Aspies For Freedom

B"H

     Hello.  Thank you for reading my post.  today I ask the question of why would parents choose the Judge Rottenberg Center?  Why would parents deliberately torture their own offspring?  The answer is a devastating one.  I believe that it points to an ugliness in the culture that must be addressed.  
      It is tempting to say that the parents are somehow victims.  They are victims of some group of therapists or evil psychologists, we say.  The parents themselves are innocent, we want to think.  Yet, we must face the fact that parents who would knowingly torture their own children are evil.  Yes, I just used a word that is never uttered in this culture any more, a culture of relativism, "evil."  Evil is a reality that must be addressed.
       These children (and, apparently, adults) are not kidnapped off of the streets.  They are not the victims of some nefarious group of people.  There is not an amorphous cabal that has forced these children in to electronic shackles.  Yes, I would argue that the German psychologists who were brought in to this country after World War II may have had a role in the development of ABA.  However, the responsibility for the torture and brutalization of these patients does not ultimately rest with these forces, or even the Judge Rottenberg Center.  It rests with their evil, wicked parents; may their names be blotted out of the Book of Life!
        Now, I exclude those parents who were unknowingly hoodwinked.  That should be obvious.  Yet, I cannot accept the concept that most parents involved in electro-shock or ABA-style cruelty are innocent.  These parents are---yes, I will say it---evil people.  They are not good people who are "victims themselves."  No one who cruelly tortures their own offspring can be called "victims themselves."  Even child molesters who were themselves molested are not let off of the hook because some were "victims themselves."  
        Thus, we have to understand why *some* parents of Autistic children are prone to such evil.  The question must be asked.  Yes, we can blame the evil institutions.  We can look at the Judge Rottenberg Center.  As for "Judge" Rottenberg, I would say that, whoever he is, he has lost the rightful title of "Judge" for having lent his name to such an institution.  I say this in the same manner that a King of old would loose his rightful title for opposing the law of the land in the manner of a tyrant.  Yet, the parents are really the ones who must be held accountable.  We must understand their motives.
         Some of you wicked people are reading this now.  You are shameful excrescences.  You have no right to call yourselves "parents."  You have lost the title of humanity.  May G-d Himself stretch forth His Hand against you, and blot your name out from under Heaven!  You have sacrificed your children to Moloch, something that was never Commanded of you.  I will tell you your real reasons for choosing to torture your children, even though you will deny them.
        You may claim that the reason you have done this was because you wanted what was best for your children.  Others of you may claim that you "could not handle" your children.  You are liars.  The truth is that you hate and despise your own children for ruining your perfect world.  You had an image, an idol before which you bowed down.  It was a dream of the perfect family.  It was a dream of the perfect life.  It was a dream of upward mobility, and children who would conform to the system around them, getting ahead.  You call it "the American Dream."  I tell you that is is the Golden Calf.  And, let me tell you now that it will never come to pass for you.  You will never attain it, ever.  You can count on this as the truth, every last one of you parents who have knowingly done this execrable act.
         You have believed in the lie.  You have acted on the lie.  You are now on the same level as the lie.  This gives me no joy to say during this joyous time of Passover, but you are never going to enjoy the happiness that you think that you will enjoy.  One thing is for sure, the very methods (ABA) that you have embraced may actually have hampered the development of your child:

http://www.willamette.edu/dept/comm/reprint/edelson/

"Are the Majority of Children with Autism Mentally Retarded?  A Systematic Evaluation of the Data," by Meredyth Goldberg Edelson.

         This article analyzes the institutional biases behind the claim that Autism and "mental retardation" go together.  The article does not directly say that ABA is behind the tendency to ignore the strengths of Autistic children.  However, I would argue from its data, if accurate, that there is a strange correlation between the adoption of its methods and the inability of Autistic children to develop themselves.  That is all I can say without further knowledge.  The article itself makes the case for a profound institutional bias in favor of the "retardation" view.  It is a must-read for those who truly want Autistic children to develop themselves to their utmost potential, and who face profound resistance.
          Now, I return to parents who abandon their most sacred charge because it is inconvenient.  I would rather not, but I must.  You have brought shame upon our society.  You have failed someone who was born for a holy Purpose.  And, ladies and gentlemen (to use those terms loosely), you have failed to help your child to live up to his or her potential.  Say goodbye to your hopes and your dreams.  The L-rd of Hosts will prevent you from ever fulfilling them.  I am speaking to those of you who have knowingly tortured their own offspring, for any reason.  You will not have the results you want, ever.  
          For the rest of you on this forum, I would say that you had best be careful that you do not operate from the same premises as these parents who have lost the rightful title of "parent."  Remember that if you have been given a Gift, there is something expected of you.  Do not fall in to the same trap of wanting convenience over what is right.  Do not become what these people have become.  That is a sound warning.  You are not part of any superior race, nor do Neanderthals have anything to do with what is expected of you.  That is a solemn warning that you avoid nonsense and focus on using your gifts for the right purposes.

          Please consider my words.  I hope that some parents who have committed these atrocities can hear them.  If you feel ashamed, then please act on that feeling without delay.  

Signed Sincerely,

aah, wall of text.
paragraphs, mate


anyway;

people might have sent their child to the JRC out of misinformation; you STILL get people defending it in the blagosphere, saying that it has worked wonders on their kid.

some people just do not have good parenting skills.  They do not seek correct information and often get bad advice from their parents and other around them.  

Some parents do not handle the children well from an early age -- what behaviours seems "cute" or "somewhat akward" at age three or four and not very appealing in a large 12 year old.  When the child do not meet the "normal milestones" of development -- they do not either recognize it or do not know what to do about it.

These parents are not even spending very much time with their children anyway.  Most working parents only spend a few hours per day with their children.  If the daycare they receive is not very stimulating then the children will not get any help until they become a problem at school.  When the kids are expelled from school then the parents have to find an alternative.  Really the child should have been helped when they were two or three years old.  

that is my theory anyway.

...this...is...BRILLIANT! It's like you almost read my mind! I agree with so much of this!

Personally I'm abit critical - It pretty much says we don't like parents who put their kids in JRC, while we really don't know much about what happens inside JRC except mostly just having read some propoganda against the institution.

Out of a YouTube video where a parent of a JRC kid tests the shock device on himself I get the impression that the parents sees the shock devices as something harmless.

Found the YouTube video, the scene is in the end of the video.

Broken link:

ht tp://uk.yout ube.com/wat ch?v=4Zf_h Mq9AEI

Actually, the New York education department did a thorough study of the JRC--and the results were pretty much worse than anyone expected
link:http://boston.com/news/daily/15/school_report.pdf

Guess I wasn't thinking much of that one.

Am taking a look at it aswell as JRC's criticism of the report.

JRC's criticism of the report doesn't look that serious to be honest. It focuses alot on personal stories, makes personal attacks on a mother who objected to JRC's treatment of her child, states that the report is a scam, criticize the people conducting the report for not having watched movies depicting progress in children of JRC, etc.

If the JRC is considered a "last resort" then they are going to get all the kids with the worst behavioural problems.

Could it be that JRC get some kids who are not so problematic that do progress.   They would likely progress in other environments as well -- regular schools, homeschool, other facilities for autistic kids?  

So what is their criteria for acceptance?

From what I've heard I get the impression that there's alot of people sent there who really just have some minor problematic behaviors, I find it likely that JRC still picks only the most dramatic before and after images aswell as only positive comments from the students.

You'll be pleased to know that such therapy will never get into Australia. It was banned after the infamous Deep Sleep Therapy (look it up on Wikipedia) was exposed. Electric shock therapy is disgusting and should be banned world wide. No matter what the so-called benefits (which I'm sure are outweighed by the negative effects).

Most of these parents are desperate. Many JRC students have been thrown out of other programs for their behavior. And they may be so hard to handle that the parents can't do it on their own. They don't like the shocks, but the JRC promotes itself very well, and they go along with it for lack of any other option. They're not evil, and they dearly love their child. They want the best for them, but all they see before them are bad options.
To understand it better, read Spinning Straw. The boy in that book, Jeff Apple, was autistic with severe self injury. His parents in that book didn't send their son to JRC, but they did try electric shocks, before that failed as well. He finally killed himself by banging his head hard enough to cause a fatal brain injury.
Not all the kids in the JRC have as bad of problems as Jeff Apple, but many have pretty serious problems. Let's say you were the parent of a teen with conduct disorder (delinquency). When you look after him, he's constantly trying to find your weaknesses, trying to wear you down emotionally. If you cross him in any way, he screams vile insults, punches and shoves, and keeps on raging for *hours*. He was kicked out of school for his behavior, so you send him to another school. He gets kicked out from there as well. Even in special schools for disturbed kids, he gets kicked out. The police are searching your house and talking to you about him on a regular basis. You find out at some point that he's been sexually abusing one of your other children. You've tried to help him, but it's terrifying and exhausting even living in the same home as him. And you've got to ensure that your other children are safe from him. That's when you  decide to institutionalize him. JRC doesn't medicate the children, so you don't have to worry about medication side effects, and they promise to cure him.
I was the younger sibling of two kids like that. Trust me, I know what it's like. They're not trying to treat socially awkward aspies with the occasional meltdown. They're trying to treat kids who are a serious danger to themselves or others. And I agree that no child deserves to be treated the way JRC students (and other institutionalized kids, just because the JRC's the most vocal doesn't mean it's the only one with abusive treatments, or even the worst). But if you ignore the desperation of those parents, and condemn them instead of finding better options for them, then it's not going to get any better. If you asked any parent of a JRC student if they would rather their child got effective treatment or care that wasn't abusive, I'd be surprised if there was a single one who'd say that they'd rather keep their child at JRC. If there were better options, they'd take them. But they can't find any. Often the options are to do nothing and let their child do extremely harmful things to themselves or others, or a selection of bad treatments. Sometimes there is a good solution, but the parents don'[t know about it or can't get it for their child. Other times, there really are no good solutions.

Toldya ppl.

Can't condemn them when we don't know the full picture.