School lobbied to stop electric shock ban - Canton facility spent $100,000 on effort

[kpete]

Source: Boston Globe

School lobbied to stop electric shock ban
Canton facility spent $100,000 on effort

WASHINGTON — The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, a special-needs school in Canton that disciplines students with electric shocks, used a sophisticated lobbying campaign in Congress last year to help defeat a ban of its controversial techniques, according to recently released public documents.

Although the center declined to discuss its strategy for 2011, the legislative battle is expected to be rekindled this year.

The center, the only school in the country that uses electric shocks to modify behavior, launched its Capitol Hill campaign after the House approved a measure last year outlawing the use of restraints and some other devices to control students. The bill did not explicitly reference shock devices, but lawmakers said the ban would have applied to the Judge Rotenberg Center’s practices.

Critics say the electric shocks — which are the subject of ongoing state and federal investigations — are inhumane. But school officials and parents say they are necessary, a last resort to prevent severely disabled children and teens from harming themselves or others.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/02/28/school_lobbied_to_stop_electric_shock_ban/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Top+political+stories

[SoapBox]

1. wow...talk about child ABUSE. Why not just ship them to Gitmo and water board them...

...all of America should be outraged.

[get the red out]

2. Ugh, that should even be outlawed for dogs

In the training class we took our puppy to last fall we discussed how inhumane it was for dogs and these people want to use it on disabled kids? Would spend $100,000 to continue doing so? Bizarre!

[Demeter]

3. Canton, MA?

Rich-bitch Canton? Must be a GOP-fundie pocket.

[Archae]

4. There was a "Law And Order" episode along this line.

"Therapy" for autistic kids that was torture, electric shocks and such.

[leveymg]

5. In 1982, I wrote that torture would become part of education in 2007

Then again, I also predicted that in the early 2000s, under a Republic President, U.S. made aircraft would be involved in a suicide mission that killed thousands of Americans starting a major Middle East war for oil. In another installment of the series for the Santa Cruz Express weekly, I wrote that in the same decade there would be a bust of the computer and real estate bubbles causing a prolonged Depression. On the technology front, the American people would be lulled into political sleep by endless computerized amusements while the country turned into a total surveillance police state.

Wasn't too far off, was I?

[sakabatou]

6. Scary, isn't it?

[leveymg]

9. It would be even scarier if I DIDN'T have a strong inkling about how it unfolds.

This too shall pass. Neither Heaven nor Hell, just another day in an Empire that has a record that goes back some 3,500 years.

The names change, but never the cast of characters or the plot lines. There are only so many types of people, and even fewer who try to rule the world and inevitably make a mess of it. Then on to the next chapter.

"When history repeats itself, it is first as tragedy and second as farce."

[FLAprogressive]

7. This is actually happening?! What the FUCK?!

[defendandprotect]

8. Great -- torture in our schools!! WTF? Elite Violence/Wealth defeating democracy -- !!