This is the statement that the Judge Rotenberg Center released after the FDA made its announcement
on Friday:
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) cannot comment on the FDA proposal at this time, as JRC
has not received notification from FDA regarding this decision. However, we can tell you that the JRC
educates and treats the most difficult behaviorally involved students in the country. Aversive therapy,
which may include contingent skin shock treatments known as the GED (graduated electronic
decelerator), are incorporated into treatment plans for students who struggle with violent, abusive or
mutilating behaviors toward themselves or others. Aversive therapy is only included after the students’
families have exhausted other therapies, residential programs and psychiatric facilities. In many cases
the student’s parents have removed the students from previous placements because they spent much
of their time physically and mechanically restrained or chemically sedated. In other cases the facilities
ask the students to leave because these facilities are unable to handle the students’ behaviors.
It is important to note that most students at JRC do not receive aversive therapy. It is only administered
when other therapy options have been exhausted, and parents and doctors petition the court. Each
case is reviewed by a Human Rights Committee, a Peer Review Committee and a physician. There are
hundreds of peer reviewed articles on the safe and effective use of contingent skin shock, several of
which are specific to the treatment success at JRC.
JRC is committed to serving these students often when no other facility can or will treat them. The JRC
staff is committed to finding the best ways to manage these students’ behaviors to a level where they
are no longer causing severe injury and pain to themselves, so that they can learn and spend quality
time with their family and friends.
We hope that the families of the students directly involved in these treatments will have a voice before
the FDA makes any final decision on this matter. As a reminder of why JRC has fought so hard to keep
this treatment option available for this small and select population, I refer you to this op-ed published in
2014 by the parents of JRC student Samantha Shear.