA clearance or approval.”

The school, which serves children with developmental disabilities as well as those with behavioral and emotional problems, has come under fire for years from disability advocates who say that using electric shocks to address behavior issues is inhumane. However, some parents and former students have defended the school arguing that the approach is effective.

The FDA warning comes following an October inspection of the Canton, Mass. center. Federal officials said that if prompt action is not taken to correct the violations, the school may be subject to “seizure, injunction and civil money penalties.”