*TRIGGER* JRC: What do you think about this article?

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It's about the Judge Rotenberg Center.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/postever ... ter-alive/

I noticed one poster claimed to have been a student at JRC and said it hurt a lot more than the parent in the article claimed. I would be interested to hear how other students perceived it. I ran across something somewhere that said they shocked a girl for looking at her hands (it might not have been JRC though, I forget).

I do self-injurious behavior, usually when I am feeling anxious or feeling bad about myself. It's nowhere near as bad as what is described in the article, but I think the REASONS for self-injury and injuring others should be explored--anxiety, self-loathing, frustration, fear, suicidal ideation?

When the parents say "they've tried everything", have they really? Or have they only tried the same things over and over again, based on the old psychologists' belief that nonverbal or minimally verbal autistic people are incapable of being reasoned with? I saw an excellent YouTube video of an Aspergers woman in meltdown, trying to punch herself in the chest and head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7PuuukzxY A service dog gently pawed her arms down, preventing her from injuring herself. I thought, how excellent! It is a very gentle, nonthreatening, nonpunishing form of restraint that still allowed the woman control over her life (she was the one who posted the video). Maybe this won't work for everyone, but it is one creative approach.

JRC disgusts me. I did a research paper about them for school last semester, and read article after article about how the staff abused the students, shocking them for no reason, how at least six student died, one because she expressed that she was distressed and in pain from a medical condition, and the staff did nothing except shock her more for her "disruptive" behaviour. Their neglect led to her death. I read about one student who refused to put on his sweater when asked, and ended up being shocked repeatedly for over seven hours straight. I also read about how standard electroshock devices are supposed to be operated at 2.2 milliamps for 0.2 seconds. The JRC created their own devices designed to deliver 45.5 milliamp shocks for 2 seconds. I don't believe those parents when they say their daughter is happier. Most likely, she's just afraid that if she doesn't do what they want, they'll shock her. That is no way to treat a human being.

the fda has connections between this decision. they say, and prompt people to believe, one form of torture is good and another form of torture is bad.
but the level of torture may or may not be worth it for the level of cure, and the main opposing ideas are equal in their exploitation and disregard for ideas on the rest of the spectrums.

I also don't trust that most people working for jfc don't engage in corrupt behaviors. and there is also a huge issue of parents and guardians speaking for autistic people, like the article you shared is all about the singular client and one happy-looking picture of samantha. it's bad entertainment journalism.

the way I see it is that the treaters can abuse the treatment and so the fda can ban the treatment (much to the liking of big pharma and the human rights activists clique), thus maintaining their "health and safety first" front while pumping more money through their veins.

The reason she's behaved is because she's afraid that she's going to be sent back there if she messes up just a little.

It makes me sick that this "centre" is still around. Shocking someone is not treatment, it's torture.

This does not appear to be the classic Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock therapy. Rather, it appears to be classic operant conditioning. And while such conditioning does indeed produce the "desired" results as defined by the treating doctor or parents, it also causes so much emotional & operational* stress as to induce conditions such as PTSD.

*not the word I'm looking for, but "having to do with the actual operation of the brain". "Functional", maybe?

There's a much more gruesome perspective on the JRC, here: http://nymag.com/news/features/andre-mccollins-rotenberg-center-2012-9/ . WARNING: THERE ARE TRIGGER-INDUCING DESCRIPTIONS OF HORRIBLE TREATMENT. Read this article ONLY if you are in a very stable, strong state of mind. I cried for half an hour.

It tells the story of Andre McCollins, an autistic youth sent to JRC. He was sexually assaulted at another school before being sent to JRC. Unsurprisingly, he was combative and uncooperative, very likely the result of his trauma. What amazes me about the story on NY Magazine is that nobody thought that it might be a bad idea to subject a trauma victim to electric shocks!! One of the things they punished is if someone tensed up their body. Well, duh, of course he did! He clearly had PTSD.

This all seems to feed into the mindset that somehow preverbal children, people with low IQs or nonverbal people, and animals somehow have no feelings and it's perfectly okay to do to them things that were considered reprehensible in prisons like Abu Gharab or the Arkansas Tucker State Prison Farm. If you can't describe your feelings adequately, some people think they don't exist.

This was one of the articles I used for my research paper. It's really horrible.