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School of Shock
http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/school-shockRob Santana awoke terrified. He'd had that dream again, the one where silver wires ran under his shirt and into his pants, connecting to electrodes attached to his limbs and torso. Adults armed with surveillance cameras and remote-control activators watched his every move. One press of a button, and there was no telling where the shock would hithis arm or leg or, worse, his stomach. All Rob knew was that the pain would be intense.
Every time he woke from this dream, it took him a few moments to remember that he was in his own bed, that there weren't electrodes locked to his skin, that he wasn't about to be shocked. It was no mystery where this recurring nightmare came fromnot A Clockwork Orange or 1984, but the years he spent confined in America's most controversial "behavior modification" facility.
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In 1999, when Rob was 13, his parents sent him to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, located in Canton, Massachusetts, 20 miles outside Boston. The facility, which calls itself a "special needs school," takes in all kinds of troubled kidsseverely autistic, mentally retarded, schizophrenic, bipolar, emotionally disturbedand attempts to change their behavior with a complex system of rewards and punishments, including painful electric shocks to the torso and limbs. Of the 234 current residents, about half are wired to receive shocks, including some as young as nine or ten. Nearly 60 percent come from New York, a quarter from Massachusetts, the rest from six other states and Washington, D.C. The Rotenberg Center, which has 900 employees and annual revenues exceeding $56 million, charges $220,000 a year for each student. States and school districts pick up the tab.
The Rotenberg Center is the only facility in the country that disciplines students by shocking them, a form of punishment not inflicted on serial killers or child molesters or any of the 2.2 million inmates now incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons. Over its 36-year history, six children have died in its care, prompting numerous lawsuits and government investigations. Last year, New York state investigators filed a blistering report that made the place sound like a high school version of Abu Ghraib. Yet the program continues to thrivein large part because no one except desperate parents, and a few state legislators, seems to care about what happens to the hundreds of kids who pass through its gates.
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School of Shock (Original Post)
xchrom
Mar 2012
OP
grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)1. Dear god almighty.
This article is going to haunt me....
f***in school of sadism.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. right? nt
grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)3. The article is 2007.
Has the place been shut down yet? Here's hoping.
eta: just googled and it looks like it's still in business, although Mathew Israel retired last year.
marmar
(77,088 posts)4. Jesus, Maria y Josef.....
pscot
(21,024 posts)5. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.
WakeUpNeo
(1 post)6. Please also see these related items:
Last edited Sun Mar 25, 2012, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)
http://bit.ly/GHTLK3http://pastebin.com/P2Ypjm63
or
http://www.science20.com/countering_tackling_woo/blog/why_principled_positions_matter_judge_rotenberg_center_and_autism_organizations-88297
and
https://www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-national/anonymous-targets-child-abuse-at-judge-rotenberg-educational-center
And a question:
Does Tobinworld = JRC West?
http://www.tobinworld.com
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)7. This has only just come to public attention? MY GOD!!!
Folks in the Autism Rights community have been furious over this place FOR YEARS!