State: Kids hurt in shock
therapy school
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
June 14, 2006
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A state report on
conditions at a school for the disabled documented "skin shocks"
sometimes administered while students bathed for offenses as
minor as nagging, swearing and sloppy appearance.
"Various injuries to students have been reported" at the Judge
Rotenberg Center, according to the report released Wednesday by
the New York Education Department.
"Absolutely not true," said the center's attorney, Michael
Flammia.
He said the state ignored its own November report that stated
the center did an excellent job. That opinion changed after one
New York parent complained and sued, Flammia said. In the spring
New York's Education Department sent another team, but Flammia
said the evaluators were biased against shock treatment and
failed to conduct a fair or thorough review.
"The parents do not want this treatment stopped," he said.
The state Education Department never gave the school an
"excellent" report, said Alan Ray, an agency spokesman.
An initial review found the center was in compliance on a
limited number of areas, but officials planned an unscheduled
visit to the school after the department received more
complaints, Ray said.
That visit resulted in the new report.
The school in Canton, Mass., receives $50 million a year from
Albany to care for and educate about 150 youths because there is
no space available in New York for the intensive treatment.
The education department is calling for corrective action. The
school must "cease certain interventions that threaten the
health and safety of students at the school. Failure to do so
would affect its approval to serve New York state students,"
according to the a written statement.
The study also criticized the school's "combined use of
mechanical restraints and simultaneous application of skin
shock" to some students. In addition, "many students were
observed as they arrived to and from school wearing leg and
wrist restraints."
In addition, the Education Department said workers at the center
weren't prepared or trained to handle "challenging emotional and
behavioral problems" of the youths.
"It all comes down to a philosophical opposition to this form of
treatment," Flammia said. He said the center will fight the
accusations. All other parents prefer the treatments to heavy
medication, he said.
The Rotenberg Center provides an intensive, 24-hour program that
begins with a typical school setting, but about half the
residents require the "aversive therapy" of electric shock,
according to Rotenberg staff. The weekly shock of one or two
seconds each is similar to being pinched as hard as possible, or
like a bee sting.
For years, the state has contracted with the facility, where
disabled students wear backpack-like devices that provide shocks
of varying duration when they misbehave.
The use of electric shocks for corporal punishment is illegal in
New York state, but New Yorkers can be subject to the practice
at Rotenberg with the approval of parents, the local New York
school district, and a court. The Rotenberg Center has been on
the education department's list of schools approved for the
disabled, where New York's autistic and other disabled youths
can be sent because of a shortage of facilities in New York.
Some New York parents said electric shock helped change their
children's behavior for the better. Some of the youths had
repeatedly bitten themselves or slammed their heads against
walls so violently there was a concern they could blind
themselves.
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