Shocking American Export

photo credit- J.Star

Why is it that it seems that only the worst of American culture is exported from its shores? It's no wonder to me that America and Americans are villified around the world, when it seems the best we can export are the likes of Britney Spears and Michael Jackson.

But it seems that we have sunken to a new low. I've touched before on the abominable treatment that goes on at the Judge Rotenberg center (JRC)in Massachusetts, where electric shocks and other tortures are used on autistics in order to "train" them not to misbehave.

Now it seems that it's not enough to have this shameful treatment here in the states. We have to try to drag the rest of the world down with us. An article that appeared this week on NineMSN out of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia looks at the electric shock treatment that's used at the Judge Rotenberg Center, and asks parents of Australian autistics if they think it's a viable treatment option.

For those unfamiliar with the electric shock treatments used at the JRC, for "clients" that are sent there by their parents, after a period of time where positive incentives fail to decrease undesired behaviors, electrodes are placed on the students (after obtaining parental and court approval) and the students are shocked whenever "bad" behavior is exhibited.

Dr. Matthew Israel, the instigator and chief proponent of the use of "negative aversives" at the JRC was interviewed for the Australian article.

"The real torture is what these children are subjected to if they don't have this program," said Dr Israel.

Autistic children in the program do not suffer any long-term side effects, according to Dr Israel.

"…it has absolutely no side effects and is extremely effective as a corrective procedure to encourage children not to show violent behaviour," he said.

"If it didn't hurt it wouldn't be effective. It has to hurt enough so that the student wants to avoid showing that behaviour again."

As one can plainly see, he is a very sensitive and sensible individual. I wonder how he would like to be hooked up to the device he routinely uses on children, and give them the control over whether to shock him or not. I'm sure he wouldn't suffer any side effects. People all over the world would consider this torture if prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to this. Why is it considered "treatment" when used on the developmentally disabled?

Fortunately the majority of Aussies interviewed for the article seem to be a sensible lot, and agree that such "treatment" is totally unsuitable and unjustified:

Queensland mum, Joy, who struggles to cope with her autistic son Jayden, thought she would try the new device for herself.

"Before trying this I was sitting on the fence and I wasn't sure if I was for or against it."

"After feeling the intensity of this, I'm totally opposed to the whole thing," she said.

Even in cases where there has been a history of repeated violent behavior, an Aussie dad could see that torture was not the answer:

Sydney dad, Jim, has had his teeth broken three times by daughter Molly and he was also willing to try this new technique.

His six-year-old daughter has a history of being violent and he was prepared to be open minded bout this treatment.

"It might seem cruel (the eclectic shock) but in the times where she's smashing her head against the concrete or doing physical harm, that's got to outweigh ( the pain) side of it," he said.

"Ow that hurt…it’s painful, very painful," said Jim, after we've given him a shock using Dr Israel's system.

Jim thinks the therapy would just torture Molly who would be in tears after being subjected to the controversial shock treatment.

The article concludes by interviewing an Australian autism expert, Dr. Jackie Roberts, who felt the shock treatments would only make things worse:

"Children with autism in particular have a very high level of fear and anxiety, and punishing them actually increases that fear," said Dr Roberts.

"…it's likely to make the behaviours worse," she said. "We do know that punishment has a short-term effect."

It would be a very sad world where no one recognized this "treatment" for the torture it is. I'm heartened to hear the voices of reason by our friends down under, and I can only hope that they don't think that all of us up here are as nuts as Dr. Israel.

Selective Outrage

While driving in to work today I heard a story on the radio regarding a special needs children's orphanage in Iraq that was recently raided. According to the story, a routine military patrol in Baghdad happened to look over a wall, and saw the following:

...Inside the building, a government-run orphanage for special needs children, the soldiers found emaciated little bodies tied to the cribs, CBS News reports exclusively. They had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the dying boys. ...

..."The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste — feces — and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids," Lt. Stephen Duperre said. ...

The tone of the article was one of shock and dismay. As if, in a country where its former leader would use nerve gas to kill his own citizens for the crime of being from a different tribe than he, we should be surprised that special needs kids are abused and left to die.

But, my overarching reaction was something more akin to "Hey, where've you been, CBS? You don't have to go to Iraq to see abuse of those who are in institutions." Perhaps you should look a little bit closer to home. For starters, you could look at how UNICEF has cataloged systemic abuse of children in institutions all across the world, including in the West.

One could also go to this web site to see stories from former patients in mental institutions in the US. Another place closer to home would be to read Amanda Baggs' list of ways institutionalized people are abused in institutions. Finally, abuse of autistics both in and out of institutions is cataloged by Joel Smith here.

I guess the bottom line is while I think people should be outraged at the treatment that these children were/weren't receiving, I think that CBS missed an opportunity (responsibility?) to also shed a little light on a lot of abuse that happens a lot closer to home, here in the US.

Bad News/Good News

What I've really been thinking about are the weighty issues raised on Kristina Chew's website, as well as elsewhere. But I'm just not up to tackling those things today. So we'll keep it a bit closer to home.

I haven't totally figured out how Buddy Boy is "graded" every day. Every day we get feedback from the school as to how he has done during each period of the day. He gets either a green light, yellow light, or red light. Besides getting a "light" for each period, there will also usually be explanations of his behavior for either yellow or red lights.

Last week Buddy Boy started "inclusion" for one or two periods each day in his assigned first grade classroom (he hasn't been there all year-instead he has been in a self contained sp. ed class). The first few days went well (novelty usually works to keep him distracted/interested) but the yesterday he got yellow lights, and today he got two red lights.

There never seems to be a consistent standard for what constitutes a red light vs. a yellow light vs. a green light. We have asked them in the past to clarify this, but have never really gotten a satisfactory answer.

Today's red lights were for two things. The first one was evidently when he was sent to the nurses office to take his midday meds. Instead of proceeding directly to the office, he decided to go and visit teachers in other rooms. While I realize that it's important to follow directions in school, marking an autistic kid down for socializing seems rather ironic to me (although it is consistent with the school district's unpublished motto "Obsequium Supra Omnia"-Subserviance above all else[Thanks to Dr. Chew's correction of my grammar]).

The second red light was for refusing to participate in a group activity. No notations were made that any screaming or physical actions on Buddy Boy's place took part.

So basically, I'm a little bummed that things aren't totally hunky dory with the inclusion thing this week. But in my view, it's great that he's not doing anything that can get him suspended/expelled. He's keeping it together enough to tell him what he doesn't like without getting physical with them. As long as that keeps up, we can work on the rest.

Next week, we have parent-teacher meetings, so perhaps we'll get a better idea of what exactly the different colors mean.

As negative as this post might sound, we actually are making progress with the school, and I think Buddy Boy is, too. And as long as we're moving in the right direction and not losing ground, I'm willing to work with it.

Joe is 210