Spring Break
Club fights electric shock therapy
by Quinn Lockwood
News | 9/25/07
Posted online at 9:05 PM EST on 9/24/07
/ Last updated at 3:51 AM EST on 9/24/07
Students at Brandeis recently formed an activist group to protest the use of aversive therapy and electric skin shocks on students at the Judge Rotenberg Center, a school for children with special needs located in Canton, Mass.
The school serves both "students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems" as well as "students with autistic-like behaviors," according to the State Senate's Web site.
Representatives are trying to move up hearings on the issue to January in order to have aversive therapy banned.
"Our group's mission is essentially to get the [Rotenberg] Center investigated and to get the use of electric shocks stopped," said Nathan Robinson '11, the founder of the Massachusetts students united against the Judge Rotenberg Center.
The Boston Globe reported last May that there were several failed attempts to shut down the judicial Center and its use of electric shocks as a method of disciplining students, as judges sided with parents who defended the Center's actions. Those parents view the facility as a much-needed last resort for "problem children" who have been expelled from other institutions as a result of severe behavioral or emotional issues. The Center's Web site has a link to 82 letters of support it has received from parents of students who learn there.
Officials at the school say that electric shock therapy is a preferable alternative to giving students antipsychotic drugs to control violent outbursts, and that shocks are administered to keep the students from seriously injuring themselves.
Robinson acknowledged that the Judge Rotenberg Center controversy is emotionally charged and complicated but his club has conducted the necessary research to formulate a coherent opinion on the matter.
"We've read news articles, consulted Web sites, and heard many different perspectives about the use of aversive therapy," Robinson said. "We really feel that we have all the facts. There are a number of sides to the issue, and we did not want to make a rush to judgment."
The school serves both "students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems" as well as "students with autistic-like behaviors," according to the State Senate's Web site.
Representatives are trying to move up hearings on the issue to January in order to have aversive therapy banned.
"Our group's mission is essentially to get the [Rotenberg] Center investigated and to get the use of electric shocks stopped," said Nathan Robinson '11, the founder of the Massachusetts students united against the Judge Rotenberg Center.
The Boston Globe reported last May that there were several failed attempts to shut down the judicial Center and its use of electric shocks as a method of disciplining students, as judges sided with parents who defended the Center's actions. Those parents view the facility as a much-needed last resort for "problem children" who have been expelled from other institutions as a result of severe behavioral or emotional issues. The Center's Web site has a link to 82 letters of support it has received from parents of students who learn there.
Officials at the school say that electric shock therapy is a preferable alternative to giving students antipsychotic drugs to control violent outbursts, and that shocks are administered to keep the students from seriously injuring themselves.
Robinson acknowledged that the Judge Rotenberg Center controversy is emotionally charged and complicated but his club has conducted the necessary research to formulate a coherent opinion on the matter.
"We've read news articles, consulted Web sites, and heard many different perspectives about the use of aversive therapy," Robinson said. "We really feel that we have all the facts. There are a number of sides to the issue, and we did not want to make a rush to judgment."
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 7
Anne Bakeman
posted 9/27/07 @ 3:15 PM EST
As a parent of an adult daughter with autism, I thank the students involved in this club from the bottom of my heart. There is so much we still don't know about what my daughter and her friends and colleagues with autism are experiencing physically as they struggle to be a part of the world. (Continued…)
Matthew L. Israel
posted 10/01/07 @ 1:17 PM EST
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. (Continued…)
Deborah Wood
Deborah Wood
posted 10/04/07 @ 1:37 PM EST
As a former Special Education Teacher trained at a well-know school for children with autism in Massachusetts, I strongly protest the use of aversive therapies for anyone, especially people with developmental disabilities. (Continued…)
Dr. Phyllis Klein
posted 10/26/07 @ 1:08 AM EST
I appreciate that some individuals are giving great thought to the postings and their responses here?but I do believe that the views expressed by some have given little, if any, consideration to those of us who must make decisions for our loved ones. (Continued…)
Grandma Pearl
posted 10/26/07 @ 2:01 AM EST
I am Matthew's grandmother. I am 96 years old, very much capable of speaking for myself and my family, and capable of speaking out against injustices done to people who are handicapped. (Continued…)
KateGladstone
Kate Gladstone
posted 12/26/07 @ 9:17 PM EST
Does anyone unconnected with Matthew Israel, and unconnected with his school, support the claims made by Dr. Israel in the second paragraph of a Rotenberg Center web-page at http://www. (Continued…)
Sickmind Fraud
posted 1/16/08 @ 4:57 PM EST
Unfortunately, the only people who spoke out against this place in previous years were small religious groups like the Church of Scientology. This was used to smear anyone speaking out against the despicable practice, regardless of how wrong the actual practice is. (Continued…)
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