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Report: Third student targeted in
shock-prank
February 9, 2008
By Tom Benner
BOSTON - A third emotionally
disturbed student might have been an additional victim in an Aug. 26
skin-shock prank at a group home in Stoughton run by the Judge
Rotenberg Education Center, a new state report says.
The report, by the Department of
Social Services, reveals a 15-year-old boy from New York was present
when employees administered dozens of shocks to two other students
on the instructions of a prank caller posing as a supervisor.
The other two victims were a
19-year-old from Halifax, who was shocked 77 times, and a
16-year-old from Virginia, who was shocked 29 times.
The report, released shortly before
5 p.m. Friday, said the 15-year-old had been an intended victim but
was inconclusive about whether he was given wrongful skin shocks at
the direction of the prank caller. DSS Commissioner Angelo McClain
declined through a spokesman to comment further. A criminal
investigation by the Norfolk County District Attorney is ongoing.
School spokesman Ernie Corrigan
said the report is vague about whether the third student had been
subject to abuse or neglect.
The report supports one of two
allegations of physical abuse by two JRC staff members, and 15
allegations of neglect by eight staff members.
Seven employees were fired in
October for their involvement in the incident after an initial state
investigation found a series of errors and missteps by the staff.
Critics of the Canton-based school
- the only one in the country believed to use skin shocks to punish
misbehavior - say the report is further proof that so-called
aversive therapy at the school is cruel and inhumane.
‘‘It’s another agency supporting
what I’ve been saying all along: this place is out of control,’’
said Sen. Brian A. Joyce, a Milton Democrat seeking to pass
legislation banning or restricting the use of electric skin shocks.
The school has more than 200
students, most of whom are mentally retarded, autistic or
emotionally disturbed. School officials say the treatments are used
in a minority of cases, and only with parental, medical, psychiatric
and court approval
In the early morning hours of Aug.
26, a former student phoned one of the school’s group homes in
Stoughton and posing as a supervisor, ordered the students to be
given shocks.
The Aug. 26 incident was recorded
by video cameras. Rotenberg center officials destroyed copies of the
tape despite an order by state investigators to preserve them.
Tom Benner may be reached at
tbenner@ledger.com .
Copyright 2008 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Saturday, February 09, 2008
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