Why the Judge Rotenberg Center Should STOP Skin Shocks

The image above is a drawing of a student of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, the JRC, getting painful skin shocks from a former employee there. Sadly, these images and stories are not made up. This is really happening. For decades, the JRC has used a device called the Graduated Electric Decelerator, or GED to send painful skin shocks to students with disabilities and students of color. This device has been deemed by The United Nations to be a torture device. This has a huge negative affect on the Autism community, because the JRC still continues to use harmful and hurtful shocks as behavioral modification. Survivors of this cruel practice will all testify against it, because the trauma they endured will stay with them forever.

As an Autistic person and advocate for disabled adults and children, it is my duty to take care of an issue in my community that is a pressing issue for POC and disability rights. It is my place to talk about what is still happening at the JRC and why they need to ban the use of the GED. Administering high voltage shocks to the skin causes skin injuries, permanent skin damage, and even damage to brain cells. Aside from physical injuries caused by the GED, there are permanent mental and psychological issues, such as trauma, depression, and anxiety. PTSD never goes away.

It makes me sick that that us disabled people have to keep repeating ourselves, talking about our disabilities, and raising awareness about the discrimination, injustice, and gruesome forms of abuse we are still facing today ad nauseum. Until we all gain equality, equity, accessibility, love, and acceptance for all disabled children and adults of all races and all backgrounds, non disabled people will continue to hear of it. We will not stop talking until the war on disabled people is finally over.

Recently, a judge decided to overturn the FDA ban on the GED, allowing schools to use it as a means of behavioral modification. This means that it is now legal for teachers to use the GED to correct the behavior of their disabled students, meaning that every time a student does not follow instructions or engages in any behavior that a teacher deems inappropriate, he or she can use the GED to modify the disabled student's behavior. The traumatic experience does not teach the child what to do differently or offer any viable and reasonable solutions to the child the next time he or she has difficulty following instructions or regulating his or her emotions. Instead of taking a proactive part in the learning environment, the teachers in the JRC are taking an abusive and reactive part in training children.

Trauma is not treatment. The Judge Rotenberg Center has responded to the criticism and public outcry against the use of the GED with violence and lawsuits, instead of taking the concerns seriously. Due to their apathy and hatred of disabled students, this so called school needs to be shut down. The way the JRC handled the public comments on their use of the GED was literally taking everything personally and feeling attacked, instead of listening to what we had to say.

We now have to contact as many professionals in psychology and education and even contact ABA professionals to urge them to make public statements about the GED, because the JRC will not take disabled people or parents of disabled children seriously. If they do not listen to us, the caregivers, parents, or professionals, then we will call our Congress, our Senators, our state legislators, and others to urge them to vote for more progressive laws and fight for acceptance, patience, and evidence- based, safe practices. We will continue to push state legislators, Congress, the Senate, and Representatives to vote on laws that ban classroom abuse, such as the use of the GED.

We all need to advocate for a lot more patient, understanding, and safe forms of behavior modification and for training in all schools for teachers to use a more proactive approach to teaching. Teachers should be taught to proactively look for distractions and other things that make it harder for some students to learn and follow instructions. When instructed to do something, a child may be distracted and needs more time to understand what the teacher said and to understand what is going on. Children on the Autism spectrum can have more difficulty understanding or following instructions, because there are a lot of things going on at once. Abuse and emotional trauma like the GED is only going to make students fear their teachers at the time, but later lead to anger and resentment.

The GED is very harmful and barbaric in so many ways. This is no way to discipline children. If it is wrong to do this to non disabled and non Autistic students, then why is it perfectly fine to do it to those with disabilities? For decades, this harmful practice has been justified as a tool to get disabled students to learn the right behavior. Sure, a student may learn compliance, but the student will also learn to fear the teacher. The student will learn to follow orders and instructions out of fear for what will happen if he or she does not. The student is not very likely to associate the wrong behavior with the skin shock, but rather associate the teacher with pain and suffering. Yes, the child may learn to stop the behavior, but this is deadly to his or her mental health. Now, every time that student sees the teacher, he or she will be afraid of him or her.

Children who had to endure getting electric shocks as punishment will forever suffer PTSD and significantly lower self- esteem and also be afraid of making mistakes or be too afraid of failure to try anything at all. This kind of punishment will also result in failure to thrive, meaning that because they are afraid to make mistakes or make the wrong choices, they will not want to try anything new, advocate for themselves, and not be able to set boundaries, resulting in them living in fear and being trapped mentally and not want to go far in life because of the trauma.

I also need to remind you all that if you think this is wrong to use in a mainstream classroom, then you should find it wrong to use in a special education school or center as well. If you would not punish neurotypical students for not following instructions, you should not punish Autistic students and those with other disabilities for the same behavior.

A student with a disability who is struggling to follow instructions is not doing so on purpose; he or she is simply not understanding the instructions. If he or she is not following the instructions on purpose, because we know that sometimes they do that, it is still important to figure out why a child does not want to follow instructions. Are they having a bad day? Are they tired or hungry? Are they frustrated about something? Finding out why a child is doing certain behaviors or not following instructions and helping them find a solution rather than using a punishment is very important. Being proactive rather than reactive will greatly boost productivity. Let me reiterate the point that using punishment, especially any form of restraint or seclusion, especially the GED, is wrong and only causes trauma and should never be used.

But according to the logic of the JRC, because a student is disabled or disabled and a POC, the only way to teach him or her the right kind of behavior is through painful skin shocks of the GED. By their logic, it is not alright to harm non disabled students because they are special, but it is alright to torture disabled students, because they do not matter as much and that seems to be the only thing that gets their attention. By your logic, it is fine to mistreat students, as long as they are disabled, because they cannot understand or follow the rules and instructions. By your logic, it is also fine to abuse black people, because they are black and therefor, more "disobedient". By your logic, it is alright to punish a crippled person, because he or she did not follow the order to walk. By your logic, it is alright to harm a blind person, because he or she did not listen and just see. By your logic, JRC, it is perfectly fine to abuse a person with diabetes or cancer, because they just should have followed instructions and gotten well. Do you see how ignorant and harmful your logic is, JRC? Do you see how stupid this is?

To the judge who overturned the FDA ban on the GED, I hope you never have to experience being electrocuted and abused. I hope that your children or grand children never have to endure the pain and suffering that the teachers at the Judge Rotenberg Center inflict on these poor, sweet, innocent children. I hope your friend's and loved one's children never have to go through the harm and abuse these children go through.

To the FDA, please fight harder for the ban on such insidious, barbaric, and hateful practices in all schools. Please advocate for safe and science based practices in classrooms.

To all the teachers, parents, caregivers, psychologists, psychiatrists, ABA therapists, and other people who work with disabled children and adults, please fight for change, inclusion, acceptance, and safety in all schools and education centers.

To all allies of the disabled community, including disabled people, please urge all professionals in schools, the leadership of ABA programs, education board of directors, the leadership of your whole school district, legislators, Congress, Senators, Representatives, and others to make a public statement and take a stand against the unwarranted and cruel use of the GED and hold the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center accountable for this crime against humanity. Without your support, our brothers and sisters with disabilities will continue to suffer and some may perish due to the intensity of the skin shocks. Survivors of this abuse are already taking a stand on it and so are the rest of us with disabilities. What will you do to end this cycle of abuse?