--
(image description: seal of the city of New York, with laurel leaves encircling an eagle over a European settler and an American Indian on either side of a shield with the year 1625)
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
PRESS RELEASE
|
February 22, 2013
** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ -------------
GENTILE CALLS ON CHANCELLOR TO REMOVE ALL NYC CHILDREN FROM CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL ONCE AND FOR ALL
CITY HALL – In
light of recent developments, Councilman Vincent J. Gentile, a
long-time advocate for New York’s most vulnerable, is calling on New
York City Department of Education Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott to remove
all New York children from the infamous Judge Rotenberg Center in
Canton, Massachusetts once and for all.
The
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to the
Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services saying it
would no longer allow federal Medicaid money to be used by anyone who
lives at a facility that employs electric shock intervention, even if
that person is not receiving the treatment themselves. Massachusetts has
begun notifying the families of its students that they must either move
to a new facility or unenroll from state benefits immediately.
“CMS made the right decision – no federal tax dollars should be going to an institution that uses these electric shock techniques on children. It’s time New York State and New York City to do the same – no city or state money should go to support an institution which subjects its students to these cruel and unusual forms of ‘behavior modification’. The Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts where 120 NYC developmentally disabled students currently attend, is in gross violation of the most fundamental standards of humane treatment of people with disabilities”, Councilman Gentile said. “With CMS pulling its funding, we are one step closer to shutting down Rotenberg once and for all.”
“CMS made the right decision – no federal tax dollars should be going to an institution that uses these electric shock techniques on children. It’s time New York State and New York City to do the same – no city or state money should go to support an institution which subjects its students to these cruel and unusual forms of ‘behavior modification’. The Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts where 120 NYC developmentally disabled students currently attend, is in gross violation of the most fundamental standards of humane treatment of people with disabilities”, Councilman Gentile said. “With CMS pulling its funding, we are one step closer to shutting down Rotenberg once and for all.”
As
a New York State Senator, Councilman Gentile introduced legislation to
mandate oversight and accountability when developmentally disabled
students are sent out-of-state for education and treatment. Then, in
late 2009, Councilman Gentile sponsored “Billy’s Law”
which requires the Department of Education to provide the City Council
with bi-annual reports monitoring all out-of-state residential
facilities that house New York State children for specialized
educational services – both pieces of legislation passed unanimously.
“It
is a sad fact that our City still sends children to this Center, and
sadder still that it is our tax-payer dollars that fund about half of
the children at this school,” Gentile wrote in a letter to Chancellor
Walcott. “I know that with your leadership, we can finally remove our
children from this barbaric facility. I am asking that you immediately
develop a plan, if one does not already exist, to bring these students
home and that you share it with my office and the New York City
Council.”
New
York City Education officials have paid more than $13 million last year
to treat 120 city kids at Judge Rotenberg Educational Center outside
Boston, which until now was the only clinic in the country that uses
electric shock treatments to discipline students.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I manually approve comments, so sometimes it takes a few weeks, months, or even years to find and approve comments. This delay is normal. As this is a personal blog, I also reserve the right not to publish comments.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.