Groups applaud Senate’s proposed ban on painful therapy

 

 

For more information, contact:

Polyxane Cobb, Coalition for the Legal Rights of People With Disabilities, (617) 492-4630
John Thomas, The Arc of Massachusetts, (781) 891-6270, x104

 

MAY 31, 2006 - Advocates for people with disabilities were heartened last week by the Massachusetts State Senate’s adoption of language into the FY2007 budget that would ban the use of electric shocks and other aversive therapies used to modify the behavior of people with disabilities.

 

The move comes only two months after the Joint Committee on Children and Families voted to send bills identical to the Senate budget language into a study. The bills were sponsored by Sen. Jarrett Barrios (Cambridge) and Rep. Barbara L’Italien (Andover).

 

The controversial treatment, long opposed by mainstream disability and human rights organizations, has received renewed attention during the past month as agencies in other states, such as New York and New Jersey, have taken steps to remove students from the Judge Rotenberg Center, a Canton-based private school that uses aversive therapy on both children and adults with varying degrees of intellectual disabilities and mental illness. Students wear electrodes, forcibly strapped to their arms, legs and torso, that are activated by a switch thrown by a teacher when inappropriate behaviors are observed.

 

New York, which sends over 200 students to the Center, is currently the target of a lawsuit brought forth on behalf of the mother a 17-year-old New York boy who was allegedly shocked because he cursed. According to a 5/29/06 AP story, Kenneth Mollins, an attorney who represents the mother and her son, said: “I don’t understand how your state allows this to go on.”

 

“We don’t allow this treatment to be used on prisoners,” said Sen. Brian Joyce (Milton), author of the Senate budget amendment that was adopted, “and we should not allow it to be used on innocent children.”

 

Disability advocates are hopeful that the Massachusetts House of Representatives will urge members of a joint Conference Committee, tasked with working out differences between the two branches' budget plans, to support the Senate language banning aversives.

 

“By supporting this language, legislators have an opportunity to make a powerful statement in support of human rights and dignity for all persons,” said Leo Sarkissian, Executive Director of The Arc of Massachusetts. “Individuals and organizations in other states are questioning our Commonwealth’s commitment to equal rights and treatment for people with disabilities. Let’s end the debate now!”

 

20 Massachusetts groups are calling on the Legislature to support the Senate language:

 

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Center for Public Representation, Federation for Children with Special Needs, Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation, Coalition for the Legal Rights of People with Disabilities, Mass. Developmental Disabilities Council, Autism National Committee, Central Mass. Families Organizing for Change, Autism Alliance of MetroWest, Disability Policy Consortium, Disability Law Center, Community Resources for People with Autism, Mass. Families Organizing for Change, Mass. Office on Disability, The Arc of Massachusetts, TASH, TASH New England, Mass. Advocates Standing Strong, Advocates for Autism of Massachusetts, and Mass. Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee.