Fuck Yeah! Education!

[Remington]

Marguerite Famolare brought her son Michael to the Rotenberg Center six years ago, after he attacked her so aggressively she had to call 911 and, in a separate incident, flipped over a kitchen table onto a tutor. Michael, now 19, suffers from mental retardation and severe autism. These days, when he comes home for a visit, Marguerite carries his shock activator in her purse. All she has to do, she says, is show it to him. "He'll automatically comply to whatever my signal command may be, whether it is 'Put on your seatbelt,' or 'Hand me that apple,' or 'Sit appropriately and eat your food,'" she says. "It's made him a human being, a civilized human being."

This woman seems to be confusing "civilized human being" with "obedient dog".

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

Seems to be Pavlovian conditioning on what are basically vunerable group of young people.

That's pretty disgusting.

[Reginald Ret]

Where is the angry mob?

[Remington]

Where is the angry mob?

Watching American Idol and Lost.

[Jasper]

Where is the angry mob?

I think we're it.

[Doktor Howl]

Where is the angry mob?

I think we're it.

Too far away to express myself properly.

[Hoser McRhizzy]

Marguerite Famolare brought her son Michael to the Rotenberg Center six years ago, after he attacked her so aggressively she had to call 911 and, in a separate incident, flipped over a kitchen table onto a tutor. Michael, now 19, suffers from mental retardation and severe autism. These days, when he comes home for a visit, Marguerite carries his shock activator in her purse. All she has to do, she says, is show it to him. "He'll automatically comply to whatever my signal command may be, whether it is 'Put on your seatbelt,' or 'Hand me that apple,' or 'Sit appropriately and eat your food,'" she says. "It's made him a human being, a civilized human being."

This woman seems to be confusing "civilized human being" with "obedient dog".

My guess: Probably why he 'attacked' her in the first place.  Buzzermom gets off on hurting her kid and will fight for the right to do it.

Where is the angry mob?

Last I heard, they were fighting against New York for the right to torture their kids.

Seems to be Pavlovian conditioning on what are basically vunerable group of young people.

That's pretty disgusting.

^THIS^  What blows my mind about all the coverage in mother jones is that suggestion -- "this torturing kids thing might be ok for a really, really 'retarded' child, but not for kids that are ADD or some kinder, gentler version of fucked up."  Still stuck on the 'it's not torture if' argument.  The tradition tends to be 'the less a patient/student/prisoner can say in their defense, the more it's ok to beat on them.'

Israel's peers think he's evil, the state's tried to shut him down, way more than 6 kids have died in that place since the 70s, the 'science' he uses to back this shit up is all from the 50s, there are 30 year old people who've been in there for over 15 years, and on and on.  Man has connections and (from what I'm reading) zap-happy parents like the douchebag quoted above keep petitioning for this place to stay open.

The Rotenberg Center does not have a rule about how old a child must be before he or she can be hooked up to the ged. One of the program's youngest students is a nine-year-old named Rodrigo. When I see him, he is seated outside at a picnic table with his aide. Rodrigo's backpack [where the torture device's battery is] looks enormous on his tiny frame; canvas straps [indicating electrodes attached to his calves] dangle from both legs.

Rodrigo walks over, his straps slapping the ground. He wears a white dress shirt and tie—the standard uniform for male students—but because he is so small, maybe 4 feet tall, his tie nearly reaches his thighs.

"What's that?" he asks.

"That's a tape recorder," I say. "Do you want to say something?"

"Yeah."

Unfazed by the presence of Israel, Rivera, and my other escorts, Rodrigo lifts a small hand and pulls the recorder down toward his lips. "I want to move to another school," he says.

One afternoon, when I walk into a classroom of teenagers, a 15-year-old girl catches my eye, smiles, and holds up a sheet of paper with a message written in pink marker: HELP US. She puts it back down and shuffles it into her stack of papers before anyone else sees.

MDRI's a good group.  Hopefully they get the teachers, staff and Israel arrested through their UN complaint...  Haven't found any updates anywhere yet, but I'll keep looking.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

All these kids should be taken away by social services and the building firebombed.

[Hoser McRhizzy]

Agreed.  Except that the building didn't do anything wrong.  The teachers, staff, admin, Israel and the parents who checked the "Yes! Hook my child up to an electroshock machine for as long as you like" box need to be arrested.  Although... fire... pretty...  I'm waffling.


Again, numerous people have tried to shut this place down since it opened.  I'm left wondering what messed up connections the owner has that weren't mentioned in the article...  What school gets away with designing torture devices as part of their school mandate?

At times Brandon was required to keep his hands on a paddle; if he removed them, he would get automatic shocks, one per second. One infamous day, Brandon received more than 5,000 shocks.

"You have to realize," Israel says. "[...]  There was nothing else I could think of to do...but by the time it went into the 3,000 or 4,000 range, it became clear it wasn't working."

This day was a turning point in the history of Israel's operation—that's when he decided to ratchet up the pain. The problem, he decided, was that the shock sibis emitted was not strong enough. He says he asked sibis's manufacturer, Human Technologies, to create a more powerful device, but it refused. "So we had to redesign the device ourselves," he says.

The article is an endless catalog of bullshit pulled on kids and adults.  Telling that they keep referring to 30 year old inmates as 'kids'...

Still looking for some kind of update...

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

This is the kind of thing that needs mainstream media coverage to raise the collective rage and serious action.

[Dimocritus]

Wow. Fucking wow. Just when you think your respect for the monkeys couldn't drop any lower...

[Triple Zero]

This is the kind of thing that needs mainstream media coverage to raise the collective rage and serious action.

Would Reddit work?

I'll upvote it if someone posts it.

Same for putting it on Digg, have an account there too.

I'll tweet the fuck out of it as well. Tacking a "PLEASE RT" at the end of the tweet really does wonders for its virality, as long as it's for an emotional cause like this.

Which URL should be spread?

[Hoser McRhizzy]

Which URL should be spread?

The 2007 stories from Mother Jones are an option, but the main page at MDRI currently has a summary about the appeal Twid mentioned.  I don't tweet, but maybe a link to something that happened this year might get more play (to get past possible That's So 3 Years Ago)?  http://www.mdri.org

Other than that, a site called Raw Story (I'm not familiar with it) has a short bit about the school and the appeal.  Published May 4th - already has digg and all the other bits attached.  http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0504/rights-group-files-urgent-appeal-alleging-torture-school-disabled

If anyone's interested, you can download the full MDRI appeal (67pgs) here: http://www.mdri.org/MediaKit.html   I'm halfway through reading it.  Would a summary help?

Last time this school got taken to court, the judge decided everyone was lying.  The last time this got any tv coverage, a Please Don't Stop Shocking Our Kids concerned citizens brigade shouted down criticism and a reporter got trashed for 'attacking' an innocent school.  Matt Israel managed that last one before her story aired.

[Hoser McRhizzy]

Raw Story digg
http://digg.com/world_news/Disabled_forced_to_wear_packs_that_deliver_massive_shocks

[Brotep]

Marguerite Famolare brought her son Michael to the Rotenberg Center six years ago, after he attacked her so aggressively she had to call 911 and, in a separate incident, flipped over a kitchen table onto a tutor. Michael, now 19, suffers from mental retardation and severe autism. These days, when he comes home for a visit, Marguerite carries his shock activator in her purse. All she has to do, she says, is show it to him. "He'll automatically comply to whatever my signal command may be, whether it is 'Put on your seatbelt,' or 'Hand me that apple,' or 'Sit appropriately and eat your food,'" she says. "It's made him a human being, a civilized human being."

This woman seems to be confusing "civilized human being" with "obedient dog".

Mind, dogs don't deserve that kind of treatment either.

But these parents don't care as long as they can pretend their kids are normal.