Pass this letter to your representative

I recently shared a letter written by a former student of the infamous Judge Rotenberg Center. It's the school that uses electric shocks to allegedly stop students with varying psychiatric disabilities from engaging in behaviors that harm themselves or others. They tell parents, lawmakers and judges that the shocks hurt little worse than a bee sting.

In the letter to my Senators and the one I'm posting here, I detail why that is not the case. Keep in mind that the links within the letter are graphic. I encourage you to write your own Representatives. You can use details in my letter if you wish. Heck post it on your website too. The word needs to get out.

My name is Matt Stafford We've dealt with each other before so I'm going to get to the point. Previously I came to you as an Internet freedom advocate. Today I come before you as disability rights/child rights advocate.

You might be acutely aware of the Judge Rotenberg Center. It is a school for children (and some adults) with autism as well as various other psychiatric disabilities. It is unique in that it uses electric skin shocks as a way to control self injury behavior and various other forms of aggression on others. For many parents who are at their wit's end trying to keep their child from cracking their head open on the wall or something, this sounds like a godsend compared to keeping them on thousands of dollars worth of psychotropics (the sort that Eric Harris was on).

And while they tell parents, lawmakers, and judges that shock devices are only used when a student is engaged in some sort of aggressive or dangerous behavior, and they say that the GED device is little more than a bee sting, the reality is far different.

Here are some letters to the FDA concerning JRC's practices. Note that these letters do go into graphic detail

One is from a girl with autism who was there for four years. In it she describes what she went through. Most of the things she got shocked for were not aggressive or self injurious behavior, but things human beings (yourself included no doubt) do every day such as twirling a pencil or thinking out loud. Note that in this letter, a doctor ordered that the device be removed after a seizure, but they continued to use it.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/01/judge-rotenberg-center-survivors-letter.html

Another letter from a former teacher details what he did. He gave shocks to kids using a GED-4 device under the impression that it was FDA approved. It is not. After learning this, he resigned. He also detailed a number of shocks that were not the result of aggression or self injury. Furthermore, he states that many of these behaviors are provoked by the staff in order to give them a reason to shock or to get judges to approve the use of GED devices.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/01/letter-from-former-teacher-at-torture.html

Note number 7:

"7. I can testify that student behavioral plans were sometimes altered three months prior to court-dates so that judges would not see many of the behaviors for which students were shocked. I can name specific students and their Case Managers. This may be an intentional and systematic misleading of the judge. An investigation could look to see whether hard-copy samples were only kept of the three months leading up to court dates, or if samples of written recording sheets were destroyed altogether, especially for the lower functioning (nonverbal) students."
Here is a video of one of the shock sessions. Warning this is graphic as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtRGQRtwh2U

You can see why JRC spent a lot of money trying to keep this video off the record. It shows that A. The pain is not a simple bee sting. B. The shocks aren't just relegated to when the student is engaging in dangerous behavior. They're done for fun.

And I know you'll get an earful from the "parent's rights" people, large numbers of whom would jump at the chance to remove the meager protections afforded to children in their own homes and various institutions. I ask you, don't parents at least have the right to know the FULL truth about the treatment they've agreed to subject their children to?

You'll also get an earful from parents who support JRC. Most of them have been misled into thinking that the shocks were used only for self injurious behavior or trying to harm others. Many of their kids are nonverbal so they can't speak up. Many of them say that it worked out fine for their child.

However, just because something works out fine for a few does not mean it should be given a free pass. Many victims of terrorism have used their experience as the catalyst for positive life changes but it does not excuse the evil act the terrorist committed.

I implore you Senator to be the voice these kids need. Tell JRC (as well as other schools that use other forms of torture such as starvation diets, extreme isolation, etc.) that doing things that we'd never dream of doing to prisoners is wrong.

-Matt

P.S.

With all the talk about mental illness in the wake of Newtown, maybe it is time to re-evaluate whether or not practices that can lead to things like PTSD and other things that can contribute to gun suicides/homicides should be legal to use on children.