Please watch my video on the Center for more information.

The Judge Rotenberg Center is located in Canton, Massachusetts. It’s a 50-year–old privately-operated, publicly-funded residential and day school enrolling students with autism, psychiatric conditions, and/or intellectual disabilities. 

The Center provides behavioral treatment using the methodologies of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA Therapy). JRC's behavior modification program relies heavily on aversion therapy, with treatment directed exclusively towards promoting “normalization”. 

Aversives used to modify behavior include: food deprivation, restraint, solitary confinement, and GED skin shocks. While the center often claims that it uses aversives only as last resort against self-harm and aggression, these claims have been refuted.

Reports by multiple government agencies have found that the center regularly uses aversives on children with no history of self-harm or aggression, often for minor infractions. There is medical consensus that positive-only support is both safer and more effective than the use of aversives.

On March 6, 2020, the FDA banned the use of electric shock devices to correct self-harming or aggressive behavior. This ban was nationwide, however, JRC is the only place that still uses this practice in the United States. 

And while that should have been the end of the abuse, or at least the GED electric shock abuse, they are still using this practice to this day. Due to court battles and the pandemic, none of the 55 residents currently approved for treatment with this device will be required to transition off it until further legal decisions have been made.

This school has had a history of abuse since its inception. And they have time and again successfully evaded the ban of aversives or complete shut down despite the fact that in 2013 the UN declared that the use of the GED device violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture. 

It is astounding that this institution has managed to remain open all these years. If their past is any indication, it could be YEARS before they are finally legally required to cease use of the GED shock devices. That is why it is so important to draw attention to this issue and demand that they #StopTheShocks NOW. And more importantly, SHUT THIS "SCHOOL" DOWN FOR GOOD. END THE ABUSE.