Something's Rotten at Rotenberg
Described as "a special education school for children and young adults", the Judge Rotenberg Center engages in practices that are controversial, cruel and abusive.
Some of the methods used to modify unacceptable behavior are spanking, pinching, forced inhalation of ammonia, and administering shocks to students (as early as age six).
These aversive treatments are also used on disabled and autistic children sent to Rotenberg (at the staggering cost of $50 million dollars a year) by New York State, due to a lack of facilities.
*When CNN's Correspondent, Randi Kaye, reported on this "therapy" she actually tried the shock device herself. She was told that it would feel like a bee sting. Randi said, "Let me tell you it hurt far worse than that."
If parents did any of this to their children they would be hauled off to court in an instant. Psychologists and psychiatrists who engage in child abuse should have their licenses revoked.
Some of the methods used to modify unacceptable behavior are spanking, pinching, forced inhalation of ammonia, and administering shocks to students (as early as age six).
These aversive treatments are also used on disabled and autistic children sent to Rotenberg (at the staggering cost of $50 million dollars a year) by New York State, due to a lack of facilities.
*When CNN's Correspondent, Randi Kaye, reported on this "therapy" she actually tried the shock device herself. She was told that it would feel like a bee sting. Randi said, "Let me tell you it hurt far worse than that."
If parents did any of this to their children they would be hauled off to court in an instant. Psychologists and psychiatrists who engage in child abuse should have their licenses revoked.
—(data collected from assorted sources)
*I took a quote from a CNN blog that had Anderson Cooper's name on it but he did not write that post. I corrected the source. However, I still stand behind the position that behavior can be changed without cruelty. We are not animals. We think, we feel, we treat our fellow man (and that includes children) with respect. Just because psychiatry can't find the answers doesn't mean they're not out there.
posted by Naomi Fox at 8:19 PM
3 Comments:
To clarify something you wrote, Anderson Cooper was never at the Judge Rotenberg Center so he never received the 2 second shock. One of CNN's reporters did the interview at the school.
I assume drugging the clients into a stupor, warehousing them and allowing them to seriously abuse themselves to the point of severe injuries is perfectly fine. How is that a quality of life? How are they able to enjoy themselves? With the skin shock it is a 2 second localized skin shock. There is no current running through the body.
Clients who have been aggressive and health dangerous hundreds of times a day now may only aggress or try to hurt themselves once a week. It is a dramatic decrease and allows them to replace those inappropriate behaviors with actual learning. Check out the website www.judgerc.org to get a better understanding of the clients JRC serves. There are before and after videos.
This concept that pain will surpress unwanted behaviours is nothing new. Slave ownners used to whip their slaves when they exhibited unwanted behaviours. All this proves is that with enough pain you can surpress an individual into different behavior patterns. It doesn't cure anything. It just proves you can stop whatever behavior the therapist doesn't want by using fear and punishment.
While the amount of pain in the above example is more than what the therapists use, the principle is exactly the same. If it wasn't for laws and public opinion, these doctors would surely increase the dose over time.
This "therapy" says more about the therapist's mental and ethical state than it does about the patient's.
What the people that support JRC don't mention is the that the shocks are used for very minor behavior like tensing up, swearing, and refusing to follow directions. JRC also uses food deprivation as punishment, and makes students EARN the RIGHT to call a friend or family member. One student Andrea was restrained for 7 hours while being shocked 31 times. http://stopjrc.wordpress.com/
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