Juan Mendez, the United Nation's special rapporteur on torture, is calling for an investigation of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JREC), a school in Canton, Massachusetts that has the highly dubious distinction of being the "only one in the world" to administer electric shocks on autistic children and others with emotional-behavioral conditions or mental retardation, all in the name of "aversive therapy." About half of the students at the JREC carry special shock devices 24 hours a day, in backpacks or in packs strapped to their waist.
Disability rights activists have long opposed this horrific "therapy" which is based on a highly outdated and frankly inhumane application of behaviorism. Laurie Ahern of Disability Rights International describes the JREC's "therapy" as simply "a horrific form of torture."
Tell the UN to undertake an investigation and end the use of abusive "therapy" at the JREC!
We, the undersigned, urge the United States Mission to the United Nations to investigate the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center for torture of children with disabilities
Juan Mendez, the United Nation's special rapporteur on torture, is calling for an investigation of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JREC), a school in Canton, Massachusetts that has the highly dubious distinction of being the "only one in the world" to administer electric shocks on autistic children and others with emotional-behavioral conditions or mental retardation, all in the name of "aversive therapy." About half of the students at the JREC carry special shock devices 24 hours a day, in backpacks or in packs strapped to their waist.
Disability rights activists have long opposed this horrific "therapy" which is based on a highly outdated and frankly inhumane application of behaviorism. Laurie Ahern of Disability Rights International describes the JREC's "therapy" as simply "a horrific form of torture."
For the sake of autistic children and children with disabilities, we urge the US Mission to the US to undertake an investigation and end the use of the abusive "therapy" at the JREC.
