New revolutionary cure for autism

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Hundreds of children no other school wants — from the autistic to the merely troubled — attend a centre in America where electric shocks are administered for even the smallest misdemeanour. Forced to wear 10lb backpacks with electrodes attached to their skin, they never know when their teachers will deliver this ‘behaviour-modification’ therapy. It's at the Judge Rotenger school in Mass.

A former inmate of the Judge Rotenger special school for autistic children relives his experience. He had recently 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 hit – his arm or leg or, worse, his stomach. All he 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 to him where this recurring nightmare came from – not A Clockwork Orange or 1984, but the years he spent confined in America’s most controversial “behaviour-modification” institution.

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 programme continues to thrive – in large part because nobody, except desperate parents and a few legislators, seems to care about what happens to the hundreds of kids who pass through its gates.

If you want to know more Google Judge Rotenger and "shock". Visit also the official site of the school. You will find informations abou the techinalititie of electric shocks and a collection of nice euophemisms. Shocks are called "decelerators" of inappropriate behavior, like profanity and spitting, and deprivation of food "food witholding".

As for the controversy about the school see especially the Boston Globe, the NYT, ABC news and the Times of London
Eight states send students to this institution, with New York providing the most. The price tag for a year there is $220,000



monitoring the inmates

'Inmates'.
Isn't that what they criminals in prison?
Prisoners would not be treated as poorly as some children have,in the JRC,they are not criminals either.

This is at least the 3rd thread in 3 days about the JRC.

Was it recently featured in the news?

I've been to some pretty hardcore outdoor bound programs but wow this place sounds disgusting and its all locked down

An I thoguht shock therapy was illegal to use now without volunteering for it?

Maybe the shocks are more casual though like a light dog collar shock or something maybe its just like little shocks to your body parts and doesn't mess iwth you're brain at all.

Ya, the parents must sign a waver and pay to send their kid their.

I dont think this is a so called 'revolutionary cure for autism' its just behavior midification theripy, and IMO its compirible to Gitmo except here I dont think these kids deserve this kind of treatment, maby something else tho I have no suggestions so I guess until I do I dont have the real right to critisize.

well I gotta admit at $220,000 per year you gotta admit the parent's must be pretty desperate for some results and don't seem like there going to be giving up anytime soon these kids gonna have a rough childhoods

$220,000 per year ! !! !! ! OMG, jeeze... so these parents are rich, maby these kids childhoods wont be so rough afterall, well aside from this horrible tourture school.

This isn't shock therapy, not the kind where it goes through your brain. This is where they shock people on their skin.

The shocks also aren't particularly minor though. The "school" downplays how bad they are. They leave burns on people.

yeah there is no word for it besides criminal.

I wonder if just the heavy work of the 10lb backpack wpuld see similar results without the human torture. I know my son does much better when he wears his backpack full of toys. good vestibular input.

Yes there is a piece on the NYT of today:

"Just how painful those shocks are has been an area of particular debate. Technically, the lowest shock given by Rotenberg is roughly twice what pain researchers have said is tolerable for most humans, said James Eason, a professor of biomedical engineering at Washington and Lee University. The highest shock given by Rotenberg is three times the lowest amount.

The lawyer for Rotenberg, Mr. Flammia, said the current has to hurt to work."

The NYT expounds both sides of the problem, as usual.
Families may really be desperate for tantrums and violence of their children severely autistic. But the "tecniques" used in the "school" are not acceptable. Moreover a good percentage of the children there are Asperger, as they explain in the official site. The language of the official site is rather sinister.

Are the parents actually paying this? I thought it was the State/insurance, on the medical/healthcare system?

Why don't they just try putting such obviously chemically disturbed people on exclusion diets and in chemical "clear" housing to find out which foods and/or chemicals are upsetting their systems so severely?
Much cheaper and safer and most importantly non-invasive.
That's why they don't i suppose.

According to an article I read about the JRC, the state absorbs the cost.

God damned barbarians! I don't care what the kids "do". This isn't allowed at Gitmo. This cannot be done to criminals or terrorists. What sort of countru would allow this to happen to ANY children?

Torture can be, and is, used on suspected terrorists.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1322866


The good 'ol USA, of course! Land of the free, home of the brave! The country where autistic 12 year olds who misbehave get put in cuffs and suffer punishment by the full weight of the law.

One more thread on this and i'll scream. GAh!

I AM SERIOUSLY GETTING SICK OF THESE JRC THREADS... I RESPONDED TO ONE AND THATS ENOUGH...

IF I SEE A SINGLE MORE JRC THREAD SHOW UP ON THE THREAD LIST I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL FIND WHO IS POSTING THESE THREADS REPEATEDLY. FIND WHERE THEY LIVE AND GO THERE AND SMASH THEIR COMPUTER TO PIECES!! !