Unusual shock treatment approved in School

In a peculiar decision, Boston state officials have approved the electric shock treatment given to punish students with destructive behavior in a special education school.

The one year extension to continue such treatments comes as a shock to the critics who were campaigning against such inhuman tortures on children. This strange way of punishing children for inappropriate behavior came into picture when two emotionally challenged children were wrongly given the electric shocks.

In a report filed by Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, it has been said that the children played some pranks in the evening one day and for this they were given shocks in the night. The caller who gave them the punishment said he was convinced about his decision of giving electric shock.

But the six staff members and video surveillance worker on duty that night did not think anything wrong with the behavior and actions of the children but they still did not do anything to stop it.

They have already been suspended for not stopping it and police is also looking into filing criminal charges against the caller but this did not stop the state officials to permit the use of this process on children for one more year.

But it’s not that simple. The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center will have to prove this to the State's Office of Health and Human Services that the treatment is only used for the most dangerous and self-destructive behaviors and it also has to show the results of this being effective.

The officials often make mistakes while deciding the punishment for a child who has done something wrong. The problems arise when the school uses these harsh punishments for the cases like shouting profanities and spitting, where even milder punishments might also be equally effective.

The even more surprising part of this case is that the school has the support of the parents of the children studying in the school. Most of them said the children learned that certain behaviors are not acceptable and even if they need to be told the hard way, it was alright.

“People want to believe positive interventions work even in the most extreme cases. If they did, that is all we would use. Many of these kids come in on massive dosages of antipsychotic drugs, so doped up that they are almost comatose. We get them off drugs and give their parents something very important: hope,” said Michael P. Flammia, the lawyer for Rotenberg, who was in total support of the system.

Rotenberg students are mainly the ones who have been referred there because of their extreme behavior. Instructions to the school include that children must wear backpacks containing a device that allows a staff member to deliver a moderate shock to electrodes attached to the limbs, or in some cases palms, feet or torso, when the students engage in a prohibited behavior. Both the children’s parents and a court must consent to the shocks.