Massachusetts school electrocutes blind girl

[Koharuchan]

Unfortunately I do not have an article link for this.

I have been recieving emails from change.org, the online petition site. I usually ignore and delete them, but a few days ago I recieved one that, pun not intended, shocked me. Apparently there is a school in Massachusetts that uses electric shocks to punish kids for very minor things. This is what the email said:

In 2002, a special needs student named Andre McCollins was allegedly strapped down and electrocuted for hours, leaving him with permanent brain damage, all because he refused to take off his jacket. The people torturing Andre were officials at his school.
The video was shot at a Massachusetts school for special needs kids called the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC). Gregory Miller used to be a teacher there, and he says electrocuting kids as punishment is extremely common -- even for minor offenses like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.
"A non-verbal, nearly blind girl with cerebral palsy was shocked for attempts to hold a staff member's hand -- her attempts to communicate and to be loved," Gregory says.
Gregory says the JRC's founder created electroshock devices which are even stronger than police stun guns to punish students for bad behavior. An official at the United Nations said that using these devices on children is considered torture.
According to the Boston Globe, the JRC’s founder resigned after being charged with misleading a grand jury by destroying video footage of other students being shocked.
Gregory believes that if thousands of people sign his petition, his former bosses will capitulate in the intense pressure generated by a national spotlight.

...Okay, after reading all that I had only one thought. That was, why the hell does there even need to be a petition here? Isn't this shit illegal? Why can't they just go to the police and get the place shut down? There's no way this can be legal.

[FlyingTrue]

Totally unacceptable indeed. If this is true then yes this facility should be shut down and these people charged for crimes against humanity. Just because these people are disabled doesn't mean they lose the same rights to health and security that everybody else has.

[BDF]

This is sick. Fuck. 21st century??? The same assholes who did this should also be put in an electric chair, the real thing.

What the fuck. If I was the parent of a kid like that I'd go and beat the shit out of the responsible person within the hour. I'd be pissed. No, I'm pissed just reading this... I'd be fucking pissed if I was the parent.

[Heavenly Bliss]

Yeah, I've got the same email from change.org. This is ridiculous! How old are these children? That girl sounds like she's five or six (well, she may have the mental capacity of a kindergartener), they need to treat her as her mental age accordingly. Electrocuting the students for punishment is inhumane.

[TheNumber42]

Fun fact for the day: They weren't actually electrocuted because electrocution is only the proper term to use if the victim dies. I believe saying that they were "shocked" would be more accurate.

[TigerTank77]

One website says something happened, provides no links, and we're supposed to believe it because...

[better-than-ecstasy]

How is raising your hand to go to the bathroom a bad thing?
In history the United States even went through a process on treating people with disabilities. We used to put them in jails and let them suffer and die. We didn't know what else to do with them. We didn't know what they were about or if they could harm us. So we harm them? I know it's dumb but its what happened. So if we got past that part in history...why are we shocking people? Its like saying "Oh hey I don't like you saying 'be quiet' so now i'm going to shock you because you're a terrible student. I don't care if you are trying to work. I'm the boss and you need to be shocked." No that's not how it works. I'm ashamed that something like this still goes on.

[better-than-ecstasy]

I looked this up to get further information. I found tons of links and the video. It is very depressing to me. So no, it is not on only one website. Its on like Fox news as well. Here's a link for you guys: http://grumpyelder.com/?p=24994

The teenager in 2002 was shocked 31 times in 7 hours. From what I heard.

Here's another link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/1...usetts-school/

and some more links: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shoc...ry?id=11047334

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2011/07/25/state-curb-electric-shock/13591/

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2011/07/25/state-curb-electric-shock/13591/ This last link even talks about another student being shocked 77 times in just three hours.

[The Goblins Blade]

Originally Posted by BruceLeeDemarcus

How is raising your hand to go to the bathroom a bad thing?
In history the United States even went through a process on treating people with disabilities. We used to put them in jails and let them suffer and die. We didn't know what else to do with them. We didn't know what they were about or if they could harm us. So we harm them? I know it's dumb but its what happened. So if we got past that part in history...why are we shocking people? Its like saying "Oh hey I don't like you saying 'be quiet' so now i'm going to shock you because you're a terrible student. I don't care if you are trying to work. I'm the boss and you need to be shocked." No that's not how it works. I'm ashamed that something like this still goes on.

Here in the UK, we used to stick handicaped people in asylums. Where they would spend there whole lifes living in horrible conditions.

[better-than-ecstasy]

We also did that in the US we call them insane asylums. But other times we would put them in jail cells or strap them to boards and stuff. It was really messed up. I think even some people locked them up in cages.