Yes, It is Cruel
August 15, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
An article in today’s NineMSN (Australia) about electroshock treatment used for autistic children at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, Massacusetts, asks whether it is “cruel or effective?”
I’m not going to dignify that question with a response.
Here are some previous Autism Vox posts on the JRC:
- What’s really shocking about the JRC
- Yes, it is shocking: More on the Judge Rotenburg Center’s use of electric shock
- Disability Rights are Human Rights: The Rotenburg Center and Torture
- Aversive Stimulation, Improper Behavior, and the JRC
- Shock “therapy” ruled illegal at Illinois group home
- A ‘Temporary Painful Experience’?
I don’t have kids, but I do ABA home therapy with some students.
Student 1 was in a private preschool placement last year, but is being moved to a public placement this school year. Woohoo!
Student 2 has been in a public placement since age 3, and is now almost 9 1/2. He started in the school where student 1 will be going this year. The school district provides his ABA Home Therapy.
Student 3 is in a private placement. His family moved from OR, to NJ, for him to be in a certain private autism school that I think you may have referred to once in a post a while ago. His dad has expressed that he might consider a move to PA, into the school district that I, and students 1 and 2 live.
A former student was in a public placement for pre-school, then moved to a private pre-k, where he was included in a regular class and provided an aide. He was then moved back to a public K autistic support class,and will be in the same placement for 1st grade. This used to be a county based program, but as of this school year, it is now a school district based program.
2 kids who went to Tae Kwon-Do where I used to go were in the same placement, but in higher grades, as the former student. There was also a student there,I’m not sure if he’s still going though, who started a private autism school on their own.
Sorry, I posted the previous comment in the wrong place somehow.
Not a problem—-your comment is about the public or private post, I think—-thanks so much. I have wondered about Tae Kwon-Do for my son Charlie.
The JRC is a private placement……..
What a ridiculous question. Anyone can think of a punishment that is both effective and cruel.
OT I hope you blog about the recent Newsweek article, Kristina.
Do you mean about the contagious yawning?
Certainly it’s possible to teach autistic children in ways that are effective and humane!
Kristina,
I am not bringing this up to be controversial but alot of the JRC students came from somewhere else, definitionally using “positive programming” that failed. I’ve sometimes wondered what the case-histories are that lead to these kids and adults ending up at the school of “last resort”?
It’s good that you bring this up. I’d like to know, too, about the case histories of the students (not of all of whom are autistic) and what treatments and therapies they had received. That said, previous reports I’ve read about what the JRC is like and the “behavioral strategies” used, are not encouraging.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226463/site/newsweek/
no this one
I know this is the wrong place to post it, sorry. I’m just so used to you blogging about anything I have read about autism about 30 minutes after I have read it!
It just seems evil to me, and from what I’ve read about the place, the staff are encouraged to express their worst qualities by the way they are managed.
Oh, and Miss Baggs thinks it’s Godawful, too, I believe. I trust Judge Baggs.
I think her temporal lobes work better than mine.
I never heard of Judge Rotenberg,except for that horrible place named after him.
My experience tells me that “the last resort” isn’t necessarily a place, but an attitude. My son’s educational plan is considered pioneering. (He’s enrolled in special ed but attends regular ed full time with”support”) We see other autistic kids his age and older (and younger) treated in a very old-fashioned way, regardless of success. “Very old fashioned” refers to the old punishment and reward system, pennies for “good behavior”, toys and trinkets bought with said pennies. Doesn’t matter if it’s age-appropriate or not, many people are convinced that this system (and segregated education) works.
My son goes to school side-by-side with kids “unable to attend” regular ed. From what I observe, special ed isn’t a last resort. It’s a default. They are groomed to depend on this penny exchange and to accept NT rules of engagement. I’m more interested in my son learning the academics and then given coping skills to deal with the sensory and language difficulties he has.
Bink, thanks so much, guess I’m on “vacation mode”!—-internet connections down here at the beach go in and out with the wind (and now it’s a thunderstorm).
“The last resort” is a troubling term—-because there’s still a “last resort” even after placement at a place like the JRC.
This always makes my stomache churn. I can not believe that anyone would do this to children let alone to those that cannot communicate well. I believe that it is the parents frustration with trying to get help and not being able to that causes them to think this is the only option out there.
The below just came out in “Mother Jones”. Thought that it might be of interest. The only thing that I ask is that folks also peruse the comments of Paul Touchette, Brian Iwata, Saul Axelrod, and even Ivar Lovaas (1993), in re: punishment and the procedures used at JRC.
There’s quite a few sidebar links, photos and the source text of the interview with Matt Israel.
School of Shock
By Jennifer Gonnerman
Mother Jones
August 20, 2007
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/school_of_shock_index.html
Ms. Gonnerman’s article “School of Shock,” which appears in the September/October issue of the Mother Jones magazine, is an entirely one-sided and biased account of the court- and parent-approved behavior modification therapy used at the Judge Rotenberg Center to successfully treat, without drugs, severe (sometimes life-threatening) behavior problems of children and young adults with special needs that have not responded to any other form of treatment. For readers who would like to hear the other side of this story, please see http://www.judgerc.org/ResponsetoGonnermanArticle.pdf
Matthew L. Israel
Executive Director
Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
http://www.judgerc.org
I just read the response and sickened and disgusted that this is happenening to children at let alone in the united states of America. Are you kidding me? Some children I am sure would repond to their parents or techers hitting them with a switch but as a civilized society we realize that this is abuse it is no different because they have behaviors and special needs. I would love to see that this is not sanctioned treatment and to have it stopped immediately. There are children that have behaviors that are dangerous to themselves and others and I agree that there need to be more places that are better able to handle this serious problem, what I don’t agree with is the use of a method that would be considered abuse if used on a prisioner yet considered therapy that my tax dollars are paying for when we are talking about a troubled youth. Choice of treatment I am for abuse never.
I can only speak regarding my experience with my own son; careful teaching practices have helped him to stop self-injurious behavior that was (a few years) occurring regularly. Mr. Israel, I would appreciate knowing, too, about how many of the children at the JRC are autistic?
I cant believe people would do that. That is cruel. I was raised with spanking. People are always saying just spank him he will get the idea. I am forever telling people how do you spank a child who doesnt respond to pain.
In the same reguard How do you shock a child who doesnt or cant respond to pain?
That is JUST PLAIN CRUEL.
I don’t think cruel captures this.
I actually read the response first, because I already knew that the article was going to be critical from the comments. Of course, the response, in its casuist treatment of people, disgusted me enough that I knew the article would be a tough read.
And was it a tough read.
I’m going to keep it at that for now. But, I have to ask, Mr. Israel, are you actually there? I’ve read this exact response before on another site. Spam much?
Cliff
Mr. Israel, It is obvious that you or someone you have assigned is scanning the internet while looking for every occurrence where the name Jennifer Gonnerman comes up, or the title of her article, School of Shock, or the link to the website, http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/school_of_shock_index.html shows up. Since I made mention of each of them, we will see if your spam message reoccurs here.
I have observed you over the last year and a half, and I am aware of the methods you utilize that you believe to be damage controlling. I know how you use some of Skinner’s teaching for purposes of manipulating people and environments.
Well, let me explain something to you. The only thing that has truly helped you in your manipulation is the despair of some of the parents who have placed their children in the JRC. It is that desperation that you have used like a tool, or weapon, to melt the hearts of judges and to destroy the careers of those who have attempted to stop you. Along with using the parents, you have also used their children to cause people to side with you. You make it appear as though there is no other hope for them. Since you have them confined, you also manipulate or control every aspect of their lives. You prop them up in front of computer terminals under the guise of education, while many of them do not even comprehend what to do with the computer monitor other than to randomly touch it and cause it’s appearance to change. Some of them are shocked with the GED-4 so often that their limbs are completely covered in crispy scabs from the blood that emerges after the shocks. You move the electrodes frequently, but the shocks are so severe and persistent that you cover much of the child’s body with the marks of your violence.
Just because you have been skillful in manipulating people to accomplish your purpose, so that you may exercise control over the most vulnerable of populations, is not an indication of greatness. There are others who have ascended to power , and who used and abused other people in the pursuit of their purpose. They all have fallen! Even if they did not live to see the fall of their works, they still faced a judgment. What happens to you is in the hands of One who is so much greater than you or I. I will restrain myself from feeling joy in your fall, but I will continue to hope and pray, while doing whatever I can for the victims.
Perhaps one of your spam-bots will take this message back to you. Let it tell you of how many nights that I have gone without sleep while researching every aspect of the horrible place you have created. Let it tell the children how other people with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are trying to help them. Perhaps that will give them at least a small measure of hope. If they can cling to that hope they may survive.
How can you even live with yourself?
Now, if any parent of a child with Autism reads these words, please fill your heart with hope! Your child can thrive in a world with less verbal corrections and directives, less overwhelming sensory input, more love, more praise, more acceptance! Let your child know that they are wonderful just the way they are. Let them hear gladness in your voice because of the child that is yours. Never let them feel rejected, but always be a guide to them. If you can do this, and I know that it is not always easy, but if you CAN do this, your child will never be in a place like the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center.
From Derrick (Person with Asperger’s Syndrome, Father of Son with Autism, Brother of Sister with Autism)