State Finds Problems
Ban Shock Therapy For Disabled Pupils

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The State Board of Regents last month banned the use of electric shock therapy to treat students with severe behavioral problems after a negative report by the State Education Department detailed problems at a Massachusetts site where New York students were treated.

One hundred and forty eight students from the state (82 percent of them from the city) with autism, mental retardation or other disabilities were sent to The Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., tuitions paid. The school is a 24-hour, sevenday facility which prescribes a treatment of aversive therapies.

Shocks by Remote

Treatments employed by the school include "aversive shock therapy," in which a graduated electronic decelerator (GED) is worn inside a fanny pack, with a staff member controlling the charges.

A NYSED report earlier this year found that the Rotenberg Center used such treatment on "students without a history of self-injurious behavior," as well as for behavior that was not dangerous, "such as nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance."

According to the NYSED report, the center's treatments are based on a model which does not differentiate between psychiatric and development-disabling disorders.

The institution's Michael Flammia took issue with what he said were omission of "critical facts that support use of aversives" in a letter to State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills responding to the report, including a previously favorable report on the Center from November 2005.

"There is no program in New York that can provide adequate treatment and education services to those currently attending JRC, thereby placing all of the students at JRC in danger of losing their educational gains at JRC and potentially suffering egregious bodily harm due to their life-threatening aggression and selfabusive behaviors," Mr. Flammia said.

The NYSED report also took issue with other treatments offered by JRC. The Contingent Food Program only provides students with a recommended amount of calories "by not engaging in certain target behaviors." If standards are not met by 7 p.m., the students are then brought up to 100 percent of their calorie allowance by being force-fed mashed potatoes sprinkled with liver powder.

The Specialized Food Program differs from the Contingent - only 20-25 percent of the daily calorie allowance is guaranteed for those students who do not behave appropriately. There are 10 New York students currently on the Contingent and one on the Specialized Program.

Less-Educated Educators

Other problems cited by the report include a 40-60 student-to-Qualified Attendant ratio. The average education of a QA, according to the report, is a high school diploma.

Mr. Flammia noted that all educational policies were reviewed and approved by NYSED in the 1970's.

On a weblog set up to combat negative press reports about the school, graduate Amy Levine wrote, "if it weren't for the Judge Rotenberg Center I don't believe I would have gone back to finish high school, or come off of the medication that was making me gain weight daily and go deeper into my severe depression. I believe that JRC saved me from myself, and they saved my life."