Rotenburg school

This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/064...y,74685,6.html


School of Shock
Inside a school where mentally disturbed students are jolted into good
behavior

****************
The only thing that sets these students apart from kids at any other
school in America—aside from their special-ed designation—is the
electric wires running from their backpacks to their wrists. Each wire
connects to a silver-dollar-sized metal disk strapped with a cloth
band to the student's wrist, forearm, abdomen, thigh, or foot. Inside
each student's backpack is a battery and a generator, both about the
size of a VHS cassette. Each generator is uniquely coded to a single
keychain transmitter kept in a clear plastic box labeled with the
student's name. Staff members dressed neatly in ties and green aprons
keep the boxes hooked to their belts, and their eyes trained on the
students' behavior. They stand ready, if they witness a behavior
they've been told to target, to flip open the box, press the button,
and deliver a painful two-second electrical shock into the student at
the end of the wire.

***************************

Each classroom, however, is slightly different because JRC students
exhibit a range of abilities and behaviors. In a classroom of
lower-functioning students, one of the girls can't stop bouncing up
and down, and her peers wear mitts to prevent scratching or grunt
instead of talk. But down the hall, a higher-functioning class has
kids studying chemistry and a girl named Fatima who's starting a job
at Bertucci's that afternoon. Other rooms are "alternative learning
centers," where extra staff is on hand to monitor kids who are too
unruly for regular classes; there are mats on the floor and restraints
at the ready because the students are so often wrestled down or bound
to a chair.

But in every class the logic of the Skinner Box comes into play. There
are rewards for acting the right way. Kids wear cards on their belts,
where they collect tokens for good behavior, hard work, or adhering to
a "contract" to sit still for a few minutes or get through the morning
without acting out. Most classrooms have a "reward box" full of
goodies like puzzles and games that the kids can take home, and a
"reward corner" where deserving students can watch cartoons for a few
minutes at a time. There's also a dazzling "reward room," equipped
with a pool table and arcade games, to which the well behaved earn
entrance, as well as a "contract store" where students can buy DVDs or
handbags with points they've earned for staying on track. Pizza
parties, weekly field days, and less restrictive housing placements
are also part of its positive programming. There's even a "whimsy
room," a magical-looking chamber with color-crowded walls, a
cartoonishly enormous chandelier out of a Dr. Seuss book, and a grand
table with high-backed chairs made of clear plastic laced with color.
The room, which exists for parties, looks like a designer's attempt to
paint a picture of fun.

******************************

Students who end up at the Rotenberg Center usually begin their
educations in a local school district's special-education programs.
When regular schools cannot handle a child, local officials and
parents look for private school options, including those out of state.
No matter where the child goes, the state assumes the cost, under its
obligation to provide a sound education for everyone until the age of
21. (Most students return to New York once they reach 21, but there
are 24 New York adults who've remained at Rotenberg.)

The Rotenberg Center—with an annual tuition of $214,000—has been
positioned as the program of last resort: It doesn't automatically
reject anyone except for sex offenders and those with very serious
medical conditions. Many of its students were thrown out or refused by
other schools.

****************************
People on all sides of the debate over aversives ask the same
question. New York showed some concerns about the school's approach in
the '70s and '80s; the state balked at paying for the school until
parents sued. But it wasn't until this summer—with a lawsuit in the
mix—that the New York State Education Department moved to regulate the
use of aversive techniques on its students. (While the Rotenberg
Center is the only place where New York students get skin shocks, two
private preschools that New Yorkers attend—one near Albany and the
other in Maine—use noxious tastes like lemon juice to punish kids.)
The New York State Office of Mental Health bars any aversive
techniques. Eleven other states already ban or restrict aversive
therapies. And while psychologists largely support the validity of
aversive methods, practitioners generally believe that such techniques
must be used sparingly and very carefully. But only now is New York
attempting to control their use.

******************************\
--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Jan 23, 6:00 pm, toto wrote:
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/064...y,74685,6.html


From what I understood in the article, these kids, a lot of them, are
there out of last resort. There are kids who are truly uncontrollable.
For instance, a former babysitter of mine works with a child of ten who
has extreme anger problems. *No one* is allowed to be alone with him at
any time. He's violent, he issues death threats, threats of violence,
has uncontrollable tantrums, throws furniture, the whole nine yards.
There is no school in our district who is prepared to deal with this.
The parents don't seem willing or able to deal with him. Now my son is
either pdd-nos, or autistic, but certainly not angry, violent, or in
any way need anything more than possibly an aide. I wouldn't need to
consider a special school. In a case where the parents are at their
wits end, and willing to try anything, even something that seems
distasteful may be effective, or even the only option.

Stasya

"toto" wrote in message
...
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/064...y,74685,6.html


School of Shock
Inside a school where mentally disturbed students are jolted into good
behavior

These types of punishments used to be more common. When I worked in human
services, they had old catalogs laying around that sold things like
lemon-juice squirters, arm splints, and the infamous "TokBak", a device that
was supposed to stop kids from screaming by directing and amplifying the
screams right back into their own ears (actually, some old-timers said a few
kids actually kids liked that). We weren't allowed to use these of course
because everything had to be the least restrictive method.

I guess for some people, though, "least restrictive" doesn't work.
214K a year is an awful lot of money.

"toto" wrote in message
...
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/064...y,74685,6.html

Totally agree with you on this one...compare this to the bill being
submitted in California that would send parents to jail for a year for any
punishment that is intended to inflict pain (including a light swat to a
diapered behind) and you have a schizophrenic system of government that
allows abuse by schools in one state and denies parental decisions in
another...

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regs...s/5275886.html

sigh

--
Buny

" Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal."
~ Albert Camus

toto wrote:
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

Until I've walked a mile in the shoes of those kids' families, I can't
judge. This would clearly not be appropriate for most kids with
behavioral issues. But if you go far enough out to the most extreme
cases, who am I to say that it's no good? It sounds like they're
trying to help the kids work up to their potential, whatever that might
be, using both positive and negative reinforcement. It's Orwellian and
creepy, but wrong? I don't know.

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel
and the Bug, three and a half

On 24 Jan 2007 20:23:37 -0800, "Akuvikate"
wrote:


toto wrote:
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

Until I've walked a mile in the shoes of those kids' families, I can't
judge. This would clearly not be appropriate for most kids with
behavioral issues. But if you go far enough out to the most extreme
cases, who am I to say that it's no good? It sounds like they're
trying to help the kids work up to their potential, whatever that might
be, using both positive and negative reinforcement. It's Orwellian and
creepy, but wrong? I don't know.
\
Did you go read the entire article?

The treatment is a bit more humane than the aversives they began with,
but....

Some more quotes:

In the early days of his work with aversive stimuli, Israel and his
staff used spanking, pinches, muscle squeezes, water sprays, aromatic
ammonia, and unpleasant tastes to punish problematic behavior.

They still withhold food from some students as an aversive, but shocks
are their main treatment.

The school began using electric shock in 1989, but the device they
first used, called SIBIS, was so weak that many students grew
accustomed to it, eroding its effectiveness. So Israel developed the
GED, which he registered with the Food and Drug Administration in
1995. (The GED was classified in such a way that it only required FDA
registration, not approval.) When students grew innured to that,
Israel brought forth the GED-4, three times as powerful as the
original GED. That version is not registered with the FDA, which now
says the Rotenberg Center is exempt because it's only using the
machines in-house. The skin shocks at Rotenberg aren't a form of
"electroshock therapy," which involves far more powerful shocks
traveling through the brain. The GED-4 sends 45 milliamperes into the
surface of the skin, the kind of current that a fairly weak recharger
can send to your laptop battery. It's enough to hurt, delivering a
rapid, vibrating pain. Some compare the sensation to a strong pinch, a
bee sting, or a tattoo needle's bite. "Painful shock, muscular control
is lost" is one federal- government shorthand for the experience.

************************
After visiting the Rotenberg Center this spring, New York state
inspectors concluded that "the background and preparation of staff is
not sufficient," that JRC shocks students "without a clear history of
self-injurious behavior," and that it uses the GED "for behaviors that
are not aggressive, health dangerous, or destructive, such as nagging,
swearing, and failing to keep a neat appearance." What's more, the
inspectors said, the program for withholding food raised health
concerns, and the classroom instruction was substandard.

*************************************

Israel says the inspection was conducted by psychologists biased
against his methods. But the New York report is just the start of
JRC's current troubles. The Massachusetts agency (all JRC's operations
have been located in the Bay State since 1996) that licenses JRC will
inspect the school in coming months to see if requirements it imposed
after a 2003 visit have been met. A separate Massachusetts agency has
referred an allegation of abuse at JRC to local police; the claim is
that the GED burned a student. Meanwhile, a Long Island mother whose
son Antwone was treated at the JRC has sued her local school board and
the center for using aversive therapy that allegedly caused the boy
"serious physical injuries and mental anguish." At the same time, the
New York legislature is considering a new bill that would ban skin
shock outright on New York students.

********************************
in the past couple years, the number of New Yorkers going to the
school has swelled—but not necessarily because their behaviors led
other schools to pass on them. "It was that the in-state beds were
full," Cort says. "They were getting a larger number of students
because of a lack of capacity in New York State."

(So note that at least some of these kids who are being shocked are
*not* kids who were rejected by other schools due to their behavior)

**********************************

(It isn't just used for the most difficult behaviors either, but to
increase compliance and obedience to authority)

Sometimes the explanation to the student—and to outside observers—is
simple and obvious: no tearing out your hair, no hitting yourself,
stop scratching. But sometimes, the reasons are more obscure. Don't
raise your hands, no swearing, stay in your seat. In the school's
point of view, dangerous behaviors are sometimes preceded by seemingly
benign ones. When the school detects a pattern, it might punish the
prelude in order to prevent the harmful act. If a student typically
slaps the arms of his chair, swears, and stands up before he attacks a
teacher, a staffer might shock him when he stands up, when he swears,
or perhaps when he slaps the arms of his chair. This approach is
valid, say psychologists who defend Israel's approach—as long as
whoever is administering the shock is sure that the minor behavior
he's punishing is actually a predictor of something serious.

That caution also applies to the automatic shocking devices that the
facility sometimes uses. A child who tears his hair out might be told
never to put his hands to his head. He might be instructed not to even
raise his hands from his sides. To enforce this rule, the center in
some cases will rig plastic holsters to the student's hips. He has to
keep his hands in the holsters. If he lifts his hands out of them, a
device automatically shocks him, and keeps shocking him at one-second
intervals until he puts his hands back. The rationale behind the
device is that punishment must be immediate to be effective.

But after some serious incidents the student is not punished right
away. For example, when a student attacks a staff member in a
life-threatening manner, "we don't go to the cops," says Israel. "We
don't do that." Instead, Rotenberg Center officials keep both crime
and punishment in-house: The student has his hands and feet restrained
and is then shocked five times, at random intervals, over a period
that can last up to 30 minutes.

Sometimes, the student gets shocked for doing precisely what he's
told. In a few cases where a student is suspected of being capable of
an extremely dangerous but infrequent behavior, the staff at Rotenberg
won't wait for him to try it. They will exhort him to do it, and then
punish him. In these behavior rehearsal lessons, staff members will
force a student to start a dangerous activity—for a person who likes
to cut himself, they might get him to pick up a plastic knife on the
table—and then shock him when he does.

Automatic devices, lengthy shocking sessions, and behavior rehearsal
lessons are not what typical students receive. Israel says that among
the students who get skin shocks, the average is one zap a week.
Rarely does someone get shocked as often as 15 times a day, but Israel
wouldn't be embarrassed if they did. He's sure it works, recalling one
of his toughest cases—a kid who made himself vomit constantly and was
at risk of starving to death. "I mean, his life was saved," Israel
says. "If we hadn't had the GED, I don't know how we would have kept
him alive."

But the GED isn't only used when a life is at stake, or when a student
hurts himself or another, but also for "noncompliance" or "simple
refusal." "We don't allow individuals just to stay in bed all day,"
says Dr. Robert von Heyn, a Rotenberg clinician, in a video for
parents. "We want to teach people. So we may use the GED to treat
noncompliance." Other behavior that doesn't appear dangerous also
could earn a zap. While it might seem excessive to shock a student for
nagging his teacher, Israel asks, what if the kid nags all the time,
every minute, every day? The nagging interferes with his learning, so
he can't learn self-control and develop normally. JRC's choice is to
shock him, stop the nagging, and let him learn.


Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel
and the Bug, three and a half

--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

"toto" wrote in message
...
On 24 Jan 2007 20:23:37 -0800, "Akuvikate"
wrote:


toto wrote:
This is not a *new* story, but it's a disturbing one at least for me.
I cannot imagine allowing anyone to use these on my autistic grandson
for *any* reason. There have to be better ways.

Until I've walked a mile in the shoes of those kids' families, I can't
judge. This would clearly not be appropriate for most kids with
behavioral issues. But if you go far enough out to the most extreme
cases, who am I to say that it's no good? It sounds like they're
trying to help the kids work up to their potential, whatever that might
be, using both positive and negative reinforcement. It's Orwellian and
creepy, but wrong? I don't know.
\
Did you go read the entire article?

The treatment is a bit more humane than the aversives they began with,
but....

Some more quotes:

In the early days of his work with aversive stimuli, Israel and his
staff used spanking, pinches, muscle squeezes, water sprays, aromatic
ammonia, and unpleasant tastes to punish problematic behavior.

They still withhold food from some students as an aversive, but shocks
are their main treatment.

The school began using electric shock in 1989, but the device they
first used, called SIBIS, was so weak that many students grew
accustomed to it, eroding its effectiveness. So Israel developed the
GED, which he registered with the Food and Drug Administration in
1995. (The GED was classified in such a way that it only required FDA
registration, not approval.) When students grew innured to that,
Israel brought forth the GED-4, three times as powerful as the
original GED. That version is not registered with the FDA, which now
says the Rotenberg Center is exempt because it's only using the
machines in-house. The skin shocks at Rotenberg aren't a form of
"electroshock therapy," which involves far more powerful shocks
traveling through the brain. The GED-4 sends 45 milliamperes into the
surface of the skin, the kind of current that a fairly weak recharger
can send to your laptop battery. It's enough to hurt, delivering a
rapid, vibrating pain. Some compare the sensation to a strong pinch, a
bee sting, or a tattoo needle's bite. "Painful shock, muscular control
is lost" is one federal- government shorthand for the experience.

************************
After visiting the Rotenberg Center this spring, New York state
inspectors concluded that "the background and preparation of staff is
not sufficient," that JRC shocks students "without a clear history of
self-injurious behavior," and that it uses the GED "for behaviors that
are not aggressive, health dangerous, or destructive, such as nagging,
swearing, and failing to keep a neat appearance." What's more, the
inspectors said, the program for withholding food raised health
concerns, and the classroom instruction was substandard.

Considering that many with autism have sensory issues that cause them to not
eat well enough to begin with--i.e., that often cause wegith gain to be an
issue...witholding food as punishment coudl definately cause a sydnrome
known as failure to thrive. If parents did this, they would be charged with
child abuse/neglect!!!



*************************************

Israel says the inspection was conducted by psychologists biased
against his methods. But the New York report is just the start of
JRC's current troubles. The Massachusetts agency (all JRC's operations
have been located in the Bay State since 1996) that licenses JRC will
inspect the school in coming months to see if requirements it imposed
after a 2003 visit have been met. A separate Massachusetts agency has
referred an allegation of abuse at JRC to local police; the claim is
that the GED burned a student. Meanwhile, a Long Island mother whose
son Antwone was treated at the JRC has sued her local school board and
the center for using aversive therapy that allegedly caused the boy
"serious physical injuries and mental anguish." At the same time, the
New York legislature is considering a new bill that would ban skin
shock outright on New York students.

********************************
in the past couple years, the number of New Yorkers going to the
school has swelled-but not necessarily because their behaviors led
other schools to pass on them. "It was that the in-state beds were
full," Cort says. "They were getting a larger number of students
because of a lack of capacity in New York State."

(So note that at least some of these kids who are being shocked are
*not* kids who were rejected by other schools due to their behavior)

**********************************

(It isn't just used for the most difficult behaviors either, but to
increase compliance and obedience to authority)

Sometimes the explanation to the student-and to outside observers-is
simple and obvious: no tearing out your hair, no hitting yourself,
stop scratching. But sometimes, the reasons are more obscure. Don't
raise your hands, no swearing, stay in your seat. In the school's
point of view, dangerous behaviors are sometimes preceded by seemingly
benign ones. When the school detects a pattern, it might punish the
prelude in order to prevent the harmful act. If a student typically
slaps the arms of his chair, swears, and stands up before he attacks a
teacher, a staffer might shock him when he stands up, when he swears,
or perhaps when he slaps the arms of his chair. This approach is
valid, say psychologists who defend Israel's approach-as long as
whoever is administering the shock is sure that the minor behavior
he's punishing is actually a predictor of something serious.

That caution also applies to the automatic shocking devices that the
facility sometimes uses. A child who tears his hair out might be told
never to put his hands to his head.

Interesting idea....a child who has been trained to do this....what happens
then, when the child is outside and a sintinging insect then alights on the
child's head. Does the properly trained child now allow the stinging insect
to continue to sting him over and over because the school has trained him to
do so?

Again, if a parent has done this, the parent would be arrested and charged
with criminal abuse/neglect....


He might be instructed not to even
raise his hands from his sides.
To enforce this rule, the center in
some cases will rig plastic holsters to the student's hips. He has to
keep his hands in the holsters. If he lifts his hands out of them, a
device automatically shocks him, and keeps shocking him at one-second
intervals until he puts his hands back. The rationale behind the
device is that punishment must be immediate to be effective.

A future child abuser/sexual preduator's dream, no doubt! A child who has
been trained not to protect himself from attack....




But after some serious incidents the student is not punished right
away. For example, when a student attacks a staff member in a
life-threatening manner, "we don't go to the cops," says Israel. "We
don't do that." Instead, Rotenberg Center officials keep both crime
and punishment in-house: The student has his hands and feet restrained
and is then shocked five times, at random intervals, over a period
that can last up to 30 minutes.

Sometimes, the student gets shocked for doing precisely what he's
told. In a few cases where a student is suspected of being capable of
an extremely dangerous but infrequent behavior, the staff at Rotenberg
won't wait for him to try it. They will exhort him to do it, and then
punish him. In these behavior rehearsal lessons, staff members will
force a student to start a dangerous activity-for a person who likes
to cut himself, they might get him to pick up a plastic knife on the
table-and then shock him when he does.

With a child with autism, who needs routine, this is the ultimate in
chaos...it is hard enough for the heurotyicpal to understand...but for the
person whose world is chaotic due to disability, this is added cruetly....




Automatic devices, lengthy shocking sessions, and behavior rehearsal
lessons are not what typical students receive. Israel says that among
the students who get skin shocks, the average is one zap a week.
Rarely does someone get shocked as often as 15 times a day, but Israel
wouldn't be embarrassed if they did. He's sure it works, recalling one
of his toughest cases-a kid who made himself vomit constantly and was
at risk of starving to death. "I mean, his life was saved," Israel
says. "If we hadn't had the GED, I don't know how we would have kept
him alive."

But the GED isn't only used when a life is at stake, or when a student
hurts himself or another, but also for "noncompliance" or "simple
refusal." "We don't allow individuals just to stay in bed all day,"
says Dr. Robert von Heyn, a Rotenberg clinician, in a video for
parents. "We want to teach people. So we may use the GED to treat
noncompliance." Other behavior that doesn't appear dangerous also
could earn a zap. While it might seem excessive to shock a student for
nagging his teacher, Israel asks, what if the kid nags all the time,
every minute, every day? The nagging interferes with his learning, so
he can't learn self-control and develop normally. JRC's choice is to
shock him, stop the nagging, and let him learn.

What I see is a class full of children not learning, but contiunally
distracted by fear...they are too worried about when the next shock is
coming to concentrate on their lesson--most likely their muscles constantly
locked in anticipation of the upcoming shock, thier bloodpressure
elevated...

Imagine what it is like, if you were at work, always expecting your
supervisor to walk into the door with a reprimand for no reason
whatsoever...never knowing when the other shoe is going to drop...never a
pattern to the reprimands...you were always on the dcefensive...how would
you operate?

That is what these so-called "teachers" are doing, and somehow are expecting
their charges to learn in that environemnt...

--
Buny

" Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal."
~ Albert Camus