Disability rights groups protest at ‘School of Shock’

The Disability Justice and Rights Caucus of Workers World Party, an official partner of the Massachusetts Stop the Shock Coalition, is posting and distributing this press release in its entirety reporting on the historic Oct. 5 protest against the Judge Rotenberg Center and in unconditional solidarity with this movement. 

The organizers report that 56 people participated in this protest and there was an almost constant stream of beeps from passersby ( website: stoptheshock.com, contact: [email protected]). 

A coalition of 34 disability rights groups protested at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts, yesterday. It is the last school in the United States to use painful electric shocks on disabled students.

The coalition is relaunching its campaign to raise awareness about a controversial electrical shocking device used for behavioral conditioning in Massachusetts, following the failure of the state legislature to pass a bill that would have prohibited the device.

According to witnesses and court documents, JRC has used pinching, punching, slapping, spanking with spatulas, water spray in face, ammonia in nose, hot sauce on tongue, white noise helmet, loss of food, liver powder on remaining food and electric shocks on arms, legs and abdomen, all to stop unwanted behaviors of autistic students. (“Pain and Shock in America,” Jan Nisbet and Nancy Weiss)

The school’s founder, psychologist Matthew Israel, patented a remote-controlled device called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED). The FDA banned the use of the device, but JRC successfully overturned the ban in court. After Congress empowered the FDA to ban such shocks as behavioral therapy, the agency is working towards a new ban.

FDA ban proposal

The FDA wrote in its ban proposal, “These devices present a number of psychological risks including, depression, anxiety, worsening of underlying symptoms, development of post-traumatic stress disorder and physical risks such as pain, burns and tissue damage.” 

JRC students with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable, the FDA notes, because it may be difficult for them to communicate about pain or other harms they experience from the shocks.

School staff members administer electric shocks through electrodes attached to a student’s arm, leg or torso to cause a change in their behavior. According to their website (judgerc.org), “A highly trained and experienced staff member skillfully opens a plastic box and presses a button causing two seconds of safe electrical current.” Students wear up to five of the electrodes, even while sleeping,

JRC is the only program in the U.S. that uses electric shocks to control behavior. The center compares the shock to a bee sting, but survivors of JRC have testified that it causes severe, lingering muscle cramps. According to its website, JRC is “licensed to serve ages five through adult.” It has used the device on minors, but states that it now delays shocks until age 18. Each student’s shock program is approved by psychologists and by the Bristol County Probate Court. 

In 2010, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, referred to the use of electrical shock devices for this kind of therapy as torture and sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government to investigate.  

Israel claimed that there are no negative side effects from skin shock. Professor Nancy Weiss, co-author of a book on the Rotenberg Center, responded that people who have experienced the shock at JRC describe it as the worst pain they have ever felt, and years later still have debilitating PTSD. “Electric shocks are not a professionally accepted approach to behavior management. … You’re not allowed to use electric shock on prisoners, or prisoners of war or convicted terrorists.”  

The JRC responds that using electric shock is “a treatment of last resort” for residents who harm themselves, but their court-approved programs allowed harmless behaviors to be shocked, including hand-flapping, standing up without permission, taking their eyes off of their work, nagging, disobeying orders or making noises. 

JRC survivor says, ‘Get angry!’

At the protest the keynote speaker was Krista Cormier, a JRC survivor working with the Boston chapter of Amnesty International, who detailed her experiences as a student there. She told the protesters, “Get angry!” Turning towards her former school, she shouted: “If I’m too loud, I dare you to restrain me. That was one of the behaviors that I was restrained for. No one will ever restrain me again!”

Another speaker was attorney Colbe Mazzarella, president of the local chapter of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a watchdog for mental health abuse. “We gathered over 1,000 messages to legislators, demanding an end to this torture. People were horrified to hear that this is still going on in our time, in our country.”

The JRC states that using electric shock is “a treatment of last resort” for residents who harm themselves, but hundreds of documents show that these extremely painful shocks are used for behaviors as harmless as taking their eyes off their work or failing to maintain a neat appearance. In this video, 18-year-old Andre McCollins  is shocked 31 times over seven hours. (youtube.com/watch?v=YcxpGKctZMs) 

The first shock was for failing to take off his jacket when told to; the other 30 shocks were for screaming while being shocked or tensing his muscles in anticipation of the next shock. The school does not release its extensive daily videotapes. This video was only made public in a lawsuit by Andre’s mother.

His mother, Cheryl McCollins, joined the protest. She observed, “They target Black and brown students from impoverished neighborhoods.” Almost 80% of JRC residents are persons of color, and 90% are from New York State. (ProPublica) She has fought for years to return JRC students to New York State, which pays $30 million per year to JRC. 

Also protesting were Nicholas Barber and other staffers of New York State Senator Jabari Brisport, who introduced “Andre’s Law,” a bill that would stop New York State from sending any more people to the JRC.

Every mainstream national disability organization, along with Amnesty International and the ACLU, is opposed to the use of electric shock for behavioral intervention. 

The residents of JRC are not the only people in the country who have significant behavioral challenges. People with disabilities across the country are offered services that are both more effective and humane in their home states and communities. The cost to taxpayers to send a person to JRC is between $300,000 and $450,000 per person per year. 

The lead organizer, Elisa Hunt, developed an extensive website to raise awareness of this abuse. She urged the public to learn more at stoptheshock.info saying, “We will not forget the voiceless human beings tortured every day, and we won’t let our legislators forget.”