School of Shock

Why are we treating autistic kids like enemy combatants?

At the Rotenberg Center, students as young as nine and ten receive shocks for misbehaving. Employees wear remotes bearing a picture of each child around their waist so they don't shock the wrong kid.Larry Sultan


UPDATE: The “School of Shock” is currently under federal investigation for its controversial treatments. Read about it here.

This is the photo essay companion to Jennifer Gonnerman’s piece on the Judge Rotenberg Center, a facility where autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled children from eight states are subjected to food deprivation, social isolation, and even electric shocks.

At the Rotenberg Center, students as young as nine and ten receive shocks for misbehaving. Employees wear remotes bearing a picture of each child around their waist so they don't shock the wrong kid.

At the Rotenberg Center, students as young as nine and ten receive shocks for misbehaving. Employees wear remotes bearing a picture of each child around their waist so they don’t shock the wrong kid.
 

GED device TK
 

Director TK TK
 

Monitoring room TK
 

Students use good-behavior points to "buy" goods from this school store. If they’re really good, they can also go to the "Big Reward Store," an arcade that is the only place where some are allowed to socialize freely.
 

Students who receive electric shocks carry the device around in a backpack and wear the electrodes 24 hours a day; some are also monitored at all times by at least one Rotenberg Center employee.
 

At the Rotenberg Center, the staff, too, are constantly under surveillance. They can’t have casual conversations with each other and if they are caught failing to shock kids when the rules say they should, they can be fired.
 

Reward Room 2

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate