A Massachusetts judge ruled the administration of electroshock therapy on special needs students acceptable for the only school in the United States that still allows the practice.
Bristol County Probate and Family Court Judge Katherine Fields deemed the practice an ‘accepted standard of care’ for teachers and administrators at the Judge Rotenberg Centre in Canton in a court statement.
The controversial private school came under fire in 2012 after video surfaced of a disabled teen boy being tied up and shocked for seven hours by his teachers.
Andre McCollin was strapped face down into a restraint board while wearing a helmet as his instructors proceeded to shock him 31 times.
A judge last week deemed the practice an ‘accepted standard of care’ for teachers and administrators at the Judge Rotenberg Centre in Canton (seen above)
Health & Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders (pictured above in Boston in 2018) now has the choice to appeal the judge’s decision.
Following the incident the caused nationwide outrage, the Massachusetts governor’s office pushed for the horrific practice of electroshock therapy to be stopped.
However, last week, Fields said the state ‘failed to demonstrate that the procedure ‘does not conform to the accepted standard of care for treating individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,’ according to a court statement seen on The Independent.
Health & Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders now has the choice to appeal the judge’s decision.
The school claims they have drastically altered their procedures after McCollins mother, Cheryl McCollins, won her 2012 lawsuit against the school.
Established in 1971 to help ‘fix’ children who are disruptive and intent on self-harm, the school has had its share of controversy.
Protesters have rallied outside the home of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar (pictured in Washington, D.C. in June) to put a stop to the practice
The center has been longtime known for their use of aversives, or harmful tactics that they believe induce positive changes in behavior.
According to a previous statement provided by the school, they do not feel the electric shocks are anything for students or parents to cry over.
‘This treatment, which feels like a hard pinch, has been extensively validated in the scientific literature, ….is extremely effective, and has no significant adverse side effects,’ the statement read.
This kind of therapy doesn’t come cheap, and for each of the school’s over 200 students, their respective states and school districts pay the whopping $220,000 tuition fee.
As of 2007, six of the thousands of students who attended the Center have died from the various aversive therapies.
Now, protesters and those apart of disability rights organization, ADAPT, have rallied outside the home of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to put a stop to the practice.
‘They can stop this atrocity now with the stroke of a pen,’ ADAPT organizer German Parodi said in a press release.
Philadelphia ADAPT organiser German Parodi said in a press release the ‘atrocity’ could be stopped with the ‘stroke of a pen’