Occupy The Judge Rotenberg Center
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About the Judge Rotenberg Center

The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is a school and treatment facility based in Canton, Massachusetts that uses electric shocks (remotely administered through devices that are required to be worn on the student's body throughout the day), withholding of food and other abuses in the name of 'behavioral change' all geared toward kids and adults with developmental challenges, autism and/or psychiatric and emotional difficulties. Other accusations against the school have included reports of excessive use of restraints and forced inhalation of ammonia. Former teachers, parents and advocates have spoken out about the obvious traumatic impact of these measures on both the children who are treated in this way and the children who witness their classmates being so treated. IT IS THE ONLY SCHOOL IN THE NATION THAT USES THIS PAINFUL 'AVERSIVE' CONDITIONING.

The school's founder - Matthew L. Israel - studied under B.F. Skinner, known for his testing of animals in "Skinner boxes" where they were forced to act in a particular way to get a reward or avoid painful stimulus. Israel first began testing his theory behind the aversive therapy that he developed on a three-year-old child with whom he was living (snapping his finger against his roommate's daughter's cheek when she did something he deemed as 'bad').

JRC's practices have officially been declared to be torture by United Nations experts. Nonetheless, JRC is allowed to continue to prey on families who are desperate and vulnerable, encouraging them with promises of lavish grounds and rewards and an answer to all their troubles. (Although recent legislation prohibits use of shocks on NEW students, promotional materials sent to inquiring parents continue to refer to shocking as a possible course of treatment and existing students are still subject to this torture.)

JRC accepts children as young as three-years-old. Overall, children are lured in by garish colors and design featuring a Wizard of Oz theme stock full of animatronics, a real live yellow brick road, and a non-stop loop of the Wizard of Oz film projected on the wall of their 'Yellow Brick Road' rewards center. THE COST OF ATTENDING JRC IS WELL OVER $200,000 PER YEAR PER STUDENT, MOST OF WHICH IS COVERED BY TAX-PAYER DOLLARS

Patient a "bag of bones," ex-center worker claims
By Kevin Rothstein
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Updated: 08:13 AM EST

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A 12-year-old autistic girl wasted away to a "bag of bones" under a harsh dietary regime imposed by the controversial Judge Rotenberg Center for troubled kids, a former employee charges.

Judge Rotenberg Center

"When I would give her a bath, I would literally see the bones looking like they're coming through the skin," said Susan Donovan, who quit her job at the center in January.

"She looked like a bag of bones," the former worker said.

Donovan took her concerns to the state, saying the vegan-like diet she says the girl, Samantha Shears, was forced to follow amounted to neglect.

The Department of Social Services found no problems, but referred the case to the Department of Early Education and Care, where it remains under investigation, state officials said.

Center founder Dr. Matthew Israel denied Donovan's claims, saying the 12-year-old girl has actually gained weight since she has been in the center's care.

The child's mother also stands by the treatment.

It's hardly the first time the Canton facility has come under fire. It's one of the few places in the country to use aversion therapy, which zaps misbehaving kids with painful jolts of electricity.

New York State, where 151 of the center's 255 students come from, is considering a ban on sending youths there, after a Long Island woman complained about her son's skin shock therapy.

Donovan said the school imposes a mandatory vegan-like diet, producing food like soy yogurt and whole wheat noodles that the severely autistic and mute girl found so unpalatable she would spit out nearly every bite.

"She used to hold my hand and she'd walk me to the refrigerator and there are cameras up everywhere, so even if I wanted to sneak her something I couldn't do it," she said.

Samantha Shear's parents sent her to the Rotenberg Center in desperation after they couldn't stop her from hurting herself. She had detached both her retinas by banging her head on her hands so hard.

Her mother, Marcia Shear, credits the school with saving her daughter's life but admits she also was concerned about her daughter's weight.

"I've been there every six weeks, I know my daughter can go for days, she doesn't want to eat anything, but you can't make a child eat. They offer her extra food every hour." she said.

Israel rejected Donovan's claims, saying Shear now weighs 70 pounds, four pounds more than she did when she was admitted last year, and that students' weights are reviewed weekly.

He also claimed that students are offered a choice of cow"s milk or soy milk, and have four meals a week with meat.

"There's a healthy diet, not completely vegan. It's a plant-based diet," he said.

Center's 'shrinks' legal? State investigates youth facility
By Kevin Rothstein
Friday, April 28, 2006 - Updated: 12:12 AM EST

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The state is probing accusations that psychologists at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton for troubled kids are practicing without a license, officials confirmed yesterday.

Judge Rotenberg Center

And they acknowledged that a second investigation has been launched into burns that a nonverbal autistic youth received on his legs, arms and torso after repeatedly getting shocked by a device the center uses to alter the behavior of its clients.

New York lawyer Ken Mollins sparked the first probe after complaining to the state that 14 of the 17 psychologists listed on the school's Web site are not licensed, according to a state Web site. Mollins is trying to block New York kids from being sent to the center.

"Judge Rotenberg (Center) is not only torturing and abusing kids, they're committing fraud by promising New York parents and parents all over the country that their kids are going to be overseen by psychologists, which means licensure," Mollins said.

But the center's attorney, Michael Femmia, disputed that, saying four of the facility's shrinks are licensed in the Bay State. "It is not neccessary for all of the center's psychologists to be licensed," Femmia insisted. He also called allegations regarding the burned child "false."

"No one has been hurt by the device," Femmia said.

The state Division of Professional Licensure reviewed the names of 17 workers listed on the school's Web site as psychologists and found that 14 did not appear to be licensed, officials said.

"We have opened investigations regarding a number of people who have held themselves as psychologists," said George K. Weber, director and general counsel of the Division of Professional Licensure. The board can seek criminal charges or file a civil complaint, which can lead to a fine of up to $1,000.

Rotenberg founder Dr. Matthew Israel said psychologists are not required to have a license to work at the center.

But Weber appeared to dispute that claim, saying that in general, anyone offering themselves as a psychologist must be licensed.

The Herald reported yesterday that the state Department of Early Education and Care has opened a probe into a former employee's charges that a then-12-year-old autistic girl had become emaciated under the school's strict, near-vegan diet.

Israel denied those charges, saying the student had since gained weight and that students have their choice of foods.

A separate probe also has been opened this week into allegations from another ex-employee that a different autistic student became badly burned from the electric shocks used to try to control his behavior, DEEC general counsel Constantia Papanikolaou said. The former employee said the electrodes were not moved daily as they were supposed to be.

Critics slam center, but some parents grateful
By Jessica Fargen
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Updated: 03:01 AM EST

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What goes on behind the walls of Canton's Judge Rotenberg Center has been blasted by critics as barbaric, but embraced by parents of some of the region's most troubled kids.

Judge Rotenberg Center

The center - ripped in the past for shock therapy - has again come under fire, this time for accusations brought by a former worker that a 12-year-old autistic girl wasted away becauseof the facility's nearly vegan diet.

"It's appalling," said Polyxane Cobb, a parent activist from Cambridge. "Pain and humiliation are not successful therapeutic interventions. They never have been."

Cobb said denial of food is common at the Rotenberg Center. In 1990, an 18-year-old named Linda Cornelison died at the centerafter refusing to eat and then being forced to inhale ammonia vapors. She was 5 feet, 5 inches tall and just 90 pounds when she died.

But Dr. Matthew Israel, the center's director, said some kids' troubles run so deep that "aversive therapy" is the only thing that works. The center is a last resort for parents of kids with myriad behavioral problems, including self-mutilation and autism.

"We'd like to believe you never have to use discomfort or pain . . . , but the truth is, for a small group of students, positive procedures by themselves are just not sufficiently effective," he said.

Kevin Hall, New England director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, called the tactics "barbaric" and ineffective.

"You can change behavior by giving someone extreme pain, which is what they do, but . . . when the threat is moved away, the behaviors come back," Hall said.

However, the mother of the girl who suffered the dramatic weight loss because of dietary restrictions credits the school's skin shock treatments with saving her daughter's life. Samantha Shear, 13, was hurting herself so badly that she detached both her retinas after banging her head into her hands so much. After being bounced from school to school, Rotenberg was the only place able to prevent her daughter from hurting herself, Marcia Shear said.

In "aversion" treatment fix, punishment key
By Jessica Fargen
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Updated: 03:02 AM EST

Food deprivation, "painful but temporary" daily electric shocks, and rewards make up the unorthodox and highly controversial treatment for children's behavior problems at the one-of-a-kind Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton.

Judge Rotenberg Center

The centerpiece of the center's curriculum is aversion therapy, a series of punishments designed to change behavior through pain and penalty, so children learn to fix their bad behavior. Good behavior is rewarded with prizes and perks such as movie privileges and video games.

During the electric shock therapy, students wear a fanny pack, secured with a device that administers a graduated, "painful, but temporary," shock, the center's director, Dr. Matthew Israel, has said. The average student receives one two-second jolt per week, but some receive as many as 50 shocks a day.

Aversion therapy was first introduced in the 1930s as a way to 'rid' people of homosexuality and to treat alcohol addiction, but has recently been used to treat behaviors such as nail biting and drug addiction.

The Rotenberg Center's aversion therapy has been the subject of several lawsuits, but the state Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the treatment.

"One of the mechanisms they use to punish children is they tie them onto a board with their arms and legs spread-eagle. . . . They shock them for 10 seconds," said Ken Mollins, a New York lawyer representing families of children who went to the center.

Two teen girls missing
City teens attending school for behavioral disorders in Massachusetts run off to waiting car, then disappear; worried mom awaits news
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, Newsday Staff Writer
April 12, 2006

Two New York City teenagers were missing from the Judge Rotenberg Center, a Massachusetts school for severe behavioral disorders in children and young adults, many of them from Long Island, police there said yesterday.

The girls, 16 and 18, were last seen Monday morning after a school bus dropped them off in front of the center's main building, director Matthew Israel said. The girls live in group homes a few minutes from the center's main building, where they were arriving for a day of classes.

"They immediately took off into a wooded area behind the school and a car was waiting for them," Israel said. "We think that perhaps one of them had a boyfriend who picked them up."

The center, in a town south of Boston called Canton, is known for being the only place in the nation that uses mild electric shock to control behavior. A Freeport mother is threatening to sue her school district for sending her son there. Of the center's 255 students, 151 are from New York.

Israel said the girls, who are from Springfield Gardens, Queens, and the Bronx, have never received the electric shock treatment.

School officials and Canton police would not release the girls' names. Canton Police Det. Sgt. James Wolfe said they were reported missing at about 9 a.m. Monday. He said the waiting car was described as a dark-colored, four-door sedan, possibly a Nissan Maxima, with New York plates LWK 7351 [CORRECTION: Because of wrong information from police in Canton, Mass., the license plate number of the car in which two New York City girls left a school for behavorial disorders there was incorrect yesterday. The Canton Police Department is looking for a green Nissan Maxima with New York plates, CKW 7351. PG. A17 NS, A15 C 4/13/06] . Wolfe said the driver of the car was a man.

Linda Cedeño identified the 16-year-old as her daughter, Isabel, who she said ran away as she was going back to the center by bus after Christmas last year.

Isabel had spent the holiday at home in Springfield Gardens and a few days later, Cedeño said, she dropped off the girl at the Port Authority terminal, where a bus with Rotenberg staff was to take her back to Canton. But Isabel ran away and was missing for about a month, her mother said.

Isabel ended up coming home, saying she spent the time away with friends and that she ran away because she didn't want to go back to the center, Cedeño said.

The center has a million-dollar surveillance system with cameras throughout the school, in residences and in vehicles, Rotenberg officials said.

Wolfe said missing cases from the center are rare.

Isabel is schizophrenic, bipolar and suicidal, her mother said. "Anybody could have picked her up," she said. "Anybody could just leave her on a curb."
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.


Escaped teen found in motel
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, Newsday Staff Writer, April 15, 2006

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One of the teens who escaped from a Massachusetts center for behavioral disorders earlier this week was found Friday afternoon in a Mamaroneck motel, police said.

Jackie Molina, 18, of the Bronx, appeared to be unharmed when she was found in the lobby of the motel at about 5 p.m., an officer with the Mamaroneck Village Police Department said.

Molina was being examined and questioned Friday and police said they had few details. They would not immediately disclose the name of the motel.

On Monday morning, Molina and Isabel Cedeño, 16, of Springfield Gardens, Queens, fled from the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., and were seen in a car driven by a man, Canton police said.

Cedeño remained missing Friday. Kenneth Mollins, the Melville attorney representing the teens' mothers, said he had information that the girl is in a Brooklyn basement. He said Molina told police she escaped from the basement and a friend took her to Mamaroneck.

Molina's mother, Dilcia Molina, could not be reached soon after her daughter was found, but Mollins said she had been notified and was relieved.

On Friday morning, Dilcia Molina said she was frustrated that her daughter was able to leave Rotenberg. "They confirmed it to me that there was no way my daughter could run away," she said. "Now look what happened."

Jackie Molina suffers from depression, dyslexia, a propensity for fighting, and drug abuse, her mother said.

The Rotenberg center's director, Matthew Israel, declined to comment Friday.

The center, whose electric skin-shock treatment has stirred controversy, has been criticized by New York State education officials for the way it handled the missing teens. New York State officials said they were concerned that Rotenberg staff did not immediately notify them of the disappearance. Center officials said notifying any state is not part of their protocol.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

Teen Boot Camps: Behavior Modification or Torture Centers?

Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, MA