stoptheshock

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#StopTheShock call to action: We need New York residents to call your State Senators and voice support for Andre’s Law, which would prevent New York residents from being sent to the JRC! Please share this with any resident of New York and make some calls! 

#stop the shock #jrc #autism #tw electrocution #tw ableism #tw racism #tw torture

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Systemic ableism and racism intersect to create barriers to reproductive rights in health care, education, and the child welfare system. Learn more in our new reports, created with the National Partnership for Women & Families: nationalpartnership.org/ReproandDisability

#abortion #disability #reproductive rights

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Content note: Judge Rotenberg Center

“Children should not continue to suffer because of bureaucratic equivocation. Electric shock must end. The FDA was right.” 

#stop the shock #stoptheshock #judge rotenberg center

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The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) would end the discriminatory practice of subminimum wage, and give states and service providers the resources they need to create better employment support programs. Learn more here.

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Disabled students deserve better than restraint and seclusion, and passing KASSA is an important step forward that our community wants and needs. Tell Congress to act now by contacting your members of Congress with our easy-to-use email tool.

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Register now for a webinar about alternatives to guardianship for AAC users on August 19th at 3pm Eastern.

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#WeActAugust is the time to let your members of Congress know you are watching as they take important steps to recognize our rights and expand our rights! Here’s how you can take action this month: https://autisticadvocacy.org/action-august/

#action august #resources #stop the shock #stoptheshock

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Support community reparations for Autistic People of Color through the Autistic People of Color Fund!

#autistic people of color fund

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#StopTheShock needs your support again!

If you want to help the #StopTheShock campaign and end the torture of disabled people at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, MA, this is how. If you are in the US you can now sign an open letter to US Congress by following the link below. The letter calls for an amendment to the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) which would prohibit the use of aversives on disabled students, including the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) which is the device used at the JRC to administer painful electric shocks for behaviours such as talking out of turn, stimming or even for taking too long to remove a coat.

https://resist.bot/petitions/PWEXKJ

Once you follow the link it’s as simple as sending a text to the number shown. You can also print the page with the QR code and put it up on bulletin boards to raise awareness!

If you are not living in the US there are other ways to help, see this previous post, the AuTeach website and the rest of this blog for details. Share this message far and wide, and hopefully we can make a difference to the students at the JRC. Thank you.

#stoptheshock #stop the shock #judge rotenberg center #disability pride month #disability #autism #actually autistic #tw abuse #tw torture #tw ableism

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“States can and should shift their services for people with disabilities away from institutions and other congregate facilities and toward more individualized services. And Congress is right to help, with greater investments in community-based support.”

#tw ableism #tw eugenics #tw institutionalization

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This report from the National Disability Institute examines the financial impacts of systemic inequality on Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) with disabilities.

#asan

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The pinned post on this blog will direct you to action points to help fight this decision, even if you are outside the US.

#stop the shock #judge rotenberg center #autism #tw torture #tw ableism #stoptheshock #actually autistic #disability pride month

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No, the students at the Judge Rotenberg Center are most certainly not considered people. They are considered subhuman because they are disabled and because the vast majority of them are children of colour. They are considered as nothing more than a list of "problematic" behaviours and I cannot emphasise enough that this is not unique to the JRC, although it is an extreme place even by ABA standards.

Six students have died at the JRC. Food deprivation, physical restraint and seclusion are all commonplace there, and indeed are written directly into students' care plans.

I would strongly encourage you to seek out Jennifer Msumba's interviews, she is a survivor of the JRC and I have linked some on this blog.

It is not a place that humans should be sent to. But they are.

STOP THE SHOCK

Please stop scrolling and please take 26 seconds to watch this video (TW: Abuse of disabled people):

(Reposted by kind permission of @/auteach on TikTok).

On July 6th, a federal court overturned an FDA ban on the use of electroshock devices on autistic people, which the United Nations recognises as torture.

This blog will be dedicated to the #StopTheShock campaign and will include survivors’ stories and action points to help fight this decision and stop the torture of autistic people.

For a current list of action points, head over to the AuTeach website. PLEASE REBLOG and spread the word, even if you are not autistic, and follow this blog for updates.

#tw abuse #tw torture #judge rotenberg center #stop the shock

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July is Disability Pride Month, and on the 6th of July we heard the devastating news that a federal court had ruled that the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts would be allowed to continue using painful electric shocks on their disabled students. A disproportionate number of the JRC’s students are people of color, and they are being subjected to inhumane treatment in the name of behaviour management.

“According to the National Center for Education Statistics [12], in the 2015–2016 school year, JRC’s school-age population was 81.5% Black or Latinx people, with all categories of people of color or racial minorities combined comprising 87.4% of its population.“

Neumeier S.M., Brown L.X.Z. (2020) Torture in the Name of Treatment: The Mission to Stop the Shocks in the Age of Deinstitutionalization.

If you are already supporting the #StopTheShock campaign, please consider donating to the Autistic People of Color Fund if you are financially able to at this time, and please help to spread the word. This is one of the practical ways we can help to combat the JRC’s practices and to support autistic people of color during Disability Pride Month!

“The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network in partnership with Lydia X. Z. Brown, with seed funding from the American Association of People with Disabilities Hearne Award, is proud and excited to announce the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment!”

#autism #stop the shock #actually autistic #stoptheshock #lydia x. z. brown #judge rotenberg center #intersectionality #autistic women & nonbinary network #awn #autistic people of color fund

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Register now for an event TONIGHT at 8:30EST about what the overturned GED ban means for our community and how to fight back, featuring Lydia X.Z. Brown.

#stop the shock #stoptheshock #lydia x. z. brown

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Just to add to this, please also consider looking into how to support the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA), which will address issues such as seclusion and restraint of disabled students and the practice of using electric shocks on disabled children and adults at the JRC.

(Resources on KASSA and how to help to follow on the @stoptheshock blog, follow for updates!)

If you have been impacted by the recent news stories about the Judge Rotenberg Center and their use of electric shock devices on disabled children, please consider looking into wider use of restraint and seclusion. The electric shocks are just one aspect of the abuse that goes on at the JRC, with physical restraint, food deprivation, invasion of privacy, isolation and loss of contact with family commonplace.

These practices are not limited to the JRC; restraint and seclusion are widely used in schools and residential care and are considered the norm in many places. The practice of prone restraint, which has led to the death of autistic children (including Eric Parsa, Max Benson and Corey Foster among many  others), was further normalised in Sia’s ableist movie Music earlier this year.

To find out more, please visit the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint website linked above.

#kassa #keeping all students safe act #stop the shock #autism #ableism #prone restraint #restraint and seclusion #tw abuse #tw ableism #tw torture

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This is a fantastic collection of resources about the abuse at the Judge Rotenberg Center compiled by Lydia X. Z. Brown, an autistic disability rights activist who has been fighting for the rights of the students at the JRC for years. (Note that Lydia uses they/them pronouns).

Here you will find an enormous amount of information, including survivors’ accounts and trial coverage, US court cases involving the JRC, videos, news articles and so on. If you are interested to learn more about the JRC and the #StopTheShock campaign, this is the place to go.

(With many thanks to @xocookiest for sending me this link!)

#stop the shock #stoptheshock #lydia x. z. brown #autism #judge rotenberg center #resources #jennifer msumba