Change.org petition against Judge Rotenberg Center

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https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-to ... eds-people

done.

Done.

Done, though I was uncomfortable with their asking for my street address. I made one up, but I don't see why it's relevant to a petition.

That's fair. They say they don't sell it and use it to send appropriate mailings when necessary (although I have never received anything from them).

Paper petitions in the US take all that information plus your ID/driver's license (I think) and voter ID, so that the names can be verified as valid. But of course online petitions are not quite so rigorous. They still succeed occasionally, and if nothing else sometimes help boost visibility on issues like this one.

I've also signed it. Nobody should be treated like that whether they're special needs, or not.

Done.

already signed a petition to close down this snake pit and shared it on all the social media. keep talking about it in other forums, share it on social media, protest and demonstrate.

and this worker 'regret'. he tortured those kids himself, and he should be put in the electric chair with the rest of the workers. no one held a gun to his head and forced him to do this. i'd like to try the device on him, on all of them.

i dont think he regrets it. I think he has his own selfish reasons to write this article and pretend to give a damn. i'd throw him and the others from a plane in the middle of the ocean.

thank you for bringing this up. if we never stop talking about it and scream our heads off, maybe the government will be forced to change.

I understand and applaud the sentiments behind this petition, though I don't think it is going to be the most effective way to bring about the changes needed and the closure of this appalling Centre.

My thoughts are that litigation is possibly the most effective tool in the context of the USA. Neuroscientists know that prolonged stress - particularly so when it is deliberately applied to children's brains - causes a cortisol response which can permanently damage the hippocampus.

You don't need to make a very large leap in thought to see the grounds for taking legal action for large damages against this Centre. fMRI and its ability to track adverse changes in the hippocampus and other brain structures offer an evidence pathway now, which an able lawyer could use to demonstrate - both to the Court and to the American public - the terrible damage ABA methodology can inflict on the children who have no choice in being exposed to prolonged stress. Neuroscience has established that the fear of continual punishment by a powerless child (as well as the punishment itself) alters the cortisol response and causes long term brain damage, impairs memory, and has a cascade effect.

The idealist in me would prefer that the USA instead steps up to the mark as a good international citizen, and ratifies the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child - which would force the closure of this centre - but realistically, I can't see the USA doing this any time soon if ever. There seems to be no shame at governmental levels that the failure to offer children these rights of protection puts the USA on a par only with Somalia. So do you think that level of shamelessness is going to be influenced by a petition?

The realist in me sees the need to hit this Centre where it hurts them - in the pocket; I think the damages could run into millions and the practise of lawyers acting for a percentage of the settlement, if successful, offers a potential pathway even for very financially disadvantaged victims to sue. A class action would probably have more chance of success, though they take longer.

I think its time that good intentions were reinforced by strategy and planning to do everything possible to stop this abuse at so-called therapeutic centres. It's a disgrace.

The Centre has been successfully sued in the past: http://www.lubinandmeyer.com/cases/rotenberg-shock.html

ASAN has been backing a move to get the FDA to ban the GED devices altogether. If they manage that then that would be better than litigation.