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Prank call leads to shock treatments for teens at hospital
Houston Chronicle ^ | 10/18/07 | DENISE LAVOIE

Posted on 12/20/2007 6:36:32 AM PST by laotzu

BOSTON — State officials are investigating complaints that at least two teenagers were given electric shock treatments at a residential center for people with special needs because someone telephoned fake orders to the staff.

Initial investigations showed that a former student at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center called in the orders on Aug. 26, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday. Center officials reported the incident the following day, she said.

"There is still an ongoing criminal investigation," said the school's senior counsel, Ernest Corrigan. "We are working very closely with investigators."

The state's Disabled Persons Protection Committee is investigating a complaint that a third resident of the center — an adult — also received unnecessary shock treatments after the call, said Nancy Alterio, the committee's executive director.

The complaints have been referred to the state police and the Norfolk District Attorney's Office, Alterio said.

The school treats people with a wide variety of behavior problems, including autistic-like students who have aggressive, self-injurious or destructive behaviors and high-functioning students with psychiatric or emotional problems, according to a description on its Web site.

The Department of Early Education and Care said the call allegedly came from someone claiming to be on the staff of Dr. Matthew Israel, the psychologist who founded the school.

Campbell said the school has submitted a corrective action plan that her agency is reviewing.

The center is believed to be the only school in the nation that uses two-second skin-shock punishments to change destructive behavior. The center said Monday the treatments are used in a minority of cases as part of overall therapy for "very deeply emotionally disturbed young adults."

The procedures are applied "only after obtaining prior parental, medical, psychiatric, human rights, peer review and individual approval from a Massachusetts Probate Court," Corrigan said.

The center has survived two attempts by the state to close it over allegations that its unorthodox methods amount to abuse.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: prank
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Hang up the phone, and don't tase me bro!
1 posted on 12/20/2007 6:36:34 AM PST by laotzu
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To: laotzu
Hey, someone stole the plot-line for Cuckoo’s Nest II, the Return of Chief.
2 posted on 12/20/2007 6:40:38 AM PST by NonValueAdded (Fred Dalton Thompson for President)
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To: laotzu

The last sentence in the article gives the impression that they are politically connected or that they are operated by a protected “minority” group.


3 posted on 12/20/2007 6:41:43 AM PST by FreePaul
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To: laotzu

Uh, Amanda Huggenkiss? Hey, I'm looking for Amanda Huggenkiss! Ah, why can't I find Amanda Huggenkiss?

4 posted on 12/20/2007 6:41:45 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: laotzu

“very deeply emotionally disturbed young adults.”

Oh, teenagers.


5 posted on 12/20/2007 6:41:57 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: laotzu

6 posted on 12/20/2007 6:42:11 AM PST by FroedrickVonFreepenstein
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To: laotzu

I am.........shocked............


7 posted on 12/20/2007 6:42:36 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: NonValueAdded
Hey, someone stole the plot-line for Cuckoo’s Nest II, the Return of Chief.

Good guess; it was actually Strange Brew: "Hey, what about my turn, eh? You hoser! Take off, eh; you didn't let me have my turn, eh."

8 posted on 12/20/2007 6:44:55 AM PST by Migraine (...diversity is great... until it happens to YOU...)
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To: Red Badger

pretty re-volting, ehhhh.........


9 posted on 12/20/2007 6:45:47 AM PST by joe fonebone (When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout)
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To: FroedrickVonFreepenstein
Ah, Juicyfruit!
10 posted on 12/20/2007 6:45:59 AM PST by LIConFem (Thompson. Lifetime ACU Rating: 86 -- Hunter Lifetime ACU Rating: 92 (any combo will do, fellas))
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To: joe fonebone

I’m sure they have AMPle evidence.......


11 posted on 12/20/2007 6:47:20 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: laotzu

12 posted on 12/20/2007 6:48:45 AM PST by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: laotzu

They still give shock treatment in this day and age?


13 posted on 12/20/2007 6:50:33 AM PST by weegee (If Bill Clinton can sit in on Hillary's Cabinet Meetings then GWBush should ask to get to sit in too)
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To: laotzu

Sounds as though the hospitals need to establish an authentication protocol to veryify the authenticity of such phone calls.


14 posted on 12/20/2007 6:51:37 AM PST by davisfh
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To: Red Badger

watt was that?


15 posted on 12/20/2007 6:53:33 AM PST by joe fonebone (When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout)
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To: Migraine
Good guess; it was actually Strange Brew: "Hey, what about my turn, eh? You hoser! Take off, eh; you didn't let me have my turn, eh."

More true than you think. Ken Kesey worked at an asylum when he discovered "therapeutic" LSD and voluntarily had himself hooked up for shock treatment. From it he wrote One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He wrote another novel and lived off the receipts from the first. He then threw larger and larger acid parties (which eventually culminated in the Acid Tests) and then traveled across the US in 1964 to meet with the east coast proponents of LSD use (i.e. Leary) and filmed his travel.

16 posted on 12/20/2007 6:54:03 AM PST by weegee (If Bill Clinton can sit in on Hillary's Cabinet Meetings then GWBush should ask to get to sit in too)
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To: davisfh

Ted Kennedy isn’t outraged. At least it isn’t waterboarding.


17 posted on 12/20/2007 6:54:43 AM PST by weegee (If Bill Clinton can sit in on Hillary's Cabinet Meetings then GWBush should ask to get to sit in too)
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To: joe fonebone

I’ll bet they break down the perp’s resistance sooner or later and put a cap on this kind of prank......


18 posted on 12/20/2007 6:56:20 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Al Cuholic! Is there an Al Cuholic here?


19 posted on 12/20/2007 6:57:36 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: Red Badger

that should de-fuse the situation...


20 posted on 12/20/2007 6:59:04 AM PST by joe fonebone (When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout)
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