Sunday, March 28, 2010

Electric Shock Used as Discipline for Special Needs Students

I am sickened to the core right now. I just read an article titled: "Electric Shock Used as Discipline for Special Needs Students" , by Jamie Myles . To say it disturbed me would be a gross understatement.

Jamie writes, "The Canton Massachusetts based Judge Rotenberg Educational Center uses electric shock administered in 2 second intervals as a means to discipline students."

On Wikipedia, I found that the Center is one of very few that makes extensive use aversives, like electric shock and withholding food, in its treatment and behavioral interventions.

Treatment? Huh, where I come from this is torture. As Jamie points out in her article, we don't shock inmates that have murdered, molested, and robbed....but, we are shocking one of the most vulnerable populations on earth....children with special needs.

Hey, what's next? When grandpa gets dementia and starts wandering the halls of the nursing home, refusing to eat, fighting care givers at bath time, etc... are we going to just shock him until he complies?

We get up in arms about terrorist being water-boarded, but what are we going to do when our vulnerable children are being tortured?

Please read Jamie Myles full article here-

1 comment:

KateGladstone said...

About those electrodes ... they do more than hurt.

According to Rotenberg's own published specifications for the two shock-devices they use, the weaker device (called "GED") produces an average of 15 milliamps with a peak of 30 milliamps.
The stronger device (called "GED-4") produces an average of 45 milliamps with a peak of 90 milliamps.
(Source: the school director's web-site on electric shock procedures: http://www.effectivetreatment.org/remote.html )

According to generally accepted safety standards for electrical devices -- http://www.elec-toolbox.com/Safety/safety.htm -- shock at 8 milliamps or above is unsafe.
Shock at 15 miliamps or above prevents muscle control.
Shock at 50 milliamps or above creates a danger of ventricular fibrilation: a severe heart condition which can kill.