Is Shocking Kids So Shocking?

Mon., Oct. 9 2006 at 4:26 PM

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In this week's Voice cover story, staffer Jarrett Murphy writes about the Rotenberg Center, a Massachusetts educational facility that uses electric shocks on students who misbehave. As Murphy reports:

The only thing that sets these students apart from kids at any other school in Americaâaside from their special-ed designationâis the electric wires running from their backpacks to their wrists. Each wire connects to a silver-dollar-sized metal disk strapped with a cloth band to the studentâs wrist, forearm, abdomen, thigh, or foot. Inside each studentâs backpack is a battery and a generator, both about the size of a VHS cassette. Each generator is uniquely coded to a single keychain transmitter kept in a clear plastic box labeled with the studentâs name. Staff members dressed neatly in ties and green aprons keep the boxes hooked to their belts, and their eyes trained on the studentsâ behavior. They stand ready, if they witness a behavior theyâve been told to target, to flip open the box, press the button, and deliver a painful two-second electrical shock into the student at the end of the wire.

The school's founder, Matthew Israel, says that the shocks don't hurt much and that sometimes so-called aversive therapy is the only method that works. New York state inspectors, Murphy writes, say the school goes too far, administering shocks "for behaviors that are not aggressive, health dangerous, or destructive, such as nagging, swearing, and failing to keep a neat appearance."

Just asking: Does shocking kids seem okay to you, under any circumstance?

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Wow this article wasn't written with an incredibly strong bias at all was it? Children who are subjected to this form of treatment are only to this point because other, less intrusive ways DID NOT WORK. Some children with SIBs cause SERIOUS problems including brain damage and worse. The child may sometimes habituate to the pain and do far worse damage if untreated. Do I think people should be shocked to prevent them from laughing during class or something of that nature? NO. Do I think that skin shocks are the worst option? NO. Doing nothing is.
To those who think this is a way to help someone who is mentally challenged. Have yourself wired and shocked, maybe several times a day for few weeks. Then ask if this is such a good idea.
Ok. SO I think that shocking kids is so horrible. I'm 14 years old and can't even imagine a person like me being shocked to help them learn. ARGGGGGGGGGGG! It is just so annoying! But keep in mind that you also have to look at the other side of the story. Like how with almost every student they have found a posotive result, and that the parents are OK with this treatment. I saw a story on this on primetime news and It showed someone who started out in a tough situation. Hitting himself and doing uncontrollable actions. HE has been attending the school for 10 years, 5 of them being hooked up on the shocking machine. And he saw outstanding results. But now let's look at the negetive side. WE thats right WE pay for the kids to attned this school with our tax dollars. Enrollment cost 200,000 dollars. Also,the kids suffer scabbing on their arms form electric burns. And did you know that the teachers only have 2 weeks of training? Yep, you can come right out of highschool and straight into the program. No degree required! These kids can't controll theyr actions, no matter how hard they try to controll them, so their being punished? For something that they don't know that their doing? It's unfair and cruel. Give them another way! HELP them. Don't torture them in ways that no one can imagine! Just think, it's sad enough that people put shock collars onb sogs, but on halpless children! Also, some of these kids can't talk, so there is no way that they can fight against them. Please people, have a heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Help these kids understand the wonderfulness of life, without having to worry about being hurt. And parents, love you're kids they way they are, and if you have envy of someone else, SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOU!!!!! God meant to make your kids that way, so that is what you are BLESSED with. These kids are the niciist people that will every walk this earth. Luckily the school will be shut down in 2009.
Trained as I am at, what's considered, "Ivy League" universities in the behavioral sciences and a father of five children (one of whom has Downs Syndrome), I always thought of myself as being the last person on earth to either agree with or advocate Dr. Israel's behaviorist approach. Despite the fact that I had, as my good fortune, training under the tutelage of Dr. Israel Goldiamond most, if not all, of my studies consisted of either a humanistic or a medical model approach to educating or treating those with severe emotional problems and/or intractable mental retardation. It was not until I had been in practice for some time coupled with having to confront crippling behavioral and emotional issues in my own family that my entire conceptualization of education and treatment altered drastically. In fact, I know all to well how easy it is to put forth an argument against 'shocking' another individual - particularly when one says they're doing it for the other person's own good - while promulgating such advocacy under the many-faced guises of wisdom, compassion, love and, understanding, That sort of theoretical and esoteric disputation evaporates completely or is, at the least, seriously modified, when one watches helplessly as all other approaches (including medication) to saving a loved-one's life fail miserably. At that time a lateral inversion in one's thinking takes place - for indeed if such true enlightenment does not transpire - then one is without conscience in their condemnation of their loved one's life to that of being lived in abject misery. Dr. Israel is to be extolled, heralded, and applauded for devoting his life to helping and saving the many individuals and families that he has. A man of his intellect ought to be praised not villified.
My son was a student at JRC in Providence, R.I. for 11 years. He too exhibited severe self injurious behavior. A short history: He was ejected from a facility funded for autistic individuals in NY State. They assured me that they could handle all of his behaviors. They did not and could not. Instead, they literally threw him out after 9 months and sent him to a psychiatric ward in our catchment area. Needless to say, this was a very inappropriate setting - subjecting him to a "higher functioning" extremely dangerous population. He was incapable of defending himself and the staff employed there were not of the highest caliber. We tried taking him home, but these visits ended with his father having to sit on him to stop him from injuring himself. He was only 15 years old at that time. During his "incarceration" I visited many facilities offered by NY state. None could assure me that they could handle him without psychotropic medication. My son had, in fact, been on a number of medications for several years. Not only were they unsuccessful in curtailing his behavior, they actually made him worse and eventually led to a seizure disorder. JRC (or BRI as it was called when my son entered) was the only place that would accept him with the promise that no medication, other than to treat his seizures, would be given to him. After a number of years, my husband and I felt that he might possibly be ready to return to NY and a group home. I don't know if our decision was the right one. However, it was our decision; just as it was our decision to have him attend JRC. Until any of the above "critics" have experienced what our family has, I don't think you have the right to judge. If you do, in fact, have a child similar to ours and do not agree with our choice, that is okay. But, I think that each and every one of us is entitled to choice.
There's a bit of news about JRC in this latest post: http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002931.php Thanks for reading.
IDENTICAL TWINS: REGARDING 2-SECOND SKIN SHOCK THERAPY--PLEASE HEAR OUR VOICE My nephew, Matthew, was pictured in The Voice article on aversive intervention. I am a speech and language pathologist and audiologist and have worked with special needs children and adults for more than 25 years, since before the birth of my handicapped identical twin nephews, Matthew and Stuart. I give both twins voice here. We have amongst us the parents and guardians of children with such unimaginable compulsive, self-destructive disorders that they have attempted to remove their own intestines from their rectum, blind themselves, excoriate themselves, and some, when removed from this therapy, have died of their wounds. Even when restrained to stop them from chewing off their body parts some have still managed to chew out their lips and tongues�whose families, like my own, have witnessed and lived with these EVENTS. Those who do not have a child in need of skin shock therapy should not speak for the children and their parents and family members who suffer as we do. My nephews both exhibit extreme self-injurious behavior--identified as SIB in the health care community. Matthew and Stuart engaged in head banging since early infancy. Their grandfather padded their cribs to try to keep them safe. As Matthew became older and stronger, he began to compulsively seek sharp pointed objects to smash his head into--necessitating repeated emergency room visits. And one day�a day we feared every day for the twins� lives�Matthew, at age 16, older and stronger, split his head open and required surgery, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, to close the wound. (In the actual large, full-page Voice photo as it appeared in the newspaper I could still see faint, but visible, healed over jagged scars in the middle of his forehead that appeared as slight discolorations in the photo). There, in Lenox Hill Hospital constant restraint, on multiple drugs, with 24-hour one-to-one observation, he re-split his head on the sutured wound. And he managed to run into the isolation room of a patient with a contagious disease. A teacher sent to him never returned after he grabbed her and attempted to smash her head into a sharply cornered angle of a wall. He could not be educated. He could not speak or tell us his pain because the drugs he was given to control his behavior, which they did not do, instead caused uncontrollable mouth, face, limb and body movements. Matthew remained in Lenox Hill Hospital for 5 1/2 months, barely awake because of the drug cocktails. My sister desperately tried to find a place for him; the hospital continuously told her he had to leave; the insurance company told her they would no longer pay and she would be responsible for the cost; and still no one would take Matthew. And then he was accepted at Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), where he now resides. When all other treatments have failed, JRC uses 2-second skin shock therapy, which Matthew has received to control his life-threatening, compulsive SIB condition. Matthew has remained not only drug free in his current residence at JRC, he can speak clearly because his twisted and tormenting body movements gradually subsided as he was weaned from the drugs. He phones his family members regularly and speaks to his 95-year-old grandmother frequently. He enjoys his hobbies, dinosaur collecting, birds, and his telescope, reading, visits and multi-day vacations with his family. Matthew participates in life and tells us he feels happy and safe. Stuart resides in a residence in New York City. Skin-shock therapy is legal in New York State, but it is unavailable. Because of the medications Stuart is forced to take to "control" his behaviors, he new suffers some of the movement disorders his identical twin brother no longer has. And, although never having been an epileptic, the medications have altered his brain so that his seizure threshold has been lowered and he has dropped unexpectedly in the New York City subway system -- we were called to an emergency room during a 12-inch snow storm recently because he was unconscious. Yet these same "drug cocktails"�none of which have been approved for use in these conditions-- have not altered Stuart�s behaviors--but have only complicated them. We have been told he has been subjected to the aversive and dangerous �take-down�-type procedures and other restraints. He has been handcuffed and removed from his residence by the police, and has had 5 emergency psychiatric hospitalizations in the past few years. On one occasion he attempted to hold someone's hand over an open flame--almost setting the two of them on fire. We know Matthew is alive, safe, and enjoying his life, and. He tells us he is happy when we visit and speak with him. We know Stuart can die at any time, and he tells us he is miserable. Stuart, like his brother Matthew, needs life-supporting skin shock therapy. We would like both boys to be with us. We would like both of them to have a safe and happy life. No one who has not experienced or witnessed the "Sophie's Choice" brought upon our family should presume to decide for us. Dr. Phyllis Klein
Torturing someone to get them to do something is against the Geneva Convention, yet jerks like Mr. Israel call it "psychology". Sure, it "works", sometimes anyway. But it doesn't "work" permanently, or these children would get cured! They stay, year after year, decade after decade, while Mr. Israel gets filthy rich, hires a cadre of fancy lawyer to defend him and entertains his loyal fellow torturers. There is no proof, none whatsoever, that any child is cured by torture, that any child's life has been saved by painful skin shocks that would be severe animal abuse if done to your pet dog. In other states, in other countries, this torture is illegal. It is in fact illegal in New York, so these children are sent out of state to Massachusetts to get tortured. Children! Sent far away to be tied down, forcibly and painfully shocked, repeatedly. It's Medieval torture done in a "modern" setting and given anitiseptic names and legitimacy by a court system that is intimidated by Israel and his powerful team of torture fans and lawyers. If my child was as violent as these people claim the residents of JRC are, I wouldn't torture her. Hurting people makes them worse, the many studies on corporal punishment make this clear. Obviously Israel pays little attention to research. In his 70's, he relies on very old research on ANIMALS done by a scientist who said you shouldn't do this stuff on actual people. Absolutely sickening that this continues. Hopefully something will be done to end this infamy. But Israel is powerful and determined to torture children...some people are just driven to hurt others. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, get wise people!
To the Editor: Whether or not aversives should be used as a form of therapy for individuals with severe behavioral and emotional problems is not the question. What we should be asking is "Does this treatment work?" JRC has been successful in modifying and eliminating the most destructive, violent and self-injurious behaviors. Before commenting on JRC?s treatment methods, one should understand that this may be the only remaining option for individuals who may have exhausted their possibilities elsewhere. It is only simple-minded, brain washed people who would pass judgment and oppose new alternative types of treatment based only what they have learned through the media or what certain officials might characterize as "unethical, inhumane, cruel" treatment. What would be truly unethical would be to deprive the parents of their right to choose the type of treatment suitable for their loved ones. What would be truly inhumane and cruel would be to allow these individuals to continue to destroy themselves. For years JRC has taken the challenge of accepting the most difficult cases throughout the country. As a current employee, I have witnessed the most unimaginably destructive, self-injurious behaviors being exhibited by the students and then successfully treated with the use of skin shock. This is why I believe there are times when alternative types of treatment need to be implemented in order to save the individuals' life. Marisol Nichols Recruiting Supervisor Judger Rotenberg Center
I am an independant electronic/FDA consultant that has witnessed used of skin shock. I have seen the positives results of skin shock therapy. I do wonder how many of those folks that condemn its use have any idea of its functionality, or more to the pont, the actual current used by the device. HINT: It is measured an thousands of an amp
Many of the comments posted so far express outrage toward the use of aversive therapies as detailed in the article. My brother is a student at the JRC and has been enrolled for over 10 years. There is no truth whatsoever to the charges that use of the GED causes permanent damage to those receiving it. The real question here is whether parents and guardians like myself who have exhausted all other means to get appropriate care for their behaviorally-challenged or retarded loved ones should have the right to make a fully informed choice for a treatment that has fewer negative consequences and side effects than the more "humane" way of going about it -- that is, high doses of any and every psychotropic drug available. My brother nearly died at a facility here in Brooklyn whose methods and techniques for dealing with his disorder would be deemed humane by so many of these "outraged" Voice readers. Unless you have personally dealt with the vicious merry-go-round of drug after ineffective drug being pumped into your loved one all the while erasing their personality and destroying their internal systems as a treatment, then your commentary is ill-informed and serves to reverse the gains made by students such as the Perrazo's daughter and my younger brother. Outrage over real torture as practiced by the U.S. and other governments is understandable and has a place in our political dialogue, but such knee-jerk reactions to a complex matter of treatment and choice for those who must rely on their families first for care and guidance is absolutely misplaced and completely wrongheaded.
As the parent of a child who is neither autistic or mentally retarded but who has extreme emotional issues and turns violent and destructive towards herself and others, I found myself at a dead end with the so-called help that New York State provided for her. We went to numerous psychiatrists, she was in and out of group homes, where drugs and prostitution are rampant, in and out of psychiatric hospitals where she was drugged up so badly that I barely recognized her anymore, and in spite of these drugs, her behavior remained the same. And thanks to those psychotropic drugs, she is now a diabetic on daily insulin. I've watched her being taken down and restrained by staff in these different places and saw the bruises that this caused. I also saw that this did nothing to help deter her from repeating her behavior. In fact, I truly believe, that the negative attention she received in these places only helped to reinforce her negative behavior. My daughter has been at JRC for a year and a half and is completely drug free. While she still has a long way to go, she has definitely responded to the daily structure she gets there. They reinforce positive behavior, through constant verbal reminders and through a reward system that is goal oriented for the students. Unfortunately not everyone responds to just these kinds of treatment. Sometimes their behaviors are so deep rooted that they need something much stronger to help make these behaviors unacceptable to themselves. My daughter, unfortunately, is one of those people. I have given my approval for her to have the skin shock treatment provided at JRC. I would rather have her get a 2 second shock that will stop her from hurting herself or someone else, than watch her be held down and restrained or drugged into a stupor. It is meant to be uncomfortable and to make you think about the behavior that predicates it's use. Almost the same as a child touching a flame and realizing it hurts to do so. Unfortunately there are too many children that insist on touching that flame again and again before they finally get it. There are no drugs that cure that. The cure is behavorial modification techniques that are used at JRC and at only a few other places that are very far away from New York. JRC is helping many families like mine and families in even worse situations to have hope for a future and a decent existence for their children. The "norm" does not work for our children. JRC does.
Regarding the use of the temporary skin shock treatments at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC): Eleri Hamilton stated in her Oct. 16, 2006 post that she has a child that has beaten and bruised her and she is at her wits end trying to keep everyone in the family safe and healthy. She concludes with "And I *STILL* wouldn't subject my child to adult-regulated torture. Ever." Ever is a very long time. I hope that she keeps an open mind and that if conditions change, JRC may be the best choice for her child. Whatever HER decision, it is her PARENTAL RIGHT to select what she thinks is the best treatment. Likewise, it is my wife's and my decision to have the temporary skin shock device used on our son after numerous medications (which we later found out are not approved for children) prominent psychiatrists, different residential schools, etc. all failed. He is doing very well - going for the high school equivalency exam and being faded from the temporary skin shock device.
The reference that I gave in my previous post to the paper that proves that the difficult-to-treat students are expelled from positive-only programs and then referred to JRC was dropped from my post because I mistakenly surrounded it with certain characters to show that it was a web address. It is http://www.judgerc.org/posonlyprograms.html
A few reactions from JRC's Executive Director to the comments that have appeared in this column: 1. Students at JRC are not hooked up to an electric socket. The skin-shock stimulus is generated by a battery-operated stimulator that is worn by the student in a backpack or fannypack and which is activated by a signal from a remote control device operated by the therapist. The stimulus is a two second sting to the surface of the skin that has been likened in intensity to a bee sting (but lasting only the two seconds), and which has no significant adverse side effects (unlike the common alternative which is the use of heavy and ineffective doses of psychotropic medication which themselves have never even been approved for use with children). 2. The article about JRC which appeared in the Village Voice failed to mention the most important safeguard in JRC's use of skin shock. Each treatment plan that incorporates skin shock must be pre-approved, on an individual basis, by a Massachusetts probate court judge after a hearing. In this process, the court appoints an attorney who represents the interests of the student, as distinguished from the interests of JRC or of the parent. That attorney is given funds to hire an independent psychologist who advises the attorney in his opposition to JRC's request to use the skin-shock procedure. Eventually it is a judge who decides whether to grant JRC's request and how much of it to grant. 3. Most of the comments in this discussion assume that the choice for a parent is between a program that uses aversvies such as skin shock and one that does not. That is incorrect. Most of the students who attend JRC have been refused admission to, or expelled from, programs that use "positive-only" treatment procedures. When those programs encounter a very difficult-to-treat autistic or behavior-disordered student, they expel the student and then, often as not, the student is referred to JRC. I have described the cases of 10 examples of students who have been expelled from 4 of the finest positive-only programs in the country in a paper on the JRC website which may be seen at > In other words, the real choice for parents of such students is among the following alternatives: (a) no program at all ("warehousing") either at home or, more likely, in some state retardation or psychiatric facility; (b) heavy psychotopic medication that can turn the student into a half-asleeep zombie who falls face-first into his/her food, cannot even recognize his/her parents, and has to face numerous known and unknown irreversible future side effects from those drugs; (c) frequent use of take-downs, manual and mechanical restraint, holds, time-outs and isolation rooms, as well as a host of questionable practices that are really aversives masquerading as "emergency procedures" or "reactive procedures"; and (d) use of a drug-free, consistent positive reward/educational program supplemented with parental- and court-approved skin shock that is applied only once per week on average to a small area of the surface of the skin of an arm or leg, which has no adverse side effects, which is extremely and quickly effective, which (by dimishing or removing ongoing problem behaviors) clears the way to enable positive rewarding and educational procedures to be brought into play, and which in many cases is able to be removed entirely as the behavior improves.
This is the ingenious "treatment"? Shocking them? How is this different from hitting the child with a ruler? Ubelievable.
>>Call him anything you want but, if you had a kid like my son, I don't think you'd be so quick to judge.<< I *do* have a child like yours. And like many other children with severe behavioral problems. I have been beaten and bruised by a child a quarter of my size. I have spent time in the ER, called every psych ward within a 100 mile radius, been at my wits end trying to keep everyone in the family safe and healthy. And I *STILL* wouldn't subject my child to adult-regulated torture. Ever.
I have an autistic son. He was rejected by every school in NY State. He was self-abusive and uncontrollable by my wife and myself as he grew older and stronger. Yes, the idea of shocks and other "aversives" sounds horrendous. It certainly did to us, however, we were at wit's end. The last straw was when Suffolk Developmental Center refused to take him. By law they had to but, my son, was too much for them to handle. BRI, Dr. Israel's school in Providence, RI was our last hope. After several months the helmet came off, the banging of the head stopped, the screaming at the top of his lungs stopped, etc. Did my son graduate and go on to Harvard, don't be silly, but, he is now living in a group home and is doing quite well working in a sheltered workshop and living a "normal" life. I don't thank Matt Israel, I bless him. Call him anything you want but, if you had a kid like my son, I don't think you'd be so quick to judge.
It's monstrous. DMH, and landlords paid by them (another example) are harsh, didactic, and likewise tunnel-visioned. While we, their so-called "clients" live in abysmal and abusive conditions (from these "superior" folk), they are busy living their middle-class, comfortable, and otherwise fullfilling lives (on the surface, anyway). They're MONSTERS. Evil. I love the comment above, that this is a lazy way of doing things. I'd add to that, that it shows their stultifying ignorance, gross stupidity, and total lack of depth and/or sensitivity--in other words, they're more qualified for their "diagnoses", than we the "clients" (I would say, victims)--are. What a boondoggle for cruel,heartless, not-too bright people (and what a nice living! Yeah!)
As a teacher of psychology I am sometimes surprised at the things that people believe. Skinner worked for the US military designing a missile guidance system based on pigeons pecking at targets. It didn't get used. Behaviorism ignored genetic differences and so was the antithesis of the Nazi philosophy. It was alleged that Jung was a Nazi symphasizer. Skinner did keep one daughter in 'a box' that was little different from keeping a kid in a playpen commonly used today. However, Watson did conduct a questionable experiment creating a phobia in a child. People who have not seen the patients talked about in the article probably imagine their nice kids being shocked by the wall socket. They do not realize that it is a small amount of pain used to prevent much larger amounts. It would be nice to find a way to control their behavior without any pain. Those who criticize the use of shock should provide an alternative way to stop the kids from hurting themselves
I am torn reading this article. I never thought I would say this, but I do agree that there are some cases where "shock therapy" is a good idea. I have an eight year old bipolar son and how is this two second shock different from the restraint technique I was taught by professionals? I basically have to throw my son down, hold his arms behind his back and put my knee (hard) into his middle back and hold him with all my might until he calms down. I do this to stop the behavior, protect myself and my daughter. Sometimes I have to restrain him for a good two minutes during which my eight year old has enough strength to throw me to the floor when in full rage. No, I don't agree with shocking to provoke behavior, but if a two second shock can stop the kind of rages I've seen in my little child, I would agree to it. And I'm not barbaric.
Yep, another wonderful product of Skinner - who was a Nazi sympathiser. Really, isn't it great to have these folks soak desperate parents financially, while getting their kicks out of brutalizing folk? What a great gig, isn't? MA needs to put these modern-day gulag leaders, these pseudo-science snake oil salesmen out of business. If MA won't do it, NY hopefully will.
I have read this article with disgust. We have a severely autistic child in our family who demonstrates many of the behaviors worthy of shock therapy at this facility. However, we choose to love and soothe the child, rather than cause him more pain. Nothing to say but the sadist making 214, 000 grand off of these poor children and young adults should be hooked up to his GED for the rest of life.....
Perhaps killing these kids would be more humane. If there's no way to control them and it's inhumane to shock them, what's the alternative? If tempered with positive incentives, even an animal will learn correct behavior. This seems that this would be a viable alternative to heavily drugging and simply warehousing these unfortunate souls. I'm sure that those who sent their kids to this place are at wits end and have exhausted the usual treatments. Like abortion, no one does it lightly, but people should have the choice.
If whatever wayward behavior I evidenced were habitually punished with electro shocks, (or slaps or punches etc) I would eventually want to kill the tormentors, not just avoid the recent behavior... This program is imbecilic; it manufactures Gitmo and Abu Graib constructs. It is the definitive source of authoritarianism abd possibly the laziest and least creative solution to special ed. ever. Even if there were some triollionic controlled studies about "successes" in modifying unwanted behavior, it rests on a monstrous "skin deep" fallacy that neglects unintended consequences including deferred (and probably misplaced) revenge etc.
There has to be a better way to help kids than this. It is barbaric. I also wonder if a study could be done on the adults in this program. It seems to me this would be make an interesting case study. How do these adults function? Do they stay in the profession long? Are they on medication?
Didn't Skinner himself decide that behaviorism is not a good idea when taken to the extreme? (I.E. the "baby in the box" experiment?)
It's easy to express revulsion at Dr. Israel's techniques when one is not himself responsible for attempting to aid such patients. I give the JRC credit for attempting therapy regimes intended to actually raise the level of emotional and cognitive existences of such patients, who otherwise would likely be warehoused indefinitely in drug-induced stupor. Remember the 60s/70s/80s when we as a country decided to close down such "snakepits"?? If not adversive therapies as required to aid such patients, then what?
No aversives. Not in my country, not in my world. My personal world contains many children who have self abusive behaviors, emotional disorders and disability labels. The children have been able to more safely participate in the world through humane and stable care, with thorough expert medical evaluations and follow through, with respect for their dignity and the dignity of their parents. Sometimes medications are used to stabilize a diagnosed imbalance. Communication of all sorts is viewed as a valuable tool. I find the tortures described in reviews of JRC inconceivable as a method of training.
Schools and adult facilities around the world find ways of handling self-harm by people with autism and mental retardation without resorting to abuse and torture, which is the only way to describe these methods. If they are not considered suitable for typically developing children--and you would be arrested if you tried this at home on your own kids--then they are doubly unsuitable for use on vulnerable people with disabilities. Behavior is a form of communication, especially when the person concerned may be unable to communicate verbally. If instead of lisetning and responding you choose to give the person an electric shock, I can only conclude that you lack respect for that person as a human being. Atrocious and indefensible.
One day I hope we can look back on things like this with the same incredulity that we look back on "bleeding patients" in the Middle Ages as a way to cure their "imbalanced humors". As a parent, I can not conceive of intentionally hooking my children up to an electrical socket with someone else holding the switch.