On Thursday 14 February 2013 (Valentine’s Day!), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick filed a motion to vacate (render null) the 1987 settlement agreement that has permitted the Judge Rotenberg Center to use aversives, including the notorious electric shock GED devices. This could mean the end of aversives at the JRC.
From the press release:
“The governor has always been an ally when it comes to protecting these severely disabled children from the JRC’s barbaric practices,” said Joyce. “This comes on the heels of the FDA’s meeting with the JRC over their use of GED shock devices that have not even been approved for use but are strapped to disabled children right now administering painful skin shocks for simple misbehaviors. It is time for this order to be vacated and to close this dark chapter in how we allow disabled people to be treated in our state.”
In 1987, a settlement was reached between the JRC and the Commonwealth allowing the continued use of aversives. The court order was supposed to be vacated in 1988, but was extended indefinitely because the JRC was not yet licensed a year after the order’s issuance. At the time, the GED skin shock devices were not yet in use and aversive therapy consisted of water sprays, taste aversives, muscle squeezes, spanks, pinches and restrained time outs. The JRC continually defends its actions based on this court order, and claims that it denies the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) the right to regulate or prohibit the use of the painful skin shocks and other aversives.
Read the full post on Autistic Hoya, here .
Lydia Brown has uploaded the actual court documents. You can also read them on Autistic Hoya, here.
Many thanks to Lydia Brown, Shain Neumeier, Emily Titon and the other dedicated disability rights activists for their tireless efforts to put an end to the abuse that occurs at the JRC.
If you are unfamiliar with the torture that takes place in the name of therapy at the JRC, you can read more about it on Autistic Hoya.
Brown posted a letter from a survivor of the JRC in mid January, you can read it here
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