[HN Gopher] School wins legal battle to electric shock children ...
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School wins legal battle to electric shock children to 'correct
behaviour'
Author : heavyset_go
Score : 17 points
Date : 2021-10-13 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.independent.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.independent.co.uk)
| Natsu wrote:
| The headline alone doesn't give a clear picture of what's being
| discussed here:
|
| ===
|
| "One client of ours is a woman who hit her head against the wall
| so many times that her retinas were detached," said Attorney Max
| Stern, who represents the parents and guardians of Judge
| Rotenberg Center.
|
| "It was not until she went to multiple various other
| institutions, not until she got to JRC and got this treatment
| that she was able to get this behaviour under control so she
| could have surgery to make it possible for her to see again,"
| Stern told Massachusetts News.
| treeman79 wrote:
| Wife taught a class mostly functional autistic kids for a year.
| It was beyond brutal for her. The kids were hard enough but
| other staff enjoyed setting them off. She often
| 1-2 in her regular classes. Desks go flying most days. They
| run out of the classroom if not the school fairly often. She's
| been stabbed quite a few times with pencils and other sharp
| objects.
|
| These are the high functioning ones.
| RattleyCooper wrote:
| I feel like it's a good discussion; to what lengths are we
| willing to go to keep someone safe? We could put people into
| boxes, keep them drugged/knocked out and force-fed via tubes.
| Technically they'd be perfectly safe, so is it acceptable (they
| kind of mention this in the article as well)?
|
| When I was younger my dad told me a story about a kid with a
| mental disorder who would hit himself repeatedly in the head.
| They realized he wouldn't hit himself when he was holding a
| glass of water bc he would spill the water on himself and
| didn't like that. They kept giving him smaller and smaller
| glasses of water to hold until they got him to the point where
| he only had to have a thimble in his pocket(without any water),
| and that was enough to prevent him from hitting himself.
|
| While shocking people with electricity seems like an acceptable
| solution, when compared to the self harm, I wonder if some of
| these people could be helped without shocking them or drugging
| them. I'm also curious to know how strong the shocks are.
| lozenge wrote:
| And just one paragraph further...
|
| However, a 2006 report by the New York State Education
| Department found that the device was regularly used for minor
| disobedience and "behaviours that are not aggressive, health
| dangerous or destructive, such as nagging, swearing and failing
| to maintain a neat appearance".
|
| The report also found no evidence that the school "considers
| the potential negative effects, such as depression or anxiety,
| that may result from the use of aversive behavioural strategies
| with certain individual students".
|
| ---
|
| This is not some misunderstood school with a radical method.
| It's been investigated and condemned by the state authorities,
| the federal authorities (FDA) and internationally (by the UN as
| tantamount to torture). You'd be foolish to trust the school
| for claims like that.
| LinuxBender wrote:
| There is similar abuse in a school in northern California called
| Tobins World. Teachers/staff sit on the students, or have other
| students hold a student while other students are encouraged to
| beat the crap out of them. The school goes out of its way to
| ensure that no students have cellphone cameras to film any of
| this. Sometimes they sneak one in and a token teacher will be
| "fired" but not really. That school has produced a lot of
| dangerous gang members. It is argued some of the kids were
| destined for that anyway. Who knows. I'd wager there is truth in
| both statements and many of the kids had bad parents. It doesn't
| really make the environment they are put in justifiable.
|
| I am curious how many schools like this exist.
| quasse wrote:
| Wow, the list of atrocities on this place's Wikipedia page is
| horrifying.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Rotenberg_Educational_Ce...
|
| The founder sounds like a psychopath who was enamored with 1940's
| utopian literature based on the idea of shaping all behavior
| through direct reward and punishment.
| dumdumdumdum wrote:
| The logo is also very on point for a place like this.
| Mirioron wrote:
| > _In a video that surfaced in 2011, JRC staff tied an autistic
| boy face-down to a four-point board and shocked him 31 times at
| the highest amperage setting. The first shock was given for
| failing to take off his coat when asked, and the remaining 30
| shocks were given for screaming and tensing up while being
| shocked. The boy was later hospitalized with third degree burns
| and acute stress disorder, but no action was taken against any
| of the staff as neither the law nor JRC policy had been
| broken._
|
| I don't see how it's possible that an adult intentionally gives
| third degree burns to a someone else against their will, but is
| somehow absolved of criminal responsibility.
|
| > _Residents are also restricted from socializing with each
| other._
|
| And this is taxpayer funded? These people should be in prison
| or worse, provided that this is true.
| hellohntoday wrote:
| Aren't there federal or even international laws which prohibit
| this?
|
| My god it feels like this article was republished from the 1960s
| but this is actually happening now.
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(page generated 2021-10-13 23:02 UTC)