Timeline of #StopTheShock and the Fight Against the Judge Rotenberg Center

Since 1978, disability advocates and state governments have been trying to stop the JRC from abusing people with disabilities. #StopTheShock is just a small part of this battle between good and evil.

Top: Judge Rotenberg Center’s Facebook banner photo. Bottom: Drawing by Jennifer Msumba, a former resident student, featured in an article in The Progressive.

A couple of days ago, I asked for your help to comment on a proposed Food and Drug Administration ban on use of electric shock devices to “modify the behavior” of people with disabilities (COMMENTS ARE OPEN UNTIL MARCH 28). These euphemistically-named Graduated Electronic Decelerators (GED) are 9 times more powerful than a cattle prod and 22 times more powerful than an electric fence. The United Nations calls their use torture.

Although using GEDs is technically legal in the United States, in fact, only one institution actually uses them: the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC).

Alert reader Michael Krantz Chiapas Missions wrote:

Based on the article below, there's only one place in the US still using them. This is a shocking revelation to me. Even reading your post, I was thinking "There's no way this really happens." And, for the most part, it isn't, but you're surprisingly right that it is not illegal.

In addition to banning this, we should be calling for CPS investigations on this facility: Judge Rotenburg Education Center.

Michael may not know that disability advocates and state governments have been trying to stop the JRC from hurting people with disabilities since 1978. In fact, it was established under a different name; its current name honors a judge whose ruling allowed the place to stay open.

I didn’t want to delve too deeply into this context in my initial post on efforts to #StopTheShock, as that would have muddied my message. But, #StopTheShock is only a small part of a David vs. Goliath battle. Plucky disability advocates and former students face off against the wealthy, powerful JRC, which pays lawyers immense fees to use the machinery of government in their defense.

That might sound hyperbolic. But I bet you’ll feel differently once you read the timeline that follows.

WARNING: Any history of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is going to be full of descriptions of an institution abusing human beings. This was hard to write, so it might be hard to read, too. Some things are so awful that even comprehending them hurts.

---

Timeline

Note: This is not the first timeline ever created — ASAN has a short and sweet timeline of #StopTheShock, for example. However, this one is more comprehensive.

1971: The Judge Rotenberg Center is founded in Rhode Island under the name Behavior Research Institute. Its purpose from the beginning is to use “aversives.” These initially included slaps with paddles, pinching, white noise helmets, and noxious ammonia smells. Matthew Israel was inspired by Skinner’s Utopian novel, Walden Two, and dreamed of creating a utopian community. (If you’ve familiar with Wonder Confronts Certainty, you know why that’s relevant to the totalitarian institution he eventually creates). 

December 1978: the New York State Education Department orders Israel to stop using physical punishments, and later threatens to pull out the 15 children attending if he doesn’t comply. However, these efforts ultimately failed, because the children’s own parents fought it, praising Israel for performing “miracles” on their children.

1985-1990: Three students die at the school, including one who died while restrained.  

1990: Founder Matthew Israel patents the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED). 

Early 1990s: The GED is first used at the JRC.

2002: Resident student Andre McCollins was tied to a restraint board for 7 hours and shocked 31 times because he didn’t take off his jacket when told to do so. His mother found him catatonic (unresponsive), and he then spent more than a month hospitalized. He never returned to the JRC.

2006: The mother of a former student, Antwone Nicholson, sues the Freeport NY free school district and the JRC  on his behalf, claiming that by sending him to the JRC, knowing that they used GED devices, the school district violated his right to a “free and appropriate public education.” The case brings scrutiny to the JRC.

2007: Six staffers received a prank call from someone claiming to be a supervisor, ordering them to punish 2 teens. Instead of verifying whether the orders were real, they woke the students in the middle of the night and shocked them. One was given 77 shocks. One was later treated for 2 first-degree burns. 

August 20, 2007: Jennifer Gonnerman’s year-long investigation and rare look inside the JRC culminates in her expose, School of Shock, in Mother Jones. (This article is my introduction to the JRC, a few years later). 

September 2009: 31 disability groups send a letter to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), claiming the school violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

2010: In response to this letter, the Dept. of Justice’s Civil Rights Division opens a “routine investigation” into the JRC. At first, they didn’t believe they could take action because they didn’t have jurisdiction over privately operated facilities. However, Nancy Weiss, of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities, argued that they had the authority to investigate under the ADA because “people with disabilities are being treated in ways that are neither legal nor would be tolerated if applied to people who do not have disabilities.”

2011: Founder Matthew Israel steps down, accused of destroying surveillance footage. He is indicted on obstruction of justice charges, which are eventually dismissed. 

2011: Glenda Crookes takes over as head of the JRC. She issues reforms and changes staff training procedures. So of course, no one is ever hurt again and everyone lives happily ever after.

2012: Andre McCollins’ case goes to trial. A video surfaces during the trial, showing McCollins being shocked while screaming "Stop! Stop!" and "That hurts!" The JRC’s defense? They don’t combine shocks with restraint boards any more. Oh, well, that’s OK then.

September 4, 2012: Jennifer Gonnerman updates her “School of Shock” expose.

March 4, 2013: The UN declares use of GEDs to be “torture.” 

2014: The FDA holds hearings. As I recall, these included a serious discussion of whether autistic children can feel pain. Fortunately, many former students testified that they do, including Jennifer Msumba. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) reports, “At that meeting, the FDA decided the electric shock devices were too dangerous to use.” 

2016: The FDA proposes a new rule to ban GEDs and asks for public comment. Yes, this is not the first time the FDA has proposed to ban GEDs.

March 6, 2020: The FDA bans GEDs for the first time. The agency finds that risk of harm outweighs any potential medical benefit. This is only the 3rd time the agency has ever banned a medical device. In response, the JRC sues. 

July 2021: The DC Circuit Court overturns the FDA ban, saying the agency doesn’t have the authority to do it. The JRC is free to keep using GEDs. 

2022: An omnibus spending bill passes that gives the FDA authority to ban GEDs. 

2024: The FDA again proposes a rule to ban GEDs and again asks for public comment. And here we are!

For a truly comprehensive timeline, and compendium of relevant documents, see Lydia X. Z Brown’s Living Archive & Repository on the Judge Rotenberg Center’s Abuses

…

In short: banning the use of electric shock devices for modifying behavior is a necessary step in a larger struggle.

The JRC was abusing people with disabilities before the GED was invented, and they will continue after it is banned. We also need to find a way to close the JRC.

I hope you’ll join me in this first, relatively easy step, and perhaps even the larger cause. Thank you for listening.