Electric shocks on the disabled in Mass. USA update

Details: Category: In brief; Created: Monday, 02 July 2012 04:44; Published: Monday, 02 July 2012 04:44; Written by Change.org; Hits: 3347

This is hard for me to say, but on Wednesday, the leadership of the Massachusetts House of Representatives chose not to support a bill that would ban the use of electric shocks on disabled people in the state. Massachusetts is the only state in the country where this still takes place.

I started my petition after I saw this abuse firsthand as a teacher's aide at the Judge Rotenberg Center. I had no idea that you and more than 250,000 others would join me, and together demand Massachusetts lawmakers stop the abuse of my former students -- thank you.

Even though this bill didn't pass, I'm incredibly proud of the attention we've brought to the abuse taking place at the JRC. Here are some of the things that we've accomplished:

The United Nations has announced that they are now investigating the JRC's use of electric shocks to see if they meet the international guidelines for torture.
Anderson Cooper exposed that the JRC has been misleading the public about having FDA approval for its electric shock machines, and the campaign has been covered by media from CNN to Fox News.
More than 30 human rights and disability organizations came out in support of our efforts.

It was always going to be a hard fight -- the JRC spent millions of dollars on lawyers, lobbyists and public relations professionals to influence these lawmakers. But thanks to your support, the world knows what goes on in Canton, Massachusetts, and the JRC won’t be able to escape scrutiny like before.

For the moment, we haven't won this campaign -- but the petition will still be updated with information about the effort to protect the disabled in Massachusetts. And I hope you will keep talking about this issue with your friends, families and legislators.

Again, thank you for supporting my campaign,

Gregory Miller

Former JRC Employee

P.S. New York is now considering a bill that would ban state tax dollars from being used at the JRC if they continue shocking students, and disability advocates are asking for help to make sure it passes.