one victory, another battle: sign new on-line petition against electric-shock training at Judge Rothenberg school

[Guest guest]

After one victory, another battle.

NYU has announced an end to " Ransom Notes " —

read their announcement at

http://www.aboutourkids.org/about_us/public_awareness — and has

invited disabled people into dialogue with the Child Study Center at

upcoming on-line " town meetings " in early 2008. (Let's make sure they

hear from us! At the very least, we should tell them " Good job, NYU! "

and keep a sharp eye on their future behaviors.)

;-)

Before we all sit back and relax, may I direct us to the next battlefield?

No matter what does or doesn't happen at NYU as a result of the

December 19th Petition Victory, very REAL torture — of very REAL

autistic hostages — still goes on at the Judge Rothenberg

" shock-'em-till-you-drop-'em " Center.

The campaign against the Judge Rothenberg so-called " school " now has a

petition — with 250 signatures so far — at

http://tinyurl.com/yoh86h

or

http://disabledsoapbox.blogspot.com/2007/10/call-for-ethical-and-unprejudiced.ht\

ml

(Both links take you to the same site, the same petition.)

Getting NYU Medical to stop " Ransom Notes " took over 1100 signatures

on a petition (along with numerous letters, phone-calls, and e-mails

pouring in from all around the world). Stopping the " shock docs " at

Judge Rothenberg will likely take at least as vast a volume of

protest.

One reason that the Judge Rothenberg " school's " electric-cattle-prod

brand of " education " must stop NOW:

read the December 18th BOSTON GLOBE news-story on a recent

event at the " school, " at

http://tinyurl.com/226nft

or

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/12/18/prank_led_school_t\

o_treat_two_with_shock/

For those who don't bother to click on links in e-mail, I'll

summarize the story:

Staff at a Judge-Rothenberg-operated group home in Stoughton,

Massachusetts have given two young men 106 painful electrical shocks

(77 shocks to one student and 29 shocks to another) — each shock two

seconds long in duration — on telephoned orders from a prankster: a

former resident of the Center, posing as one of the supervisors. (The

staff did not question the call because, apparently, Center

supervisors can indeed just phone in an order to deliver dozens of

lengthy electrical shocks to any student or students.)

The GLOBE further reports that Massachusetts state officials know

the identity of the prankster but have chosen not to arrest him. They

have also not released the identity of the staffer who " fell for " the

phone-call and administered the shocks.

What kind of " training, " what " supervision " of any kind, can a

place claim to provide when its " helping professionals " not only dish

out electrical shocks by the dozen, but do it on telephoned orders

from a prankster?

At what kind of " school " or " home " can someone call up the

staff and order 106 electric shocks as easily as calling Pizza Hut and

ordering a double pepperoni?

Kate Gladstone