A federal court of appeals ruled on Tuesday that a Massachusetts school for children with disabilities can continue administering electric shocks to its students.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had previously banned the electric shock treatment used at the Judge Rotenberg Center, Canton. The institution created the controversial treatment to correct aggressive or self-harming behaviour in adults and children.
The school, along with a group of parents and guardians of students, had challenged the previous FDA ban. The court of appeals for the DC Circuit found that the treatment falls into medical regulations and therefore is beyond the FDA’s remit of control.
“With the treatment, these residents can continue to participate in enriching experiences, enjoy visits with their families and, most importantly, live in safety and freedom from self-injurious and aggressive behaviours,” the school said in a statement following the ruling.
“We have and will continue to fight to keep our loved ones safe and alive and to retain access to this life-saving treatment of last resort,” parents of the students added in a statement.
The Judge Rotenberg Center, Canton, is the only school in the US that uses electric shock treatment on its students, and has suffered heavy criticism from disability rights advocates, including Mental Disability Rights International (DRI) and the United Nations, which considers the practice “torture”.
“The idea of using electric shocks to torture children has been recognised as unconscionable around the world,” DRI’s president, Laurie Ahern, told the Guardian.
“The real torture is what these children are subjected to if they don’t have this programme,” institute and treatment founder Matthew Israel previously said to ABC News.
“They’re drugged up to the gills with drugs that cause them to be so sedated that they essentially sleep all day.”
There are around 300 students, including 48 overnight residents, at the Judge Rotenberg Center. According to Massachusetts News, about 55 of these are approved for the Graduated Electronic Decelerator shock devices, which remotely administer a powerful shock to the wearer’s skin.
“One client of ours is a woman who hit her head against the wall so many times that her retinas were detached,” said Attorney Max Stern, who represents the parents and guardians of Judge Rotenberg Center.
“It was not until she went to multiple various other institutions, not until she got to JRC and got this treatment that she was able to get this behaviour under control so she could have surgery to make it possible for her to see again,” Stern told Massachusetts News.
However, a 2006 report by the New York State Education Department found that the device was regularly used for minor disobedience and “behaviours that are not aggressive, health dangerous or destructive, such as nag*ing, swearing and failing to maintain a neat appearance”.
The report also found no evidence that the school “considers the potential negative effects, such as depression or anxiety, that may result from the use of aversive behavioural strategies with certain individual students”.
The school claims on its website that it “has provided very effective education and treatment to both emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behaviour, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems, as well as those with intellectual disabilities or on the autism spectrum”.
The Independent has contacted Judge Rotenberg Center for further comment.
And they were in the minority. Like they always will be.
Not even blinking when you find out you were completely wrong, huh?
The predecessor to the Trump appointee was Janice Roger Brown, Wikipedia says "Her nomination to the Court of Appeals was stalled for nearly two years as part of Democratic opposition to appointments made by George W. Bush." Her nomination was stalled for literally two years but she still got in. Then she retired and handed it over to another Republican. The decision literally would have been the same if Clinton was president. And above you can see that the Congress could have just blocked a Clinton appointee and waited to install a Republican anyways, since we're basically in an eternal Republican majority in the Senate (which exists because the ruling class wants it that way). Capitalists want the courts to be stacked conservative, which means they simply will be.
Or am I wrong, what part of this scenario would have changed in any way whatsoever if you :vote: for Democrats? You gonna get more Democratic Senators elected? Go ahead, voting for senators is fine. You're gonna get a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress? All you're doing is playing that same game of thinking anything is going to happen through the existing system. If it looks like Democrats could possibly do anything useful they would simply throw the thing to Republicans (like they have done over and over).
Democrats controlled the Senate all of Obama's first term and half of his second, and control it now. The suggestion that Democrats don't get to appoint judges is utter nonsense, considering it's happening right now under Biden.
So yes, you're completely wrong.
Like 5 people have been appointed so far lol and they've been in session for half a year. Wikipedia says they've got like 63 to 100 to appoint. And an overwhelming number got appointed by Trump because they were blocked by Republicans during Obama's terms.
Seven judges have been appointed in the last month. At that pace they'd hit 100 before the midterm elections. And again, you claimed Democrats couldn't get anyone through, which is flat-ass wrong regardless of how fast judges are getting confirmed.
You don't have a clue what you're talking about. No investigation, no right to speak.