State To Clamp Down On Skin Shocks At Judge Rotenberg Center
(s.e. smith/Care2)
February 22, 2013
CANTON, MASSACHUSETTS– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] Big, and fantastic, news out of Massachusetts, where education officials, State Attorney General Margaret Coakley, and others are making a move to regulate the notorious Judge Rotenberg Center more closely, reacting to public outcry over the school’s controversial use of shock “treatment” on disabled students. This decision was made in part because of people like you, almost 12,000 of whom signed a petition here to demand closure of the Judge Rotenberg Center.
While regulation isn’t closure, it’s the first step in a closer investigation of the school and one that will lead to safer conditions for students — and, possibly, an eventual decision to shut the school down if it doesn’t meet standards and provide students with the best possible learning environment.
What, exactly, are officials doing here?
Coakley filed a motion last week to vacate a court order that has allowed the Judge Rotenberg Center to stand outside regulatory scrutiny since 1987. Fun fact: the school was renamed from the Behavioral Research Institute to the Judge Rotenberg Center in the 1990s for the very judge who limited government authority over the school with that court order in response to attempts to shut it down in the late 1980s. Under the court order, the school’s questionable educational practices were allowed to continue, and the state agencies who normally oversee facilities like the Judge Rotenberg Center had their hands tied.
Entire article:
Success! MA to Clamp Down on Shock Therapy in School
http://tinyurl.com/ide0222131a
Related:
Patrick fights Rotenberg shock therapy decree (Boston Globe)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0222131b
Judge Rotenberg Center — Facility Uses Electric Shock To Change Behavior (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/ma/jrc.htm
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