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Mom sues over electric shock

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Newsday Staff Writer

July 21, 2006

About four months after the Freeport mother of an emotionally troubled teen announced plans to sue the school district for sending her son to a center that used electric shock on him, a lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court yesterday.

When Evelyn Nicholson went public with her lawsuit plans in March, the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., fell under scrutiny because it is the nation's only school that uses skin shocks to curb behavior.

Last month, the state Board of Regents moved to limit what are known as aversive therapies, including skin shock, after the state Education Department released a scathing review of the Rotenberg center. Among other things, the review found that some students were strapped to a wooden board before getting shocked.

Nicholson's Melville attorney, Kenneth Mollins, said he originally planned to sue only the Freeport district, but several weeks ago decided to name the Rotenberg center as a co-defendant. Mollins said a former Rotenberg teacher confided that the smell of burning flesh permeated the halls. "When I heard that, I thought this school must be held accountable."

Rotenberg lawyer Michael Flammia accused Mollins of making "false statements" about the school. "We're pleased that he's now made the statements in the court of law where he will have to prove them with evidence he does not have," Flammia said.

A Freeport spokeswoman released a statement saying the district would not comment on pending litigation, but that the district follows state guidelines in sending students out of state.

In April, Nicholson's son, Antwone, 17, was transferred to a Westchester County school after more than a year of skin shocks at the Massachusetts center to control his attention deficit hyperactive disorder, Mollins said. Days after arriving at his new placement, he was hospitalized for post-traumatic stress, Mollins added.

Mollins said the teen, who remains hospitalized, is expected to be transferred to the Sagamore Children's Psychiatric Center in Dix Hills to be closer to his family.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

 

 

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