2023 Update

This is a personal blog started in 2011. It is no longer active, updated, or maintained. Unfortunately, it appears that I've also irreparably broken some of the links by accident.

15 February 2013

The End of Torture at the Judge Rotenberg Center?

Breaking News! 

On Thursday 14 February 2013 (Valentine's Day!), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick filed a motion to vacate (render null) the 1987 settlement agreement that has permitted the Judge Rotenberg Center to use aversives, including the notorious electric shock GED devices. This could mean the end of aversives at the JRC.

Read the press release from Senator Brian A. Joyce here!
From the press release:
“The governor has always been an ally when it comes to protecting these severely disabled children from the JRC’s barbaric practices,” said Joyce. “This comes on the heels of the FDA’s meeting with the JRC over their use of GED shock devices that have not even been approved for use but are strapped to disabled children right now administering painful skin shocks for simple misbehaviors. It is time for this order to be vacated and to close this dark chapter in how we allow disabled people to be treated in our state.”

In 1987, a settlement was reached between the JRC and the Commonwealth allowing the continued use of aversives. The court order was supposed to be vacated in 1988, but was extended indefinitely because the JRC was not yet licensed a year after the order’s issuance. At the time, the GED skin shock devices were not yet in use and aversive therapy consisted of water sprays, taste aversives, muscle squeezes, spanks, pinches and restrained time outs. The JRC continually defends its actions based on this court order, and claims that it denies the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) the right to regulate or prohibit the use of the painful skin shocks and other aversives.
Because the JRC has been defending its practices based on the 1987 settlement, the vacatur of that court order might mean that the JRC no longer has access to that defense, which could result in a permanent end to the use of aversives as "therapy." 

You can also read the actual court documents here --
These PDF files should be text-accessible; if not, let me know in the comments and I can rectify that.




10 comments:

  1. YES!Now let's get them to stop it! What other horror will they think to use instead?!

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  2. Maybe Duval Patrick read my letter!! Thank you, Governor!

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  3. They better fix this..

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  4. I AM THE MOTHER OF AN AUTISTIC CHILD AND THIS IS AN OUTRAGE.. THIS IS ANIMALISTIC.. I SAW AND WATCHED A VIDEO IN HORRO ON HOW THIS LITTLE BOY WITH AUTISM WAS SHOCKED FOR NO REASON .. HIS SCREAM PIERCED MY HEART .. AND SHOOK MY SOUL.. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT THOSE THAT TOOK PART IN SUCH TORTURE TO HIM OR ANY OTHER CHILD IN THAT MATTER WILL BE PUNISHED .. GOD WILL MAKE YOU ANSWER...TRUST AND BELIEVE THAT..THESE ARE CHILDREN .. BABIES .. ONES OF GREAT INNOCENCE...... I FEAR THAT IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO ME .. MY SON WOULD FALL IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE LIKE THESE...
    .. GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEIR SOULS

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  5. Wonderful news! This is great - let's hope it continues!

    In my opinion, they should shut the whole school down and the JRC should pay for the RIGHT therapy for those kids in reparation for the damage that they have done. Those kids need a lot more than behavioral therapy after the torture they went through. The torturers should have to ensure that they get it.

    But no one asks me.

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  6. I agree with all of this, and Tara, you made the best point ever!

    I mean, these kids aree too incompetent to sign themselves out of the place, but are being punished for being incompetent, supposedly? Very fishy indeed.

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  7. The links to the PDF files of the motion and memo in support of the motion are no longer working.

    Can you correct that or post new links?
    Many thanks

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    Replies
    1. Sorry about that -- I'll post new links via www.autistichoya.net later today. Feel free to email me if I haven't done it by tomorrow! Email is lydia@autistichoya.com.

      Delete

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