Senator Brian A. Joyce and Representative John W. Scibak are calling for the immediate passage of legislation that would strongly regulate the use of “aversive” therapy on children in light of a new report highlighting the practices of a Massachusetts-based school now infamously known as the “school of shock.”

In the September edition of the national magazine Mother Jones, the reporter, who spent a year researching the article and interviewing Judge Rotenberg Center founder and director Matt Israel, refers to the school as a high school version of Abu Ghraib and describes heartbreaking stories of children (some as young as 9-years-old) being painfully shocked by accident, shocked for swearing or being shocked over decades for the same behavior.

Eight states (including Massachusetts) send children with autism, mental retardation, ADD, ADHD and emotional problems to the Canton-based school that punishes them with food deprivation and powerful electric shocks. JRC currently treats about 230 children and brings in annual revenues exceeding $56 million.

Massachusetts legislators have been working with disability advocates for over twenty years to ban the use of aversive shock therapy with little results.

Senator Joyce and Representative Scibak recently filed two bills to safeguard and delineate a narrow range of behavior problems where aversive therapy may be appropriate and would address many of the egregious scenarios described in the article such as children being painfully shocked for swearing.

The bills are the culmination of hundreds of hours of work and discussions between behavior analysts, the psychological community, legislators, and disability and civil rights advocates.

“We believe that it is government’s fundamental duty to protect our most innocent and vulnerable populations,” said Senator Joyce, noting that prominent behavior-modification experts, including some cited by Matt Israel, call the JRC ineffective and outmoded. The Canton-based school is in Senator Joyce’s district.

“This legislation will regulate the unfettered practice of aversive therapy,” added Representative Scibak, former Director of Psychology at Belchertown State School and licensed psychologist. “Action needs to be taken now to ensure that no individual is subjected to years of continuous aversive therapy without the benefit of regular oversight and review by a group of qualified psychologists.”

The entire article can be viewed at www.motherjones.com/schoolofshock.