School of Shock (Judge Rotenberg Educational Center)

[Posteritatis]

I came across an article about the Rosenberg Centre again this afternoon, after having somehow managed to forget about it from when I last heard about it several months ago:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/school_of_shock.html

Eight states are sending autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled kids to a facility that punishes them with painful electric shocks. How many times do you have to zap a child before it's torture?

By Jennifer Gonnerman
August 20, 2007


Rob Santana awoke terrified. He'd had that dream again, the one where silver wires ran under his shirt and into his pants, connecting to electrodes attached to his limbs and torso. Adults armed with surveillance cameras and remote-control activators watched his every move. One press of a button, and there was no telling where the shock would hit—his arm or leg or, worse, his stomach. All Rob knew was that the pain would be intense.

Every time he woke from this dream, it took him a few moments to remember that he was in his own bed, that there weren't electrodes locked to his skin, that he wasn't about to be shocked. It was no mystery where this recurring nightmare came from—not A Clockwork Orange or 1984, but the years he spent confined in America's most controversial "behavior modification" facility.

. . .

Despite spending more than three years at this behavior-modification facility, Rob still has problems controlling his behavior. In 2005, he was arrested for attempted assault and sent to jail. (This year he was arrested again, for drugs and assault.) Being locked up has given him plenty of time to reflect on his childhood, and he has gained a new perspective on the Rotenberg Center. "It's worse than jail," he told me. "That place is the worst place on earth."

Goodie; I had enough frothing rage in my life today without being reminded that this abomination still existed.

I first came across mentions of it here on DU, as a matter of fact, so some of you guys might remember this place. Answer the Ignorant Foreigner this: how the fuck can something like this remain in operation? Anyone here ever been exposed to something even in the vague vicinity of something like that? Just... argh. How? Why? What?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I work with troubled kids

and I understand how crazy ideas like this get implemented. Parents and teachers are desperate to calm these kids down. Many of them end up in prison as adults. It is a frustrating, often losing, battle.

BUT I absolutely cannot condone this therapy. No way. I do understand how it attracts parents. But I would never recommend it and I could never do anything like this to kids.

[Posteritatis]

2. And some of the stuff they use it on...

I can understand the desperation - I haven't worked with troubled kids, but I've been in a few bad neighborhoods, I've been in classrooms where folks have had real issues that were handled both well and poorly, and I try to keep my eyes open to this sort of thing since I've an interest in education. This place, though, feels like a few lines too many are being crossed. It stuns me that something like this is allowed to exist, considering 'mundane' types of corporal punishment are all but anathema now.

I mean, what kind of dumbass thinks "Oh, a student with bipolar disorder? Another with PTSD? Let's traumatize them both by torturing them! That'll make their problems go away!"

That aspect, the implicit refusal to examine real treatment options, just gives me a whole other level of rage on top of my existing ones; my sister was recently diagnosed with the former, is being successfully treated in a way that works, and still gets that kind of shit from people who think that she's irreperably non-functional in perpetuity. "You shouldn't be in school! You're a danger to others!" etc.

Argh, fume, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Some of these kids are really dangerous

and we have to walk a fine line between what is best for them and what is best for their classmates. It can be a tough call.

And the vast majority of their parents have issues too. They are largely incapable of raising these troubled kids. So they usually aren't much help.

[LeftishBrit]

4. This is awful

I know such techniques were used in the past, but am horrified that they are *still* considered acceptable anywhere.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

5. It's OK to torture people who are "different".

The "different" aren't like you and me, we can safely condone their torture since such a thing could never happen to us.

[yurbud]

6. like spanking, it could work if used carefully but people who want to use it tend to abuse it

and those who would use it carefully tend not to use it at all.