BRI defends 5,000-shock therapy;
President says student given them in one day to save his life
April 28, 1994
By David Armstrong
A student at the Behavior Research Institute, a controversial school treating severely self-abusive and autistic students, received more than 5,000 electric shocks in one day at the facility, according to a school official and former employees.
Dr. Matthew Israel, BRI president, confirmed the number of shocks yesterday in response to allegations made by two former employees at the Providence school.
Israel, however, said the shocks were administered in a successful effort to save the student's life. He said the student, a teen-ager, was extremely self-abusive and habitually vomited. When the 5,300 shocks were administered, the student weighed only 52 pounds and school employees were trying to get him to stop hitting his head, Israel said.
Over a 24-hour period, the student was subjected to an average of one shock every 16 seconds. At some points that day, the student was automatically shocked every second if he lifted his hand off a paddle, Israel said. BRI has maintained the average student receives less than one shock a day. Israel said yesterday the figure was accurate, but added a small number of about 10 students receive an average of more than 10 a day.
He also said some students authorized for shock punishment, but not currently using the device, are included in the average.
The employees, Gail Lavoie and Colleen Seevo, said they also worked with a female student who received as many as 350 shocks in one day, another figure confirmed by the school.
The women, who left the school at the end of 1992, said the shock is more painful than described by school officials.
"I got hit accidentally on my thumb and I had a tingling up to my elbow, on the inner part of my arm, I would say for four hours," said Seevo, referring to a shock. "I was saying I can't believe these kids can do this. My hand was shaking. I wanted to go home, that's how bad it was."
Lavoie said the device also had side effects and she had observed students whose skin was burned and blistered by the shocks.
BRI, whose 65 students live in group homes in Massachusetts and attend day programs in Providence, has been attacked by critics for a decade for its use of so-called painful aversives.
The aversives include the use of an electric shock device. Electrodes are attached to different parts of a student's body and a shock is administered from a remote control device carried by staff members. A shock is generally given when a student engages in a violent or prohibited behavior.
Israel yesterday said all the techniques used by the school have been approved by a Massachusetts probate court and the parents of students. In many cases, Israel and several parents said, the techniques, and the shock device in particular, have been credited with saving students' lives.
However, the state Department of Mental Retardation has stepped up its regulation of BRI and threatened the school's license to operate earlier this year. The school and state are expected to battle in court this year over licensing issues.
The former employees said the programs at BRI work for some students, but added they were concerned some of the methods were too severe and inappropriate for other students.
One student had to be wrapped in two bed sheets for an entire summer to restrain her from pulling her hair, the women said.
Israel said that the student was occassionally wrapped in a sheet, but that it was done as a reward because the student, like many other self-abusive students, enjoyed self-restraint.
The employees also complained that food was frequently withheld from students who misbehaved. In one case, they said, concerned staff members "slipped M&Ms" to one hungry student out of the range of monitoring cameras.
Every room at BRI's headquarters and group homes, and even buses used to transport students, is monitored and videotaped by surveillance cameras.
In addition, students who misbehaved had liver powder added to their dinner to make it unappetizing, the employees said.
Israel said students are weighed daily, checked frequently by nurses and physicians and monitored by a nutritionist to ensure they are receiving the proper amount of food.