Staff fired over prank-call shock treatments

[JBoy]

Source: MSNBC

BOSTON - Seven people have been fired over electrical shocks given to two emotionally disturbed teenagers at the direction of what turned out to be a prank caller, the operator of the group home where the incident occurred said Thursday.

On Aug. 26, a caller posed as a supervisor and said he was ordering the punishments for the two teens, ages 16 and 19, because they had misbehaved earlier in the evening. But none of the staffers had witnessed any problems, and other boys said the two teens had done nothing wrong. One boy suggested the call was a hoax.

The teens were awakened in the middle of the night and given the shock treatments, at times while their legs and arms were bound. One teen received 77 shocks and the other received 29. One boy was treated for two first-degree burns.

....

The center is believed to be the only school in the United States that uses two-second skin-shock punishments to change destructive behavior. The center says the treatments are used in a minority of cases and only with parental, medical, psychiatric and court approval.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22347088/

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What. The. Fuck?

Someone can phone in electroshock punishment??

[LakeSamish706]

1. Now this place has to be something that George W thought up! n/t

[Solon]

2. Sick sadistic assholes, I think that staff should have electrodes...

clamped on their genitals. These would be alligator clamps with razor sharp teeth, of course. Then let the patients have fun with torturing the staff.

[DCKit]

3. That hellhole should have been shut down years ago.

Hopefully this will be the incident that does it.

[Journeyman]

4. People can prank-phone a lot of abuse. . .

Here's some articles about an incredibly cruel series of pranks that resulted in fast food managers strip searching (then sexually abusing) employees and customers:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090392

and here's the video one of the television newsmagazines ran on this same incident:

http://hitsusa.com/blog/163/mcdonalds-strip-search-video/

The one lesson to learn from this, and to teach our children, is don't do anything until you see the badge -- and then get a lawyer first.

[JBoy]

5. Holy crap that is a scary article

Hard to believe so many people could have fallen for those hoaxes.

[truthisfreedom]

6. If this doesn't lead to a shut-down of that facility, we're living a national nightmare.

Sickening.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Funny, the Judge Rotenbrg Ed. Center doesn't mention shock treatments

:sarcasm:

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) is a special needs school in Canton, Massachusetts
serving both high-functioning students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems
and low-functioning students with autistic-like behaviors. Some of our key features include
consistent behavioral treatment; no or minimal psychotropic medication; near-zero rejections/near-zero expulsions;
powerful, varied rewards; one computer per student; behavior charts online; digital video monitoring;
and beautiful school and residences.

http://www.judgerc.org/


What the fuck is wrong with this institution?
Phone calls, and no checking things out, but going ahead with using shock treatments to the point of burning a kid?

:grr: :mad: :grr:

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I once supervised a program that employed shock to control behavior.

The behavior in question was a form of self-injurious behavior in which the patient would literally beat himself bloody, striking at his face with his fists, if left untreated. This behavior was a side-effect of a rare genetic condition, and we had no ther way to deal with it. The choice was to either maintain him continuously in restraints or to implement the shock program. At the time I left that job, the patient was getting maybe 4 shocks a week. Four shocks a week or life in restraints. What would you choose, for yourself or your child?

The program was very carefully regulated, and every use of the shock device was documented, along with the circumstances that caused it to be used. The number of residents in the institution was about 900. The total number being treated with shocks was one. I hated that program, but I kept it going. I remember the social worker--herself the mother of a retarded child--crying when the program started, and then supporting it.

[CreekDog]

12. but you agree that shocks that cause first degree burns are abuse?

yes?

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Of course.

In our case, we very carefully titrated the shock to be no stronger than necessary to interrupt the self-destructive behavior we wanted to stop. I'm sure there were no skin burns. That was about 20 years ago, BTW. I have managed to practice as a psychologist in a whole lot of different settings since then without authorizing the shocking of anyone.

[Danger Mouse]

9. I'm just overjoyed to hear more heart-warming stories from this putrid house of torture.

:puke:

[originalpckelly]

10. Wow! Isn't this a duplicate of some famous experiment?

The one that proved a majority of people will do anything under the command of someone in a position of power?

[MilesColtrane]

14. The Milgram expriment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[Mnemosyne]

11. Where was (F)Huckabee's kid? n/t

[MilesColtrane]

13. A hundred bucks says that if they * 69 that call, this guy answers the phone.

[Demeter]

16. No Takers!