Mom of former student sues Judge Rotenberg Center

DEDHAM, Mass. (WHDH). According to WHDH, Cheryl McCollins, the mother of a teen who received controversial electro-shock treatment at the Judge Rotenberg Center 10 years ago, is suing three workers and the center itself.

In October of 2002, Andre McCollins, 18, received painful shock treatments the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton. Andre McCollins was described as autistic and mildly retarded at the time of his treatment.

Shocking evidence was revealed in a Dedham courtroom on Wednesday. A video showed Andre McCollins at the center -- for people with behavioral disorders -- screaming in pain and begging for help while apparently receiving electro-shock treatment.

Testimony will continue on Thursday.

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A CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL: WHERE HAVE ALL THE ADVOCATES GONE?

SHOULD WE HELP OR FURTHER PERSECUTE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS?

Last month, we received an email from Zoe Gross at ASAN, which focused on the death of George Hodgins. George Hodgins was a 22 year old male diagnosed with autism and regretably murdered by his mother on March 6, 2012. A candle light vigil was held for George Hodgins and others that fell to family violence.

Many community leaders were outraged that sympathy poured for George's mother ("the killer") and not for the victim due to his different abilities.

Zoe assisted in organizing a vigil for George and others, such as, Tracey Latimer, who was murdered by her father in 1993. Zoe expressed that Tracey's father was speaking on a television panel for the Canadian Global News, arguing for legalizing the killing of disabled people - in the name of "mercy." (ASAN)

Zoe expressed one sentiment that we wholeheartedly agree with, the murder of a person with a different ability does not weigh in as much as a person without one. If this is not correct, then think about this for a moment, how many school officials have been held accountable for abusing or murdering students via restraints or other forms of abuse. The answer is NOT MANY. Courts, administrative agencies allow them to murder and mame and then freely walk away. We also believe that people with different abilities should live a life free of violence.

It is important to memoralize those that has passed away due to violence, but to also try to find ways to prevent the violence. Parents of children with special needs find it very difficult at times to cope with the stress of finances, family, finding safe and appropriate educational facilities, health insurance, medical and psychological support, assistive services, etc. For example, in Rhode Island the Department of Human Services authorizes and funds an agency called CEDARR to provide Respite, PASS, and HBTS services to families. Through these services, parents are provided assistants to help them with their child(ren) with special needs, except there are obstacles: the workers are not experienced with children with autism, the parents have to wait month after month, the provider agency may not accept your child due to inappropriate behaviors or whatever reason they decide, the agency may be biased, etc. In one instance, CEDARR staff, reported parents to DCYF for not providing their child with appropriate HBTS and PASS services, but failed to tell DCYF that the agencies did not have workers available. It is difficult for parents to find attorneys or afford attorneys to represent their cases.

We can keep pointing fingers at the parents of children with special needs, but it would be more beneficial to assist them before it gets to violence. True advocates know the difficulty of advocating for services through the court system, state agencies, private agencie, schools, and so forth. Many advocates lobby congress. Well, you have many parents that do not have the knowledge to proceedm that's where advocates can help direct them. So, the next time we are ready to point our finger and blame the parent for not doing something "right", help them instead. It seems much easier to blame an individual, rather than an agency that failed to perform its' duties.

Both George and his mom were victims, they both needed help, but didn't receive it.

Advocates, we can help now!!!

In memory of George and the other fallen children,rather than assigning blame, let us focus on what we can do to assist parents acquire the services their children and family desperately needs.

WHY CAN’T MASACHUSETTS SHUT DOWN THE DAMNED ROTTENBERG CENTER?

(Why Haven’t We Learned From The Walter E. Fernald State School?)
by Pearl and Irwin Jacobowitz, April 12, 2012.

Millions of Massachusetts residents living alongside the Rottenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts, either feel powerless to make a change and rid their state of this atrocity, feel that it’s a good thing, profit from it, or simply just don’t give a damn. Wendy Fournier hit it right on the nose when she asked, “What the Hell is wrong with Massachusetts? In turn, we ask, Massachusetts! Is there anybody out there?

We ran an article several months ago that discussed the history of the Rottenberg Center and their methods of torture. Sad to say, Massachusetts has a sorted history of schools of torture (similar to other states); lets not forget The Walter E. Fernald State School, now the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center, located in Waltham, Massachusetts.

The Fernald Center, was originally known as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children, was founded by reformer Samuel Gridley Howe in 1848 with a $2,500 appropriation from the Massachusetts State Legislature. Several reports of physical and sexual abuse swarmed the facility. In the 1970s, a class action suit, Ricci v. Okin, was filed to upgrade conditions at Fernald and several other state institutions for persons with mental retardation in Massachusetts.

The Fernald School was the site of the 1946–53 joint experiments by Harvard University and MIT that exposed young male children to tracer doses of radioactive isotopes. Documents obtained in 1994 by the United States Department of Energy revealed the following details: • The experiment was conducted in part by a research fellow sponsored by the Quaker Oats Company. • MIT Professor of Nutrition Robert S. Harris led the experiment, which studied the absorption of calcium and iron. • The boys were encouraged to join a "Science Club", which offered larger portions of food, parties, and trips to Boston Red Sox baseball games. • The 57 club members ate iron-enriched cereals and calcium-enriched milk for breakfast. In order to track absorption, several radioactive calcium tracers were given orally or intravenously. • Radiation levels in stool and blood samples would serve as dependent variables. • In another study, 17 subjects received iron supplement shots containing radioisotopes or iron. • Neither the children nor their parents ever gave adequate informed consent for participation in a scientific study.

The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, reporting to the United States Department of Energy in 1994, reported on these experiments: In 1946, one study exposed seventeen subjects to radioactive iron. The second study, which involved a series of seventeen related sub-experiments, exposed fifty-seven subjects to radioactive calcium between 1950 and 1953. It is clear that the doses involved were low and that it is extremely unlikely that any of the children who were used as subjects were harmed as a consequence. These studies remain morally troubling, however, for several reasons. First, although parents or guardians were asked for their permission to have their children involved in the research, the available evidence suggests that the information provided was, at best, incomplete. Second, there is the question of the fairness of selecting institutionalized children at all, children whose life circumstances were by any standard already heavily burdened.

The buildings and grounds survive as a center for mentally disabled adults, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation. According to a December 13, 2004 article in the Boston Globe, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney announced in 2003 that the facility would be closed and the land sold by 2007. In 2003, a coalition of family advocates and state employee unions began a campaign to save Fernald. Since 2007, Deval Patrick’s administration, has declined to negotiate with those Fernald advocates, and has pressed ahead with its appeal and closure plans. (Wikepedia, February 22, 2012)

Remember America, it is your taxes that supports these institutions of terror. Don’t you even care how your money is spent or do you like throwing it out the window? This kind of torture and abuse brings to mind slavery and the holocaust, because for so many years people stood by and watched while the torture took place. In all fairness, we believe that the public should see how their money is spent: Click on this site and view the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAj9W0ntUMI