FDA’s slowness in issuing a final rule banning an electric shocking device used for behavioral conditioning at a Massachusetts school for autistic and disabled students means the physical and psychological harm from the device can continue. The United Nations called use of the device “torture.”

Washington, DC - November 19, 2024 —

A proposed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban of an electric shocking device used on autistic and disabled students for behavioral conditioning is still awaiting final action by the agency, six months after the period for public comment in response to the proposal ended and three years after FDA first attempted to ban the device for the same reasons as now. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on the FDA to act with urgency to issue a final rule banning the device, to stop the physical and psychological harm to students that the FDA laid out in its proposal to ban the device.

The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), a school for autistic and disabled students in Canton, Massachusetts, uses electric shocking as punishment and behavioral control. Staff at the school deliver electric shocks from the device to electrodes attached to students’ arms, legs, or other parts of their bodies. The FDA’s investigation determined that the risks of physical and psychological harm to the students justified banning it.

“These devices present a number of psychological risks including depression, anxiety, worsening of underlying symptoms, development of post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical risks such as pain, burns, and tissue damage,” the FDA wrote in its proposal to ban the device. JRC students with intellectual or developmental disabilities are particularly vulnerable, the FDA noted, because it may be difficult for them to communicate about pain or other harm they experience from the shocks.

In 2013, a United Nations Special Rapporteur concluded that the rights of JRC students subjected to electric shocks “have been violated under the U.N. Convention against Torture and other international standards.”

This is the second time the FDA has taken action to ban JRC’s electric shocking devices used for behavioral conditioning. In 2020, the FDA finalized a ban, but JRC got the ban put on hold while it pursued legal action against the FDA, claiming the agency did not have the proper legal authority to ban the device for a particular use. JRC prevailed in its lawsuit, and the FDA’s ban was overturned. In 2023, Congress passed an amendment to federal law giving the FDA the necessary authority, and earlier this year, the FDA again began the process to ban the device as used by JRC.

“Because the facts of the matter have not changed since the FDA’s 2020 ban, we call on the FDA to act with urgency to once again finalize a ban of these devices and put an end to the use of electricity to inflict pain on students at the Judge Rotenberg Center,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office. “Along with the United Nations Rapporteur, we view the use of this device for behavioral conditioning and punishment as a violation of human rights, which must stop now.”

About the company: The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was co-founded in 1969 by members of the Church of Scientology and the late psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, M.D., recognized by many academics as modern psychiatry’s most authoritative critic, to eradicate abuse and restore human rights and dignity to the field of mental health.

Contact Info:
Name: Anne Goedeke
Email: Send Email
Organization: Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Affairs Office
Address: Washington, DC
Website: https://www.CCHRNational.org

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ufOUHeS-ZY

Release ID: 89146490

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