Regents places ban on skin shocks for troubled
students
By CARA MATTHEWS
September 12, 2006
ALBANY _ The state Board of Regents voted today to temporarily
continue a ban on schools using electric skin shocks and other
controversial methods of controlling the behavior of troubled
students.
The regents, who set educational policy for the state, implemented
an emergency policy in June to prohibit certain methods of deterring
or punishing poor behavior, unless a waiver for a specific child was
obtained.
The practices, known as "aversive behavioral interventions," include
skin shocks, noxious sprays, sleep deprivation and withholding
meals. They largely have been unregulated by the state Education
Department.
Regents had anticipated making the policy permanent this month, but
the Education Department needs more time to vet oral and written
comments from about 400 people during recent public hearings and
make revisions to the regulations, said Rebecca Cort of the
department.
Regent Anthony Bottar of North Syracuse, co-chairman of the regents
committee addressing the issue, said he wanted to head off any
discussion on the substance of the issue until the October meeting,
when regents may be voting to make the emergency regulations
permanent.
Bottar said that, contrary to what some people believe, the regents
have studied the comments made during the three hearings this
summer.
"I'd like to dispel, on behalf of the co-chair (Merryl Tisch of New
York City) and I, the notion of a segment of those affected that we
have not listened," he said.
Parents of students at an out-of-state residential program have sued
the agency because they want their children to continue receiving
skin shocks as part of their treatment. The two-second shocks used
by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Mass., are the
only method that has worked to control their children, they say.
They won a temporary injunction in federal court last week, meaning
treatment could resume for the plaintiffs' children as the lawsuit
continues.
The regents began a review of aversives after receiving complaints
about the use of skin shocks at the Rotenberg Center and about
"aversive behavioral interventions" used in some in-state preschool
programs for disabled children.
New York sends more than 150 special-education students to the
Rotenberg Center at a cost of about $50 million annually.
The center treats children with severe behavioral disorders.
Dangerous behaviors for students include trying to gouge their eyes
out and vomiting to the point of starvation.
Under the regents' policy, parents have to consent in writing to the
therapy, and an independent panel of experts recommends whether a
waiver should be approved.
The emergency regulations took effect in late June. A vote on
adopting the policy permanently will come up in October or December,
depending on the changes made, Cort said. If it is in December, the
regents will have to adopt another emergency extension in October,
she said.
"We know there are some changes that need to be made, based on
comments and our research," she said.
Linda Doherty of West Islip, Long Island, who was not at Tuesday's
meeting, said skin shocks are the only thing that have worked for
her 20-year-old son, Marc Doherty. He is autistic and non-verbal.
"In my son's case, it's the first time since he's 4 years old he's
totally off medication," she said, adding that he was on a dozen
prescriptions at one point and lapsed into a coma.
Doherty said her son has made more gains at the Rotenberg Center
than at all his other placements combined. "I don't know why it
works, but it works," she said of the skin shocks.
The policy, as written, is not acceptable because it excludes
children who are not physically harming themselves or being
aggressive toward others, Dr. Matthew Israel, the Rotenberg Center's
executive director, said this week. Students who destroy property,
are not in compliance with the program's rules or who cause major
disruptive incidents cannot be treated with skin shocks, even though
the therapy helps them greatly, he said.
Without treatment this summer, before the temporary injunction, 80
percent of New York's students whose skin-shock treatment had been
stopped had regressed, Israel said.
Doherty said her son was among them.
Aversive behavioral therapies are used only when children don't
respond to positive reinforcement programs, Israel said. About 50
percent of students at the Rotenberg Center receive skin shocks,
based on court orders. The average number of shocks given is one per
week, he said.
The center is the only institution attended by New York children
that gives skin shocks.
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