*Major Trigger Warning!* Have Level-1 Autistic People been sent the JRC

[Greatshield17]

The reason why my novel is set in Canton Massachusetts is because of the JRC, I want to draw attention to that. I'm even planning on having an Autistic character spend time there as part of her backstory but of course, I need to make this all as accurate as possible. Have Level-1 Autistic people been sent to the JRC?

 

[Gerontius]

Good way to get sued for defamation, in the event that any of their people hear about it. I'd say work something completely different in (similar to the JRC but don't use identifying names, places, etc.)

 

[tree]

"The JUDGE ROTENBERG CENTER (JRC) is a day and residential school located in Canton, Massachusetts licensed to serve ages five through adult. Since 1971, JRC has provided very effective education and treatment to both emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems, as well as those with intellectual disabilities or on the autism spectrum.

Our specific goal is to provide each individual with the least intrusive most effective form of treatment to ensure his/her safety, the safety of others, and promote healthy growth and development. JRC is committed to providing the most effective educational program possible."




Home

 

[Gerontius]

"The JUDGE ROTENBERG CENTER (JRC) is a day and residential school located in Canton, Massachusetts licensed to serve ages five through adult. Since 1971, JRC has provided very effective education and treatment to both emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems, as well as those with intellectual disabilities or on the autism spectrum.

Our specific goal is to provide each individual with the least intrusive most effective form of treatment to ensure his/her safety, the safety of others, and promote healthy growth and development. JRC is committed to providing the most effective educational program possible."

Home

This is the place that's rumored to use electric shock punishments "aversion therapy" and a bunch of other stuff there; I am not sure if they send ASD-1 folks there but this is more along the lines of a Louisiana prison farm than a school.

Check out Glassdoor for stories from the people who work there. Also, see the report in Vassar's The Miscellany News.

Judge Rotenberg Center tortures its disabled students – The Miscellany News

The whole deal here--from a neurodiversity advocate--

Reward and Consent™: ABA Leaks finds the seventh death at the Judge Rotenberg Center of high-voltage Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) skin shock was an unborn baby of a seventeen-year-old girl, according to the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission.


Paraphrasing from Rational Wiki, the whole deal seems to be "it's not OK for disabled people to hurt themselves but other people can hurt them." Now what I'm seeing is that there are enough people who are fairly verbal talking about their time in this place that they at least prove that people who speak, can go.
I do not see how that makes it worse. Abusing the nonverbal is particularly heinous for they will never be able to speak out against it after release, while those possessed of speech and writing are going to be able to say something eventually (not that it will get any traction when the road to hell is well lubricated with dollars.)

The United Nations calls again for investigation of JRC's shock treatments - Disability Rights International

The electroshock device used at the school is called the GED or graduated electronic decelerator. It was invented by Matthew Israel and has been banned in 2020 by the FDA but that ban was overturned in federal court. It has also appeared in the UN's documents on torture. It was their third device banned in the history of the Judge Rotenberg center.

 

[Luca]

I was sent to a very similar program, also in Massachusetts. The governor has actually been looking into thousands(?) of abuse complaints from there (I experienced really disgusting abuse there.)

I am not super close to Canton but I’m in the same general vicinity I guess.

 

[Luca]

Residential schools may end up being banned in MA altogether which would be a very good thing imo.

 

[Luca]

Some more resources about abuse at residential schools in New England:

Report Finds Neglect And Abuse At Mass. Special Education School

Élan School - Wikipedia

Government Watchdog Raises Concerns About Abuse At Residential Facilities

 

[Greatshield17]

Good way to get sued for defamation, in the event that any of their people hear about it. I'd say work something completely different in (similar to the JRC but don't use identifying names, places, etc.)

Okay, I have come up with another name for the place.

 

[Greatshield17]

This is the place that's rumored to use electric shock punishments "aversion therapy" and a bunch of other stuff there; I am not sure if they send ASD-1 folks there but this is more along the lines of a Louisiana prison farm than a school.

Check out Glassdoor for stories from the people who work there. Also, see the report in Vassar's The Miscellany News.

Judge Rotenberg Center tortures its disabled students – The Miscellany News

The whole deal here--from a neurodiversity advocate--

Reward and Consent™: ABA Leaks finds the seventh death at the Judge Rotenberg Center of high-voltage Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) skin shock was an unborn baby of a seventeen-year-old girl, according to the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission.

Look up in 2010 they paid off Rudy Giuliani with $100,000. No surprise; Giuliani proved himself to be a pretty scummy lawyer during the last years of the Trump presidency but you lay down in crap, you'll get up with stink.

Paraphrasing from Rational Wiki, the whole deal seems to be "it's not OK for disabled people to hurt themselves but other people can hurt them." Now what I'm seeing is that there are enough people who are fairly verbal talking about their time in this place that they at least prove that people who speak, can go.
I do not see how that makes it worse. Abusing the nonverbal is particularly heinous for they will never be able to speak out against it after release, while those possessed of speech and writing are going to be able to say something eventually (not that it will get any traction when the road to hell is well lubricated with dollars.)

The electroshock device used at the school is called the GED or graduated electronic decelerator. It was invented by Matthew Israel and has been banned in 2020 by the FDA but that ban was overturned in federal court. It has also appeared in the UN's documents on torture. It was their third device banned in the history of the Judge Rotenburg center.

I see, I actually remember now hearing somewhere something like this, and realizing that this character, would’ve probably been sent there; it actually fits her personality, she has a bit of feisty personality, and would’ve probably been prone to aggression as a kid.

Thanks be to God I didn’t grow up there, if I did I probably would’ve been sent there too, I also was prone to aggression as a kid…

 

[Crossbreed]

Though I oppose electric shock & ABA "therapies," severe co-morbids can be actual neuropsych illnesses and warrant some kind of helpful medical attention.
They are not autism, but are accessory to it.

 

[Matthias]

My understanding is that JRC is a place people send kids that no one else wants (Their parents are tired of dealing with them and no other place is willing to take them because they have too many mental or behavioral problems). Since it's a last resort when everything else has failed, the government will let them do almost anything to try to fix them/make them normal. There are probably ASD 1 people there who were admitted because of other problems such as a severe conduct disorder or mental health problem.

I've watched videos of that place where they punished a kid with electric shocks because he complained about pain when they gave him electric shocks for disobeying a rule. The more they shocked him, the more he screamed in pain so they shocked him over 70 times as punishment for screaming. He ended up in the hospital with severe burns from being shocked so many times. No one was charged because the electric shocks were considered therapy approved by mental health professionals to treat his disorder.

 

[Crossbreed]

No one was charged because the electric shocks were considered therapy approved by mental health professionals to treat his disorder.

When did that take place?

 

[Gerontius]

Entirely speculative here, but PDD-NOS would be the sort of thing that would get people stuck in somewhere like this.

I am low-key obsessed with the wild backstory of the "troubled teen industry" in the USA and am quite curious about its implications. There have been many cases of physical, sexual, psychological abuse at these military-style boarding school things in the middle of nowhere, and there have been some deaths. Some of them also use the same tactics as cults. Pardon my disturbing special interests. Ignorance is not the same as innocence.

If I were writing a novel about neurodiversity, etc., and autism acceptance, I'd drop the religious subtext except for "well, maybe So-and-so is religious" or "maybe some people are religious." But I would definitely frame it as a battle of leaving-well-enough-alone versus the forces of evil.

 

[Crossbreed]

Entirely speculative here, but PDD-NOS would be the sort of thing that would get people stuck in somewhere like this.

That old diagnosis occurred at all three severity levels of ASD.

 

[Luca]

Entirely speculative here, but PDD-NOS would be the sort of thing that would get people stuck in somewhere like this.

I am low-key obsessed with the wild backstory of the "troubled teen industry" in the USA and am quite curious about its implications. There have been many cases of physical, sexual, psychological abuse at these military-style boarding school things in the middle of nowhere, and there have been some deaths. Some of them also use the same tactics as cults. Pardon my disturbing special interests. Ignorance is not the same as innocence.

If I were writing a novel about neurodiversity, etc., and autism acceptance, I'd drop the religious subtext except for "well, maybe So-and-so is religious" or "maybe some people are religious." But I would definitely frame it as a battle of leaving-well-enough-alone versus the forces of evil.

Yes… I am a victim of this “industry” and I think it needs to be taken down ASAP.
You’re correct- lots of abuse, rape, “accidental” death, suicide, and more…

If you need to know more I can send you *a lot* of news articles about the particular program I was sent to. There are actually a lot of parents of autistic children who were sent there that are coming forward with stories about these events… while I’m obviously horrified that it happened to anyone else I at least feel validated that it was not just me.

A lot of kids who are victims of the foster care system in Massachusetts end up in these places because they don’t have parents who can say no. And even worse, lots of autistic kids are sent there by their school districts as a punishment for being expelled from public school :/

 

[Gerontius]

Yes… I am a victim of this “industry” and I think it needs to be taken down ASAP.
You’re correct- lots of abuse, rape, “accidental” death, suicide, and more…

If you need to know more I can send you *a lot* of news articles about the particular program I was sent to. There are actually a lot of parents of autistic children who were sent there that are coming forward with stories about these events… while I’m obviously horrified that it happened to anyone else I at least feel validated that it was not just me.

A lot of kids who are victims of the foster care system in Massachusetts end up in these places because they don’t have parents who can say no. And even worse, lots of autistic kids are sent there by their school districts as a punishment for being expelled from public school :/

The concept of "tough love" fails when it is universally applied. People forget even what real toughness is in a human being. Toughness is resilience. Sounds a lot more like: love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's the opposite of "now we're all going to go hiking & get heatstroke because one of you can't concentrate and the other one got a haircut without permission."

Everyone I've met who went through the foster care system had a rough go of it.

And the last people I met whom I asked about it basically brushed off the dangers that these kids faced, saying that there's tons of people ready to adopt newborns anyway so why bother. Horrible ideas of well-intentioned but ultimately harmful people. "Oops! I did a thing!" still hurts people.

 

[Matthias]

When did that take place?

I think they did it all the time. Here's one article (which includes a video of the torture):
This School Uses Electric Shocks on Students. Now a Court Says That’s Totally Fine.

The article says one student was strapped to a restraint board for 7 hours and shocked 31 times because he didn't remove his jacket when instructed to and screamed when he was punished for it. He needed to be hospitalized for a month after staff tortured him. Parents of students at the school expressed their gratitude after a court overturned the FDA's decision to ban the electric shocks saying they felt there was no other treatment available for their troubled children.

 

[tree]

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