re: #48 retired cynic

Florida. Again.

Unnecessary, Inappropriate, Illegal: SPLC lawsuit exposes how nearly 38,000 children each year are seized in Florida, handcuffed and taken to mental facilities
splcenter.org

I wonder what percentage of these children are boys? The reason I ask is because studies have shown that girls are less likely to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder to start out with because we are socialized differently than boys—basically girls are told to “be sweet.” And having “be sweet” socialized into you from an early age is going to tamp down a lot of autistic behavior, resulting in fewer diagnoses.

And getting hauled off by the cops is not the only thing autistic kids have to face. There is a thing called “applied behavior analysis” and “aversion therapy.” At the worst, kids can be legally subjected to electroshock therapy at the “Judge Rotenberg Center” in Massachusetts. Which leads to this kind of legal obscenity:

In the early 2000s, Cheryl McCollins enrolled her son Andre, who has autism and other developmental disabilities, in the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts.

She never thought that in 2002, her child would be restrained by multiple staffers, tied to a gurney and shocked 31 times. His punishment for misbehaving — staffers’ justification for administering the shocks — left him catatonic.

The video of the incident, which went viral in 2012, documents a panicked Andre screaming in pain and pleading with the workers to stop shocking him.

The footage remains traumatic for McCollins to hear, but she wants people to listen in order to spread her message against electric shock therapy and the Judge Rotenberg Center.

*snip*

The Food and Drug Administration issued a ban on the procedure in 2020 — but a federal appeals court judge overturned it in July saying it exceeded the FDA’s authority.

The ruling is the latest chapter in a decades-long battle between disability activists, parents and former students who call the treatments traumatizing and abusive, and a group of parents and administrators who say the shocks are a life-saving last resort to “correct aggressive or self-harming behavior in adults and children.”

MassLive reporter Heather Morrison has covered the story for years. She says students wear backpacks equipped with electrical stimulation devices around the clock. Workers at the residential school employ the shocks using a remote control device when the students display a range of unwanted behaviors.

wbur.org

I want you to notice “unwanted behaviors.” Those are behaviors deemed by the Judge Rotenberg staff to be unwanted, not by the kids or by their parents.

Sorry to go on a little rant, but because of this kind of crazy, I’m glad I wasn’t diagnosed with autism as a kid. I have no idea what kind of torture I’d have been subjected to in the name of making me “normal.”