The School Of Shock Summary

The School of Shock by Jennifer Gonnerman is an article that was posted on a political blog, Mother Jones, on August 20, 2007. The article outlines the disturbing details of a behavior modification facility for severe special needs children and adults in Canton, Massachusetts. The facility, known as the Judge Rotenberg Center, uses shock-devices or “applications” from a “Graduated Electronic Decelerator” (GED) as “aversion therapy” for unfavorable behavior. The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) was founded by Dr. Matt Israel, Ph.D. to serve patients with extreme behavioral disorders without the use of medications or psychiatric therapy. Dr. Israel’s concept is that after repeated shocks, students will cease their bad behaviors, however, JRC is the only facility in the United States of America to uphold these practices. Often, the Judge Rotenberg Center is a last resort for patients who have been expelled and/or rejected from several other treatment facilities and parents/guardians of these patients are desperate to find a cure.

Israel and staff members of the JRC claim that the shock only inflicts minor pain equivalent to a bee sting for a couple of seconds. However, patients that are capable of speaking describe the pain as intense and like ‘being underground in Hell’. Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article decided to try the shock herself and described it as “a horde of wasps attacking” her and that “two seconds never felt so long”. Despite the tortuous pain of the shock, there is very little if any evidence that this treatment plan is effective.

On several occasions, government officials have attempted to ban the use of the GED. While these efforts have substantially limited the amount of patients who receive the shock-treatment to less than a third, parents of these continue to defend the practice because they feel as if there are no alternative treatments for their