another activism opportunity

[Guest guest]

I get tired of being the only one to write letters,

so I hope the rest of us will pitch in to answer the sickly glowing

pro-Rotenberg piece

which recently featured in the BOSTON GLOBE newspaper:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/03/09/sho\

cking_truths/?page=full

(Letters to the Editor should go to letter@... ).

Key points to make, when you write:

--- The GLOBE's glowing pro-Rotenberg article was based on a single

five-hour visit to the school. Even so, the reporter )Lawrence Harmon)

had to admit that abuses had occurred in the past -- he just didn't

see any during his visit. (We can assume that his visit was made under

the supervision of the school.)

--- Why does the GLOBE's reporter (Lawrence Harmon) consider it

irrelevant that -- as he mentions -- thirty-one major advocacy groups,

fighting for the rights of disabled persons, have found serious abuses

at the school? Do five hours of a visit (during which the visitor saw

nothing wrong) outweigh what numerous other people have seen

throughout decades of the school's operation?

--- Despite numerous requests, the Rotenberg Center has never managed

to produce a single randomized controlled trial (as normally required

in science) showing that its approach gets better results than other

approaches. In fact, it has never managed to produce even one

randomized controlled trial showing that its approach even works as

well as other approaches.

-- Rotenberg ignores research: the research from randomized controlled

trials that support other approaches which not only work but which are

actually humane. Similarly, Rotenberg ignores the research which

increasingly shows that a large part of autistic spectrum conditions

is unusually strong sensory sensitivity: which makes pain even more

painful -- and even more harmful -- to this very large portion of the

Rotenberg student body than to other children and teens (and adults:

because the Rotenberg Center has adult inmates, too -- it calls them

" students, " but they seldom if ever graduate.)

--- The Rotenberg Center, in sum, has had several decades of

opportunities to prove that its increasingly painful (and increasingly

expensive) " treatments " were as effective as more humane ways of

teaching students who have disabilities. The Center has failed to

prove this: the Center simply asserts that its failure is not failure.

The Center is a center of torture. Close it now.

Kate Gladstone