Old Articles~But Should Still Be Read

School of Shock by Jennifer Gonnerman
Mother Jones Sept/Oct 2007
http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/school-shock

The article is very lengthy so I will post only a link for you to go and read.  I would, however, like to point out a few things that were "shocking."  The article is about the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Massachusetts, where founder Matthew Israel uses controversial techniques to change the behavior of children. 

Israel studied B.F. Skinner's human behavior course, and soon became fascinated. He then started his own studies on children.

"In 1971, he founded the Behavior Research Institute in Rhode Island, a facility that would later move to Massachusetts and become known as the Judge Rotenberg Center. Israel took in children nobody else wanted—severely autistic and mentally retarded kids who did dangerous things to themselves and others. To change their behavior, he developed a large repertoire of punishments: spraying kids in the face with water, shoving ammonia under their noses, pinching the soles of their feet, smacking them with a spatula, forcing them to wear a "white-noise helmet" that assaulted them with static."

 There have been more reports of abuse, neglect, and even deaths, all to be explained away, as in the cases of:

"In 1985, Vincent Milletich, an autistic 22-year-old, suffered a seizure and died after he was put in restraints and forced to wear a white-noise helmet. Five years later, 19-year-old Linda Cornelison, who had the mental capacity of a toddler, refused to eat. On the bus to school, she clutched her stomach; someone had to carry her inside, and she spent the day on a couch in a classroom. Linda could not speak, and the staff treated her actions as misbehaviors. Between 3:52 p.m. and 8 p.m., staffers punished her with 13 spatula spankings, 29 finger pinches, 14 muscle squeezes, and 5 forced inhalings of ammonia. It turned out that Linda had a perforated stomach. She died on the operating table at 1:45 a.m."

 Once Israel started using shock therapy, a two-second zap to the skin, he realized he could shock a child repeatedly (in the case of Brandon, 5,000 shocks in one day) but not have the effect he wanted, and he wanted to upgrade the device to amp up the shock.  The company that made the original device refused to do so, and so Israel decided to do it himself and came up with two of his own-both give two second shocks, but one delivers a shock that is three times more painful.

From the article that Gonnerman wrote, here are some short facts:

• 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
• Israel, 74, still holds the title of executive director, for which he pays himself nearly $400,000 in salary and benefits
• Before we set off on our tour of the facility, there's something Israel wants me to see: Before & After, a homemade movie featuring six of his most severe cases. Israel has been using some of the same grainy footage for more than two decades, showing it to parents of prospective students as well as visiting reporters. They've already mailed me a copy, but Israel wants to make sure I watch it. An assistant slips the tape into the vcr, Israel presses the remote, and we all stare at the screen:

• 1977: An 11-year-old girl named Caroline arrives at the school strapped down onto a stretcher, her head encased in a helmet. In the next shot, free from restraints, she crouches down and tries to smash her helmeted head against the floor...Both girls exhibit autistic behaviors, and compared with these scenes, the "After" footage looks almost unbelievable: Janine splashes in a plastic pool, while Caroline grins as she sits in a chair at a beauty salon. "Most people haven't seen these pictures," Israel says, setting down the remote. "They haven't seen children like this, so they cannot imagine. These are children for whom positive-only procedures did not work, drugs did not work. And if it wasn't for this treatment, some of these people would not be alive." The video is extremely persuasive: The girls' self-abuse is so violent and so frightening that it almost makes me want to grab a ged remote and push the button myself. Of course, this is precisely the point....Considering how compelling the "After" footage is, I am surprised to learn that five of the six children featured in it are still here. "This is Caroline," one of my escorts says an hour or two later as we walk down a corridor. Without an introduction, I would not have known. Caroline, 39, slumps forward in a wheelchair, her fists balled up, head covered by a red helmet. "Blow me a kiss, Caroline," Israel says. She doesn't respond.

 Of course, after reading the article, I was in disbelief, and I looked up Judge Rotenburg Educational Center at http://www.judgerc.org/ I actually was not surprised to see a response to the Mother Jones article, as you can tell this is a controversial article with a certain "slant" to it.  Ms. Gonnerman even points out in her article the numerous attempts the media tries to exploit the tactics in the facility, with Israel fighting back each time.  If you take a look at the website, it does have a feeling of defensiveness to it, and I think that if you feel you are doing the right thing, you wouldn't shouldn't have to devote a whole section of your webpage to defend yourself-you know you are doing right by the children and their parents.  But to find the response to this particular article, you need to go to the main page link at http://www.judgerc.org/, look under "Papers & Documents,"  scroll down to 

#7 "Responses to Mother Jones article. This is a response to a very critical magazine article that appeared in the Mother Jones Magazine in August 2007."

 Ok, so I read the reply; but I can't help but be sarcastic when a response includes something like this:

"Out of a total of 265 column inches that her article occupies, only 15 inches (6% percent of the article) present any of the benefits of JRC’s treatment."

Who, really, took the time to measure out the column inches and calculate the percentage of negative versus positive comments about JRC's treatments?  Who thought to do that?  

"She publishes anonymous critical comments made by some former employees of JRC.  One of these was probably Greg Miller..."

 When you have to use probably to identify an anonymous source, you don't sound too confident.  And why do you have to know who the source is?  Yes, you have disgruntled employees, probably because they want to be teachers and help kids, not be watched 24/7 by cameras, shock children, be forbidden to talk with one another about baseball games and be baited into doing so.  

It is also interesting that JRC points out itself it's own high turn over: "No space is given to the hundreds or thousands of current or former staff members who have positive things to say about JRC;" while the article points out: "Employees quit or are fired so often that two-thirds of the direct-care employees remain on the job for less than a year."

So that's only two short takes at the School of Shock and the Judge Rotenberg Center.