04-16-2006, 02:45 PM
Shocking Teens
Family suing over therapy
Freeport teen's mom alleges Mass. center used excessive shock treatment on her son, violating his civil rights
The family of a Freeport teenager is accusing the school district of violating his civil rights by sending him to a Massachusetts facility for troubled youths that uses electric shock therapy.
Antwone Nicholson, 17, and his mother, Evelyn, say he has suffered emotional and physical injuries as a result of being repeatedly shocked at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., according to the notice of their intent to sue the school district filed last week.
An attorney for the Rotenberg Center said the facility tried other therapies on Mitchell, who is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, before using shock therapy as "a last resort."
Between August 2004 and February, according to legal papers and Mollins, Nicholson was sometimes shocked as many as six times a day with a device that is strapped to students like a small backpack and delivers a 45-milliampere jolt.
Family suing over therapy
Freeport teen's mom alleges Mass. center used excessive shock treatment on her son, violating his civil rights
The family of a Freeport teenager is accusing the school district of violating his civil rights by sending him to a Massachusetts facility for troubled youths that uses electric shock therapy.
Antwone Nicholson, 17, and his mother, Evelyn, say he has suffered emotional and physical injuries as a result of being repeatedly shocked at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., according to the notice of their intent to sue the school district filed last week.
An attorney for the Rotenberg Center said the facility tried other therapies on Mitchell, who is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, before using shock therapy as "a last resort."
Between August 2004 and February, according to legal papers and Mollins, Nicholson was sometimes shocked as many as six times a day with a device that is strapped to students like a small backpack and delivers a 45-milliampere jolt.