WTF?!? Massachusetts teen reportedly shocked for hours at special needs school

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Massachusetts teen reportedly shocked for hours at special needs school

Published February 20, 2012 | FoxNews.com

Video of a disabled teenager bound and administered electric shocks for seven hours should be made public, the boy's mother says, so the "torture" her son endured at the controversial school can be exposed.

"This is worse than a nightmare," Cheryl McCollins told MyFoxBoston.com about her disabled son Andre. "It is horrific. And poor Andre, who had to suffer through this, and not know why."

The ordeal began after Andre struck a staff member. He was then tied to a restraint board inside a classroom while face down with a helmet placed on his head.

He remained in that position for seven hours without a break, with no food or water. Each time he screamed or tensed up, he was shocked -- 31 times in all, MyFoxBoston.com reports.

After spending three days in a comatose state, Andre McCollins was taken to Children's Hospital, where he was diagnosed with "acute stress response" caused by the shocks at the Rotenberg Center.

Click here for more on this report from MyFoxBoston.com.
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/2...ly-shocked-for-hours-at-special-needs-school/

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/2...s-at-special-needs-school/print#ixzz1mw5KV0Ty
 
CapeCMom

CapeCMom

Veteran Member
At the very least they should be charged with aggravated assault! If this was a normal child would this be tolerated? I think not-so he's special needs and that makes it ok-OUTRAGEOUS!
 
F

FREEBIRD

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Close that hellhole. What do you want to bet this is standard procedure?
 
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S

smokin

Veteran Member
This is sad and wrong in so many ways. Those who administered this should get the same plus some. We are really losing it as a society. We are being prodded and shocked like cattle at the first sign of non-conformation. I hope the mom sues the ass off the school and those involved.
 
C

Chair Warmer

Membership Revoked
The people who did that should go to prison!

Charge them with kidnapping, torture, child abuse, attempted murder, the whole nine yards. And everyone who knew or should've known should should be charged with accessory to those crimes.
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
THAT IS WAY, WAY BEYOND ASSAULT.
That is a SYSTEM OF TORTURE, ABUSE OF AUTHORITY, AN ORGANIZATIONAL POLICY OF CHILD TORTURE AND ABUSE, physical BATTERY of a child, deliberate not negligent, child endangerment.

This SHOULD mean PRISON, NOT JAIL for everyone in the chain of authority right up to the top, not just the individual who administered the shocks with the full knowledge of the whole staff.

EVEN IF A DOG BIT them, the pound could NOT DO THIS TO A DOG, SHOCKING HIM OVER AND OVER FOR HOURS.
 
I

inynmn

Inactive
This is really sick.

Truth is we are forced to give our children to the authorities - schools - for 5 days a week - and we truly have no idea what goes on in our schools.
If one disagrees with the education-indoctrination minions-sycophants your are practically put on a list. Notice the wealthiest children go to real schools, and I don't blame them - wish I had been able to keep my children out of the centers.

They have complete control and I don't consider this a coincidence.

I always thought the cull would begin with youngest and their parents - then on to the top heavy layers of the pyramid, think demographics.

After the Penn State pedophile scandal how could anyone believe any child is safe.
 
Michigan Majik

Michigan Majik

FreeSpirit, with attitude
I've worked with severely autistic/developmentally delayed/mentally ill people
for over 25 years... "Treatment" like this would absolutely NEVER be tolerated.
To restrain an out of control person til they regain control has happened, but there is a time limit.
Usually ten minutes max. I have never ever heard of shocking a human as therapy.
This is horrific and disgusting to say the least.
 
R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
What a bunch of cruel, sadistic, and evil people. First sue them until they don't own anything and then throw them in jail (in the general population) for a long, long time. Well it will actually be a short time, but it will seem long to them. Allow them to experience sadism first hand.
 
Cardinal

Cardinal

Chickministrator
_______________
Mental institutions were originally closed in part because of this type of treatment. How is it that society absolutely never changes??
 
Gadsden

Gadsden

Contributing Member
I have a doctorate in this stuff. Electric shock is an effective treatment for severe self injury that will not respond to any other form of treatment. However, to use this therapy for aggression in the manner describe violates any form of reason or ethical practice.
 
W

Witness

Deceased
They wanted to put electrodes on the testicles of my boss's son.
He has tourettes syndrome.

I was in the same office when my boss received a call from the
medical facility he was in. My boss said hell no.

It is the current behavior modification techniques they use.
 
R

Richard

TB Fanatic
Electric shock treatment should be banned, period, I understand from a mental patient in the UK, that EST is still used here though as a last resort. Electric therapy using very low voltage devices may be effective however.
 
R

Richard

TB Fanatic
Electric shock is an effective treatment for severe self injury that will not respond to any other form of treatment.

I know you're a Dr and all that, I have visited a mental patient quite a few times recently, IMO the treatment of mental patients in the UK is a disgrace, still back in the dark ages. I won't go into it, as you know all about it.

The article doesn't say who shocked him at the "school", a Dr, nurse or unqualified employee.
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
Gadsden said:
I have a doctorate in this stuff. Electric shock is an effective treatment for severe self injury that will not respond to any other form of treatment. However, to use this therapy for aggression in the manner describe violates any form of reason or ethical practice.
Click to expand...

I don't care what kind of "DEGREE" you have, you are full of s***.
Just because you CALL IT "treatment" or "therapy" does not make it any different AT ALL from any other form of PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT (here to the point of torture) for non compliance. OF COURSE it works, or else SPANKING, cat of nine tails, water boarding, beating with hoses and rods, and every other form of pain infliction would never have developed.
YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE IT USUALLY LEAVES FEW OR QUICKLY HEALED MARKS or proof, can be denied by the person applying the punishment, is "clean" (doesn't draw blood) and you are not held accountable for the sadistic use of this by less than honorable members of the "profession", who use it when they are pissed off, or impatient to appear "successful" in their "counseling".

You KNOW pain DOES modify behavior and yet continue to influence legislation and government to forbid THOSE THAT LOVE THEIR KIDS THE MOST, (not YOU) their (normal, loving) parents to use ANY form or level of pain to correct their children's behavior. Then they are admonished for "out of control" kids that DO end up enduring FAR WORSE pain at the hands of "juvy" staff and you therapists than their parents would have needed to correct them when the rebelliousness first surfaced. AND THAT IS WITH NORMAL KIDS.

If painful punishment for bad behavior is all that is needed to socialize even MENTALLY ILL youth, WHAT DO WE NEED YOU EXPENSIVE "PROFESSIONALS" FOR?
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
If painful punishment for bad behavior is all that is needed to socialize even MENTALLY ILL youth, WHAT DO WE NEED YOU EXPENSIVE "PROFESSIONALS" FOR?

Because they do it "under color of authority", and are thus ALLOWED to torture....
 
Elza

Elza

Veteran Member
Funny isn’t it? In many states (is Mass. one of them?) simply spanking a child will get the CPS Gestapo kicking your door down and taking your children.

Yet when something like this happens they don’t say a word. You will be prosecuted by the state for spanking a kid but state sponsored (school) torture is condoned.
 
SIRR1

SIRR1

Deceased
Each time the boy cried out he was shocked.

It took 31 shocks treatments for him to figure this out, if he cried out he was shocked.

My wife is a Psychologist who has dedicated her life to work with the mentally challenge...

I am going to forward her this article to her and see what her comment is on this I will post what she says.

I am pretty sure she would ask for criminal charges to be filed against the social worker or teacher who was lead on this action.

This is so sad and I think a good punishment would be 31 shocks to who ever is found guilty of this crime.

SIRR1
 
Michigan Majik

Michigan Majik

FreeSpirit, with attitude
ainitfunny said:
I don't care what kind of "DEGREE" you have, you are full of s***.
Just because you CALL IT "treatment" or "therapy" does not make it any different AT ALL from any other form of PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT (here to the point of torture) for non compliance. OF COURSE it works, or else SPANKING, cat of nine tails, water boarding, beating with hoses and rods, and every other form of pain infliction would never have developed.
YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE IT USUALLY LEAVES FEW OR QUICKLY HEALED MARKS or proof, can be denied by the person applying the punishment, is "clean" (doesn't draw blood) and you are not held accountable for the sadistic use of this by less than honorable members of the "profession", who use it when they are pissed off, or impatient to appear "successful" in their "counseling".

You KNOW pain DOES modify behavior and yet continue to influence legislation and government to forbid THOSE THAT LOVE THEIR KIDS THE MOST, (not YOU) their (normal, loving) parents to use ANY form or level of pain to correct their children's behavior. Then they are admonished for "out of control" kids that DO end up enduring FAR WORSE pain at the hands of "juvy" staff and you therapists than their parents would have needed to correct them when the rebelliousness first surfaced. AND THAT IS WITH NORMAL KIDS.

If painful punishment for bad behavior is all that is needed to socialize even MENTALLY ILL youth, WHAT DO WE NEED YOU EXPENSIVE "PROFESSIONALS" FOR?
Click to expand...
You tell 'em Ain'titfunny! :)
I have never heard of shock treatments for self injurious behavior.
In my state we are taught to use redirection, and the least restrictive techniques.
Self abuse often is a need for sensory input... I cannot imagine hurting a person to prevent them from hurting themselves.
What would be the point?
 
C

Chair Warmer

Membership Revoked
Mongo said:
No.
If this is true, they should be executed.
And those responsible for supervising the school should be in prison.
Click to expand...

I'm not THAT much into the death penalty! lol

...but then again, there's been times I've really felt my ex deserved to die and hoped that he would. (He tortured me and treated me horribly. He would do things like bend my fingers back, and twist my arm behind my back until I hollered and begged and he would laugh watching me in pain. He even parked a car on my foot once and took time enjoying it and laughed at me, before he would back the car off it, I think I have a little broken bone in it I discovered a few years ago but I've always walked ok.) I'm getting heart palpitations (anxiety) right now remembering this stuff.

But I just feel that we're all children of God and should have a chance to live out our lives, especially the sinners so they can have a chance to seek forgiveness and change themselves.

But also, there's times I think that wherever he ends up after death, I don't want to be in the same place, nomatter where it is!
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Gadsden said:
I have a doctorate in this stuff. Electric shock is an effective treatment for severe self injury that will not respond to any other form of treatment. However, to use this therapy for aggression in the manner describe violates any form of reason or ethical practice.
Click to expand...

You should email that to Bush jr so he can go back to Switzerland w/o fear of being arrested for having ok'd the torture of detainees at Gitmo. Otherwise I think your full of it, just because some quack signed off on this back in the 1800's doesn't mean it should be used today.

K-
 
C

Chair Warmer

Membership Revoked
Gadsden said:
I have a doctorate in this stuff. Electric shock is an effective treatment for severe self injury that will not respond to any other form of treatment. However, to use this therapy for aggression in the manner describe violates any form of reason or ethical practice.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about electric shock therapy to the brain, the treatment which causes memory loss?

That used to be done quite a lot to psychiatric patients, but not so much anymore. I met a girl once who was going through that and she had to go through several sessions of it. I've heard those patients have to re-learn lots of things over again after electric shock therapy.
 
Gadsden

Gadsden

Contributing Member
ainitfunny said:
I don't care what kind of "DEGREE" you have, you are full of s***.
Just because you CALL IT "treatment" or "therapy" does not make it any different AT ALL from any other form of PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT (here to the point of torture) for non compliance. OF COURSE it works, or else SPANKING, cat of nine tails, water boarding, beating with hoses and rods, and every other form of pain infliction would never have developed.
YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE IT USUALLY LEAVES FEW OR QUICKLY HEALED MARKS or proof, can be denied by the person applying the punishment, is "clean" (doesn't draw blood) and you are not held accountable for the sadistic use of this by less than honorable members of the "profession", who use it when they are pissed off, or impatient to appear "successful" in their "counseling".

You KNOW pain DOES modify behavior and yet continue to influence legislation and government to forbid THOSE THAT LOVE THEIR KIDS THE MOST, (not YOU) their (normal, loving) parents to use ANY form or level of pain to correct their children's behavior. Then they are admonished for "out of control" kids that DO end up enduring FAR WORSE pain at the hands of "juvy" staff and you therapists than their parents would have needed to correct them when the rebelliousness first surfaced. AND THAT IS WITH NORMAL KIDS.

If painful punishment for bad behavior is all that is needed to socialize even MENTALLY ILL youth, WHAT DO WE NEED YOU EXPENSIVE "PROFESSIONALS" FOR?
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to condone the use of electric shock in any form of therapy except in extraordinary cases of self injury. The situation discussed in the article is pure evil.

However, the statement marked in red is absolutely true. In many cases, patients with DD cause irreversible damage to their brains and internal organs from self injurious behaviors. We are talking about things like banging one's head against the wall until it bleeds, or punching one's kidneys until they cease to function. The care staff is forced to restrain the patient, something no one wants to see. Electric shock has successfully eliminated these self injurious behaviors in a few controlled studies.

Is it widely used? Almost never. Is this a good thing? I don't know. Parents whose kids have SIBs currently don't have this option to help their children receiving residential care. On the other hand, poorly trained nut jobs seem to abuse it for other behaviors, as this article suggests. Better therapy uses positive procedures and is more difficult.

Also, for the record, I think parents should be allowed to raise their children in any manner they see fit.

I don't disagree with you.
 
Gadsden

Gadsden

Contributing Member
Chair Warmer said:
Are you talking about electric shock therapy to the brain, the treatment which causes memory loss?

That used to be done quite a lot to psychiatric patients, but not so much anymore. I met a girl once who was going through that and she had to go through several sessions of it. I've heard those patients have to re-learn lots of things over again after electric shock therapy.
Click to expand...

No. Not at all. I was only referring to treating self injury.

http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/jabaindx.asp

Enter SIBIS at the search bar.
 
C

Chair Warmer

Membership Revoked
Gadsden said:
I didn't mean to condone the use of electric shock in any form of therapy except in extraordinary cases of self injury. The situation discussed in the article is pure evil.

However, the statement marked in red is absolutely true. In many cases, patients with DD cause irreversible damage to their brains and internal organs from self injurious behaviors. We are talking about things like banging one's head against the wall until it bleeds, or punching one's kidneys until they cease to function. The care staff is forced to restrain the patient, something no one wants to see. Electric shock has successfully eliminated these self injurious behaviors in a few controlled studies.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about like tasering them during the episode, or are you talking about electric shock therapy to the brain?

ETA (your post hadn't showed yet up when I posted this)
 
R

Richard

TB Fanatic
Chair Warmer said:
Are you talking about electric shock therapy to the brain, the treatment which causes memory loss?

That used to be done quite a lot to psychiatric patients, but not so much anymore. I met a girl once who was going through that and she had to go through several sessions of it. I've heard those patients have to re-learn lots of things over again after electric shock therapy.
Click to expand...

must be like being struck by lightning without the good effects, still done within living memory shame on the medical "profession"
 
Cardinal

Cardinal

Chickministrator
_______________
Here is the rest of the article:

He stayed like that for seven hours without a break, no food, no water, or trips to the bathroom. Each time he screamed or tensed up, he was shocked, 31 times in all. His mother called the next day to check on him.

"I said, 'Andre.' I said, 'Hello.' And so he said, 'Help me,'" McCollins said.

After spending three days in a comatose state, not eating or drinking, Andre was taken to Children's Hospital, where he was diagnosed with "acute stress response" caused by the shocks.

"The doctors took all the shackles and all those things off of him. Andre's not talking to me. I'm just holding him and telling him how much I love him, and asking him please to talk to me, just tell me what happened," McCollins said.

What happened that morning in October 2002 became clear after the Rotenberg Center showed her the video of Andre's ordeal, recorded by the classroom camera.

"When I viewed the tape, I saw Andre walking into a room, someone asking him to take off his coat. Andre said no, they shocked him, he went underneath the table trying to get away from them. They pulled him out, tied him up and they continued to shock him," McCollins said.

"When you look at that videotape, what was the purpose of all those shocks?" asked FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet.

"I have no idea," McCollins replied.

"Did you get an apology?" Beaudet asked.

"No, they felt what they did was therapy," McCollins replied.

"Does that look like therapy to you?" Beaudet asked.

"No, it was torture," McCollins said.

For now, the public can't see for themselves what Andre's treatment looks like because the Rotenberg Center asked a Norfolk Superior Court judge to seal the video tape, saying it would be unsettling for viewers who didn't understand the context. The judge agreed, and the video remains under a protective order.

"This is video they fought vehemently not to release, fought vehemently to keep quiet and I think now are very concerned that this tape is out there," said attorney Andrew Meyer, who represents Andre McCollins in a lawsuit against the Rotenberg Center.

"The Judge Rotenberg Center has consistently gotten away with being able to soft sell their treatment, to whitewash what they've done about it being therapeutic: 'It's not so bad, it helps these children.' But the eyewitness accounts that we now have about what actually goes on at this center puts to lie everything they've been saying," Meyer said.

But not everyone agrees. When asked about the perception that electric shock therapy is torture, school attorney Michael Flammia said, "Absolutely wrong."

Flammia would not talk about Andre McCollins.

"But I can tell you I'm familiar with every kid who has been at the school, who have been at the school over 20 years and I can promise you the treatment here is safe, it's effective, it's administered properly and every kid has benefited enormously from it," Flammia said.

"We talked with a parent who says, 'Put that video out there, let the public see what happened to my son here. Let them see what she calls torture,'" asked FOX Undercover's Beaudet.

"The matter is in the hands of the courts and we have complete confidence in the court system on that particular matter," Flammia replied.

"So you don't want us to see that video?" Beaudet asked.

"It's in the hands of the court," Flammia replied.

But McCollins says the public needs to see the video of what happened to her son.

"I hope this stops it. I hope this tape being exposed puts an end to this torture. Because I feel it. You watch it, you feel it," McCollins said. "How do we sit here and let this go on?"

It's certainly getting tougher for the Rotenberg Center to use these shocks.

New York and Massachusetts recently barred shocks on new students, though the school is fighting those restrictions in New York and is planning to do so here.

This is also not the first time this kind of video has become a problem for the center. Last year, the school's founder, Matthew Israel, was indicted on charges that he ordered video of improperly shocked students to be erased despite an ongoing investigation.

Israel agreed to a deal that gives him pre-trial probation in exchange for his stepping down from the school.

Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news...s-mom-calls-it-torture-20120219#ixzz1mxScil3f


Massachusetts was one of the states that historically has mistreated the mentally ill. I grew up there; I remember the controversy.
 
C

Chair Warmer

Membership Revoked
Gadsden said:
No. Not at all. I was only referring to treating self injury.

http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/jabaindx.asp

Enter SIBIS at the search bar.
Click to expand...

That breaks my heart to read that's being done to people with such severe emotional problems. The patient does not see it as "therapy". They're going to see it as punishment.

You will get compliance from them, but you have now destroyed any trust they may have once had in the medical establishment to help them.

These patients may have stopped their momentary self harm, but in the long run their prognosis is probably going to be suicde because they will seek to avoid getting the help they so desperately needed.

Electric shock used as a form of corporeal punishment is nothing more than torture.

Find a way to help sooth their pain instead of heaping more trauma upon them.

Disasterous study that was. How many of the subjects in the study are still alive? I bet none of them are.

ETA; That's like going to the ER because you were raped, and then the ER Doctor rapes you. Sick, sick, sick!
 
Gadsden

Gadsden

Contributing Member
Quack.

Once again, I think the alleged treatment of the kid in the story is horrible.
 
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