Washington, DC -- March 14, 2011 -- Last year, Disability Rights International published the report Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center.
The report resulted in a top United Nations human rights official declaring that the school's practice of shocking children to control behavior was, in fact, torture--and a violation of the Convention against Torture. The United Nations called on the United States government to investigate the school.
On Saturday, an article in The Guardian of London followed up on this story. The Guardian visited the Judge Rotenberg Center and interviewed parents and students whose lives have been affected by the extreme punishments used on children and young adults at the school.
Laurie Ahern, President of Disability Rights International, was interviewed for the article:"It's horrible that children and adults with disabilities are still, in 2011, being tortured through the use of electricity. We wouldn't tolerate that in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. We don't do it in domestic prisons any more. If your neighbour used a Taser on their children to get them to behave, you'd have them arrested. They'd be picked up even if they did it to their dog."
Read the full Guardian article here.
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