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(New York) As a parent, there are times that we need to make difficult decisions that will benefit and protect the well being of our children. Unfortunately, a year ago, my family and I were faced with the emotional and heart-breaking decision of sending my 15 year old daughter to live in a residential treatment facility. My daughter has a long history of emotional and learning challenges, which began when she was 5 years old. She was articulate verbally; however, she could not read. This was very frustrating for her and us. The beginning of a road ensued and 10 years later we were faced with having to send her away. This was an extremely difficult situation for our family to deal with. My daughters and I never lived apart, and we were dealt with the reality that she would have to leave home. Separating for us was difficult, since her father died when she was 4 years old and her sister 9 years old. At age 15 she was in the eighth grade with a 5th grade reading level. Aside from her lack of academic progress she was a very angry young lady. She was diagnosed with Major Depression and other Psychiatric Diagnosis and refused to take "those medicines that can control me". Between the New York City Board of Education, the Medical Community, and our family, we had to find somewhere that would know how to deal with a special, intelligent young woman that was also experiencing extreme academic and emotional distress. Thank
God, a Social Worker working with us told us about the JRC staff came to our home after receiving her packet. They were very impressed by her, optimistic about her future, and stated that they could help her academically, socially, and emotionally. I felt a sense of great relief; finally someone understood that my child was special, articulate, and intelligent and that she was capable of being a productive member of society. Soon, after an official interview, a school visit, and completion of the application criteria she was accepted. Today, she is a much happier young woman. I see that her self-esteem has increased; she has a tenth grade reading level, and has a more positive out look on life. It has been a long time since I saw my daughter without the defensive, aggressive, and self destructive behavior that was controlling her life as well as ours. During home visits she is much more responsible and comments:”Although I do not like being away from home, I am glad I am at JRC because they helped me. I feel safe there, and I am doing much better in school. I am also, learning how to take care of myself". Needless
to say, I am overwhelmed by joy, peace, and tranquility that she is
achieving academically, and has the resources and tools to be able to live
independently, work, and go to college. She also requested an IEP Review after
meeting with the Educational Department at JRC so that she can take the New York
Sate Regents. Previously, she was exempt due to her poor academic performance.
She also reads more, writes poetry, and has A's and B's on her report card.
She is proud of where
she lives, has made many friends, is learning comradeship, and, at times, cannot
wait to return to JRC during home visits that are longer than a week. JRC and
its staff have a rigorous, Mother of a JRC Student |
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(New York)
Our son has
been a student at the
Sincerely, |
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My daughter will soon reach her
24th birthday. She was diagnosed in utero with biventricular heart
tumors, and shortly after birth, she received a diagnosis of Tuberous Sclerosis
Complex. This genetic disease is largely known for its symptoms, all of which E
displays, and among which are mental retardation, developmental delay and loss,
as well as autistic like behaviors. She was diagnosed with Explosive Temper
Disorder when she was 11 although she demonstrated violent behaviors from a very
early age. By age 12, we realized we could not “handle” her alone. Her violence
was rising, in demonstrations aimed at herself as well as at us. She was then,
and is now, large and very strong. She is echolalic and perseverative, and all
attempts at promoting verbal skills were frustrated partly due to organic
prenatal brain damage and partly due to educational failures. We were living in
I am an Episcopal priest. My own
professional and academic background includes a BA in English, a MDiv, a partial
MA in Education (I was state certified and taught in the public school system
for 9 years, beginning in Special Ed), and a DM in Family and Recovery
Counseling. While most of my academic background included behavioral approaches
in counseling, I was also trained in Bowen’s Family Systems Theory. In other
words, I used everything I knew and every skill I possessed to help my daughter.
I was no more successful than all the others. When we knew we were moving to
She will turn 23 in the coming
months. Our prayer is that she will be allowed to remain as an adult at JRC. We
know from experience no other program would be effective.
Sincerely yours, |
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(New York) When our son was
15-years-old he was diagnosed with multiple disabilities. His behavior was
extremely violent and on one occasion he went after is sister with a crowbar.
When he had these outbursts, it would take at least 10 people to contain him. He
destroyed many things in our home and refused to go to school some days, missing
51 days of school in one year’s time. We had to contact the truancy officer
constantly. Our son was very easily led by the wrong people and was greatly
influenced by the local gangs. We lived in constant fear for our lives and for
the life of our son.
Sincerely, |
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(New York)
I am the mother of three fine sons, one of whom has been diagnosed with a
pervasive developmental disorder. One of my sons is now 33 and resides in
My son attended public school in
For the help I received in getting my son into JRC, I am forever grateful
to God. He responded beautifully to the professional and caring staff at the
JRC, whose insistence on using appropriate methods of behavior modification
without relying on drugs as other facilities would have served to help him
thrive and grow. Unfortunately, he aged-out of JRC and was sent back to
After a time, my son was able to go back to the beautiful and spacious
facilities of the JRC and again was able to make progress in spite of the
unspeakable horrors he suffered in the NY State system. We are thankful to a
loving God and the good, hardworking people at the JRC whose techniques have
proven effective over and over again.
My son is now doing quite well, and is able to come back to
His interests and hobbies have grown and expanded and he is now making excellent
progress.
Respectfully, Mother of a JRC Student |
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(Washington, DC) My Son is currently a student at the With the assistance of appropriate What my former wife and I learned from those experiences in residential care was that there is a percentage of mental disability cases that even the best institutions are far too prone to attempt to manage through drug therapy. Far too frequently, these institutions and the consulting psychiatrists manage the physically aggressive and self-abusive through medication. Drug therapy makes life better for the care givers but does little to improve the quality of life of the student client. The My son lives in a group house with five others. He shops on weekends with the group. During the day, he works at various tasks and earns a small stipend. His case manager told me last week that his current assignment is to make candy apples. He’s now a lively, contented adult who shows very little of the behavior that produced alarm and chaos in the early years, an adjustment that is secure so long as his environment is stable, organized, and predictable—an environment seamlessly maintained by Rotenberg’s able, and young staff persons. Today, he is well adjusted to his surroundings, as I once again reassured myself on a visit to Rotenberg this past Easter Sunday when my son and I enjoyed a great day at the zoo and in a local restaurant. My son thrives in hisSincerely, Father of a JRC Student |
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(New York) It all began in 1987 when we decided to enroll our daughter
in a daycare center at age 2. A couple of days later the matron of the facility
called and told us that she had been trying to call A without any response. She
thought that was an indication of a problem. We realized right away that we had
a problem that must be dealt with. The next six months to one year took us to
our pediatrician and finally to Long Island Jewish Hospital. After a battery of
tests including hearing tests, she was diagnosed as having moderate mental
retardation and autism. After 2 early age intervention schools, she made it to
In February of 1997, our daughter was enrolled at
These negative situations with our daughter prevented her from engaging
in any social or community outings and further inhibited any academic progress.
Upon arriving at For those of us who went to JRC as the last hope, there is nothing to compare and there are no alternative. We only wish we had known earlier that there was a place like JRC. Looking at our daughter now, she had lost all the weight she gained through medication and she is looking marvelous. She is home with us on this Easter weekend, we will go to church together; something we could not do before.
The turn around for our daughter could not have occurred if it wasn’t for
the great programs instituted by Dr. Mathew Israel. He cared so much about the
students and the family of JRC. We thank Dr. |
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(New York) I am a I have used and continue to use medication extensively. I have used and know physical, mechanical and chemical restraint extensively, as well as seclusion, and all the combinations of same. My son is a student at the By the time he was at the end of second grade, and came home from school daily destroyed by frustration. He would often walk in the door, go over to the wall, and start hanging his head, with tears quietly rolling down his face. He was ashamed and tormented and he qualified for no services whatsoever. I searched everywhere and found a public special needs school with an opening immediately for which he qualified. I was blocked by my home district, over and over, but finally won. He became more combative at home. We limped through another year, spiraling downward at school and home. Again, I was told there was no school placement for my son but I found one anyway. The usual district fight. We won, my son went, and emotionally disturbed and learning disabled were the required labels now. He had a large, strong one to one attendant at this new school. This school used ‘seclusion”; a padded room about 4 feet by 6 feet, steel door frame, Plexiglas peephole in a heavy wooden door. He has to be restrained to get him in there. “Time out” in seclusion did not start until he was quiet. He was not quiet. He spent the largest part of many, many days in there continuously hour after hour. I have the record. Now he had eaten his way through the past three years and was over 260 lbs. I start calling the police myself to have them talk to my son. Home was a combat zone. He is broken, I am on overdrive. Sleep is a thing of the past. power tools, plywood, and replacement Plexiglas are my middle name. Bunks are bolted to wall studs. If it can fly or crash it’s gone. Appliances of any kind are gone, save washer, dryer, fridge and stove, knives are locked, but the world is a potential weapon. I have done my homework. I have contacted every single NYS approved out of state residential school and all except one of the in state schools that was a total of 50. It slayed me to leave my son at JRC. But he needed to go. He was barely fifteen. He needed an education. He did not need to be criminalized or turned into a mental patient. I could not fix things for him. He needed to see that somehow he could fix things himself. I had already taken him off the psychiatric meds. Meds, as expected, had not helped. His liver was messed up. He had gained even more weight, he was almost type two diabetic. He had a stomach ulcer. His asthma was worse. His ears were infected, his skin was a mess and he made it worse. He had been so defensive that verbal therapy had been impossible. I had chosen the best and we had tried and tried. He could not talk it through He could not do school or sports or friends. He was trapped. But he could trash entire rooms, and he could identify with being a gangster. By the time we made it to JRC he was one step short of the streets, street drugs, jail or a bullet. One step short of indeterminate sentencing in a mental hospital against my will and chemical treatment over my objection. The So how is my son these days? He will be at JRC for two years in July. He has reclaimed his body. No longer has borderline diabetic, minimal asthma, and excellent exercise tolerance, skin intact, no more ulcer, and no more sinus or ear infections. He is lean and handsome, he swings from tree branches, does back flips on the carpet, and runs with the dogs on home visits. This is called play. I have not seen him do it for years before JRC. He teaches us how to eat well at home. He cooks for us. He has reclaimed his old sense of generosity He earns oodles of material rewards at school. He brings home a stuffed bunny, a game boy, a CD player with headset, an art set, another hand held game, each tailored for a brother or sister, plus a watch for me. He has reclaimed a huge portion of his home life on home visits, the combat zone is gone. He is affectionate, he continues to inhale books. He has come light years with school work. He does not protest return to school at the end of home visits. Is he out of the woods yet? No, he is not. He calls many times a week, sometimes daily. He is fragile. He is gentle and confident, responsible and hopeful. He is negative, angry, fearful, and discouraged at times. But he has a chance now. Before JRC, he was very close to game over. Words alone don’t cut it with a kid like my son. He needed a place where he could pick up the pieces; a place where he could re-invent himself. He thought he could not behave. I believed he could not behave, he watched himself not behave; and yet, no matter how humble the beginning point, the beginning point IS found and RICHLY REWARDED. At JRC, it is not about words, it is not vague, not unreliable, not unpredictable, not dependant on the mood of the observer. The behavior is crisply and consistently defined. It is measured and recorded, filmed and tabulated; kids see the results. The kid SEES undeniable, irrefutable success and failure. Success is richly rewarded. Thank you.
Parent of a JRC Student |
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(New York) My eighteen year-old severely autistic son, is a full-time
residential student at the In March of 2005 my son started at the Respectfully, |
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(New York)
My son is a
15 year old child who was previously diagnosed with Severe Mental Retardation,
features of Autism and ADHD. Prior to going to JRC, he displayed a large number
of dangerous behaviors- both to himself and others. He was violent toward staff,
students and the bus matron. His behaviors included: hitting, pushing, kicking
and he attempted to bite others on a daily basis. Aggression was also seen in
our home as he aggressed towards his brother and the family cat. He is unaware
of danger; he will wander off/bolt from staff and can be easily led off by a
stranger. When he is public he would runaway. He can be very disruptive as he
has constant uncontrollable outbursts. He would not respond to my directions and
was consistently displaying noncompliant behaviors throughout the school day. My
son had to be isolated from his peers while in school for his safety and the
safety of others.
My son has
also been hospitalized due to his behaviors and has been on numerous medications
cocktails including combinations of Zoloft, Risperdol, Trileptal, Zyprexa,
Concerta, Adderall, Ritalin and Seroquel. He suffered from side effects while on
different medications so there wer
On
I can now
hold my son close to me without him running off or trying to fight me. I would
recommend JRC to any parent who has a child with similar behaviors because no
other program as help my son as much as this one. I see a brighter future for my
child. I also believe that if he continues to attend JRC he will be able to
control his behaviors better in the future so he can go into the community
without acting out which draws attention to people around. He will becom
Sincerely, |
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(Massachusetts)
My name is B. And I am a 40 year old retarded, autistic
person. I reside at
Other politicians tried to have my school closed about 20
years ago. My Mom and Dad and all the other parents fought the state of
Sincerely,
A JRC Student
(Written by his Mom and Dad)
PS: Note: My son is an autistic person who has
never spoken and cannot write, but is very special to everyone who knows him. |
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(New York) My son is diagnosis is
Autistic with severe Mental Retardation.
The My son was taking four
medications and none of the prescribed meds helped to control or eliminate his
inappropriate behaviors. The most problematic behaviors he displayed were
frequently spitting and removing his clothes. Both behaviors are unacceptable
socially in public. He quite often banged his own head, bit him self and smeared
feces. We all agree these behaviors are very health dangerous. My son aggressed
towards others with biting and pulling their hair. A few destructive behaviors I
must mention are tear clothing and throw objects. He also touched himself
inappropriately in public and made many loud sounds. Thanks to my son’s
admittance to Sincerely, Parents of a JRC Student
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(New York) My son is now thirty-one
years old. On My son was diagnosed as
autistic at the age of two and a half (2 ½ years). From that time, he attended
the However, in late 1990,
things began to change. I was told by the doctors that this would be expected
since he was going through puberty and he would soon settle down again. Instead
my son’s behavior became increasingly aggressive. He even started to attack me;
biting, butting, charging, scratching, aiming for your eyes at times as if he
wanted to dig them out He had started taking
medication when he was about 7 years old. This was because he had started
banging his head. About two years later, he had also started biting his hand
until a large callus developed. Over the years, he has been given first Melloril
then Haldol. In 1989, he was put on Endoril. The doctor said both the previous
drugs had serious long term effects if used for long periods. We were told that
Endoril had no known side effects. Unlike the other medications, it did not act
on the brain but merely controlled behavior through decreasing activity in the
blood stream. However, his heartbeat and pressure constantly had to be
monitored. Therefore I could not understand how it could have been considered a
safe drug. He went from a trim size 29 than obese size 38 and all the time the
doctors denied that the drug had anything to do with it! Moreover as he became
larger, his behavior became more aggressive and of course an imposing force that
could not be managed. He would explode unpredictably like a crazed bull for no
reason. At school, he would have to he restrained and put in an isolation room.
At home, he was breaking down doors. One time, he cut his head so badly when he
head butted the door and window that he had to receive 8 stitches on his
forehead. People were afraid that he would do even more severe damage to himself
and to others. The school bus refused to take him unless he had an escort to
restrain him. Finally, the school could not deal with him and suggested that he
be placed where he could receive the help he needed. At home, we could not even
take our son out anymore in fear of his sudden violent outbursts. All this time, his dosage
was increasing; from 60 mg three times daily to 160 mg three times daily. The
behavior was worsening! Every parent agonizes over their child. My son is a
sweet child when he is calm. It was not an easy decision to place him outside
the home but it had to be done for his own safety. We visited several schools
before we decided on We are very pleased with
As a mother, my child
continues to obtain a quality of life to which every human being is entitled and
which he has received from the day he was admitted to A loving and Concerned
Parent, Mother of a JRC Student |
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(New Jersey) We are parents, know it is our right to have a say in the
treatment of our children and this has been monitored and continues to be
monitored by Bristol We are extremely disturbed by the false and misleading
information going on at this time about the The press, television, the media have continuous problem
getting their facts straight.
The have a continuous problem in that they are based in their reporting.
Those who report and “jump out of their chair” when administered GED,
would have went through the ceiling if they ever saw their own autistic relative
put their head through a wall or window.
Now, that would really be something to Jump up about and cry pain! Before our child entered the I don’t have to explain any further how we struggled to
find a placement for our child. The above listing of our efforts is self evident
to anyone reading it. When we got our child out of the hospital, it was at a
time when our child was in danger of killing herself in the psychiatric
hospital. As a result of the drugs
taken there, our child has seizures, and suffers from other physical problems.
These have come from heavy drug medications and being self abusive.
We have seen improvement in our child though physical problems continue.
If it wasn’t for the No parent wants to go through what the Thank you, Parents of a JRC Student |
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(New York) We spent five draining years trying to get my nephew help
and it wasn’t easy. We had to watch him go through numerous treatments that
didn’t help, ranging from all different types of medication that left him
extraordinarily hyper. One medication, Ritalin, left my nephew more hyper than
he ever was in one night. He didn’t
recognize us at all and it resulted in a hospital visit.
He was taken to I was on the phone a lot trying to get help for my nephew
without tangible results. My brother
tried to get help from the school he was attending at the time, as did my
mother. My nephew was six years old at the time and he had more strength than I
did. As he got older, his condition
worsened and he was getting stronger and more hyper.
We tried therapy through different hospitals like With the help of the Thank you, Aunt of a JRC Student
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(New York) My son is
currently a student at the In today’s
culture, the alternative is medication. My son was prescribed antidepressants,
at first by our family physician and when they didn’t do the job, a psychiatrist
prescribed psychotropic medication, which made his behavior even worse. These
medications made him drowsy and his mind cloudy. His face had a glossy look and
you could tell he was “drugged up”. Most
of his school day was spent sleeping. He was awakened when it was time for his
next dosage, then he fell asleep again. My
son was at school, but he wasn’t receiving an education. After a few weeks, this
cocktail of drugs he was on seemed to lose its effectiveness and increasing the
dosage didn’t seem to help. When he wasn’t sleeping, his behavior was out of
control, for example, he was throwing desks around the classroom, hitting and
kicking staff, running away from staff in side the school building and running
around outside the school building on school grounds. Finally, in April 2004, he
was expelled from school. My son was
admitted to JRC on The staff
at JRC is highly trained and very professional. The administration, the program
director, the clinician, the case manager, the teacher and the classroom aides
all work together in developing a specialized program to best meet each
student’s individual needs. JRC makes every attempt to put a student on a
positive re My son
still has ups and downs in his behavior, but very mild in comparison to the
period of time he was taking medication. His mind is a lot clearer now, he is
learning academics, he is learning to socialize more and his rate of
inappropriate behaviors is decreasing. JRC has made this possible. I feel that I
am fortunate to have found a school such as JRC for placement for him. I feel
confident when I go to sleep at night that my son is being taken care of and is
receiving an education. It is reassuring knowing that his needs are being met
and he is making progress. Sincerely, Father of a
JRC Student
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(New York)
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL My daughter is diagnosed
with ADHD and Learning Disabilities.
While attending the Board of Education schools, she never excelled academically.
She was a 14 years old with a second grade reading and a fourth grade
math level. Although she seemed to make friends easily, her social skills were
limited. She would become aggressive
when frustrated or use her size to intimidate younger peers.
My daughter’s behavior became self-destructive.
I could barely keep up with her.
She would disappear from the house for hours, and then for days.
It was apparent that she needed more supervision than I could provide.
She has been on many different medications throughout the years, which
never modified her behaviors. I
could not take on any commitment for myself or my other children because I would
have to be available for any sudden emergency that would occur because of her.
The Yours Sincerely, |
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(New York) I am the grandmother of my seventeen year old granddaughter
who is a student at the My granddaughter’s behavior problems began when she was
young. Since the age of seven, my
granddaughter has been in nine different facilities including three state
hospitals. She has been prescribed
more than thirty different psychotropic medications.
I can’t even describe the numerous side effects she suffered from being
medicated. In each of these
facilities medication was always the answer; however, in Daniqua’s case, the
medication failed to help. Her behavior continued to worsen each year (as she got
older). Prior to her enrollment at
the Judge Rotenberg Center, she had broken both of her arms as result of her out
of control behavior, jumped from a moving vehicle that was traveling between
thirty-five and forty miles per hour (broken jaw was the result), and assaulted
her teacher. She was making no
progress in school and would often challenge her teachers.
When home, she would be uncooperative and refuse to comply with any
limits that were set. In August of
2004, she was admitted to Since she was admitted to the In my opinion, prescribing a child various medications is
similar to the other treatment options offered at JRC. It’s important that we
continue to help keep our children safe. Sincerely, Grandmother of a JRC Student
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(New York) I am the parent of a child residing at the Only after numerous
placements, which included group homes, state schools, and psychiatric
hospitals, was I finally told about JRC.
I had actually tried to get a loan for $50,000.00 for a one-year payment,
to get her in a behavior modification program that is only offered in Hospitals are the only locked
facilities available in She can't function in a
"normal" environment. I'm hoping one
day she might be able to, for she's not mentally retarded or autistic as some of
those at JRC are, but I firmly believe that she needs a behavioral modification
program like JRC's to help her learn how to function in society.
I have seen my daughter out of control and have to be taken down by 5
police officers, so I know how she can get when she's being aggressive towards
others. JRC believes in little to no
drugs when it comes to kids like mine.
The first thing they did when she got there was to start weaning her off
the six or seven different psychotropic drugs she was on.
She has been completely off them for about 6 months now and looks and
sounds so much better. I have
definitely seen progress since she's been there.
But for every 3 steps forward, unfortunately, she takes 2 steps back.
It's a very slow process, but I definitely see and hear a change, which I
completely credit to JRC and their staff.
She has been actually showing feelings of remorse and has expressed
regret for her past. This is
something that I never heard from her before.
She told me that even when she has to be restrained, which is always
because of her either trying to hurt someone else or herself, that she's
grateful for the fact that she's not drugged up.
For this gives her the opportunity to calm herself down on her own and to
think about what she's done to cause her to have to be restrained.
No school or hospital in So far she has not had to have
the aversive treatment; however, because of a cluster of weeks in the recent
past, where she was physically lashing out at both students and staff, and
threatening to harm herself, I gave JRC permission to petition the court for her
to have that treatment. My daughter
is fully aware of this, and does understand that she has pushed the envelope to
this point. I don't feel that this
treatment is abusive or that it has any long-term harmful effects.
I do believe that it is an effective means of behavior modification,
especially when you are dealing with someone who is out of control and will hurt
either themselves or someone else.
If we did not find JRC, I can honestly say that I think this would be a death
sentence for my daughter. Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student
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(New York) My daughter is diagnosed
with Mental Retardation and was placed the Since coming to the Thank God for the Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
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(New York) I am
a father of a severely Autistic Daughter who has attended this wonderful program
since 1981. I am appalled by the lies that have been appearing in the paper and
on television about the school. There are only a few students that require
restraints and they are special cases. In fact, many autistic children, like my
daughter, find it rewarding to be restrained (so of course it is not done). My
daughter and perhaps half of the students are subject to the GED, a device that
applies a 2 second shock to the skin when their behavior is out of control.
Although it is painful, it only lasts a brief moment and this is in lieu of
permitting head banging, hair pulls (hair coming out of head) biting and
pinching self so that skin bruises and bleeds. The recovery time from the
results of these behaviors takes far much longer than the skin shock!
Before my daughter entered this program she was loaded with Psychotropic drugs
that made her lethargic and unable to perform any learning tasks, but it did
nothing to stop her self abuse. She has been drug free since entering this
program and I defy anyone to find one mark on her body! She lives in a clean and
cheerful environment, goes on field trips, bowls, roller skates, swims in a pool
and goes out shopping and dines in favorite restaurants with staff members. If
it weren’t for this program, she would either be dead or wasting away in a
straight jacket in the urine soaked back ward of a state institution I am
available to answer any questions and I highly recommend that you all go visit
this outstanding program.
Father of a JRC Student |
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(New York)
To whom it may concern:
My only son is autistic and in addition suffers from severe mental
retardation. He is my
whole world and the object of all my love. These
feelings could not be stronger, reaching as they do an intensity
that hardly
anyone could imagine.
Since his most tender years, his aggressivity has been evident. I
still
shudder to recall the time (when being only nine months old) he bit
the arm
of his grandmother so violently that her arm bore a mark for a long
time.
Aldo's irritability and sudden swing moods (going from one extreme
to the
Other) grew day by day, so much so that he injured himself and other
Persons. He also
frequently breaking many objects of all kinds such as toilet
bowls, televisions, glasses,
etc.
We, his parents, as well as other close relatives, have been
tremendously
afflicted by our son’s behavior. His
behavior has prevented us from sleeping in
peace (as he suffered prolonged periods of insomnia accompanied by
irritability) in which his only entertainment was to paint walls
with his
own excrement.
Following a stay of 42 days at the
condition that made him impossible to control), he was transferred
to a
residential school in upstate
This institution was considered to be one of the best in the State
and was unable
to cope with him. He
continued to be under medical treatment and was
re
a one-to-one basis, twenty-four hours a day and nothing proved
effective
As a rule, any new medicine he was given worked at the most for one
week.
Not only did Aldo fail to improve in any way, but his weight
went up to over 200 pounds even though he was only 15 and just over
five
feet tall. His behavior
became worse so much that I always noticed that
some members of the staff (out of fear of being attacked by him)
avoided
attending him.
When he was at the upstate
endangering his life, and creating serious danger for members of the
staff
who several times had to call 911.
The calls resulted (on quite a few occasions) in
his internment at
incident he was taken to the hospital handcuffed.
us, having in fact stamped on my memory and that of his father
indelible
marks of extreme sadness and frustration.
Never will we forget the times we
saw our son lying in bed, drugged from the strong doses of various
medicines
he had received, half
asleep and unable to sit. The
effects of the drugs
wore off and he became so aggressive that the hospital activated an
alarm summoning members of the staff to Aldo's room to
control him. Our
emotions became so painful that we went outside to weep.
could not cope with him and that we had to look for another
institution
that could care for him.
When we were beginning to completely despair (and
I started to think that my name which means hope, had become a
cruel irony), we found out about
veritable miracle school. Thanks to the method used there, my son is
improving day by day.
He is taking no medicine and his weight is normal for his age; nor
does he injure himself
or others. We actually enjoy the time we spend with him.
protect and care for him better than me.
Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York)
Society does not care about my child or other children like her. For
17 years, I received no help from any agencies, especially OMH and OMRDD, who
couldn't say anything except let me know she did not fall in their category for
help. All the doctors did was use up her Medicaid for their money-making
purposes. Now, after all these years of nobody giving a damn about what we went
through, as a family, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and say that we,
as parents, are treating our children inhumanely.
Sincerely,
Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts) I am the father of a JRC Student who is 24
years old. My son has been at JRC for five years and has developed and improved
his behaviors markedly. He was born
autistic and mildly retarded and as he aged, his behaviors worsened greatly. By
his teenage years, he was abusive and violent towards family and others. We
tried medication, therapy, and all the services we could obtain. Several private
schools specializing in behavior control for autistic and PDD (Pervasive
Developmental Disorder) students were tried. The schools failed to help my son
and we were asked to transfer him because he was no longer "appropriate". We
visited many schools hoping to get a placement. As he was getting worse and more
violent, we ran out of options. Medications were tried and seemed to make his
behaviors worse. Soon my son became extremely violent and abusive with “out of
control” screaming and homicidal threats. My family was threatened, abused, and
physically assaulted; sometimes with a knife or another weapon. After one
attack, my son was hospitalized at a psychiatric unit at the Father of JRC student |
|
(Massachusetts) Our son was diagnosed with autism when he was three years
old. He is severely afflicted with this condition and was violent and
dangerously self-abusive. He has been a client at the Parents of JRC Student
|
|
My son, who is now 22-years-old, has been a resident of JRC
for over 5 years. My son’s life is
now filled with good days; he is able to function in today’s society and is
living as normal a life as possible given his disabilities. We, as a family have
been through many struggles with him before his admission to JRC. Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I would like to give you a brief account of the successful
development of my sister. She is a
student at the |
|
(New York) My daughter is a student at the My daughter was on several psychotropic medications which
caused her to gain excessive amounts of weight.
At one time she weighed two hundred pounds.
She had no energy and would sleep most of the day.
When she was awake or did have energy, she often engaged in problematic
behaviors. Though several programs
and services had been utilized, she continued to display the same behavior
pattern. Since her admission to the
Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) I am the parent of an autistic child who is a student at
The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in The The Thank you for your time. Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I am the Grandmother and legal guardian of my grandson who
was diagnosed, at the age of three, with Autism and Mental Retardation and his
IQ is in the severe to profound range of functioning.
He began receiving special education
services at the age of three and attended PS188 in While attending PS188, despite the use of medications, such
as Mellaril, Clonidine, and Inipramine, he required a one to one
paraprofessional during the school day as well as a one to one transportation
paraprofessional on the school bus. Due to his range of functioning, his extremely limited
vocabulary, and severe receptive difficulties, communication was frustrating and
often led to uncontrollable temper tantrums as well as aggressive and self
injurious behaviors. He has minimal frustration tolerance and when denied his
own way, would often act out aggressively, especially towards his younger 7 year
old brother. Before placement at JRC, while living at home, he would
target his brother with aggression, throw temper tantrums, which included
banging his head, defecate on the floor, and eat uncontrollably, to the point I
had to padlock the refrigerator/freezer and lock all food cabinets. My grandson
would also run into dangerous areas/situations in and around our home. On arrival to JRC my grandson required frequent restraint
to control his behaviors, which were interfering with his social/emotional and
educational well-being. Once consents were signed, and approval received to begin
level III treatment, the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) was introduced
into his treatment program. Since the implementation of the GED into his program, he
has made great progress behaviorally, academically, and socially. He is on a
token system where he can earn tokens for appropriate behaviors and for task
completion and can exchange the tokens for preferred rewards My grandson has made excellent academic progress towards
meeting his goals and objectives as listed in his Individualized Education Plan
(IEP). He is now able to work, semi-independently, on computer tasks, such as,
Basic Skills, Alphabet Skills, Receptive Vocabulary, Learning to Count and
Learning to Tell Time. He also participates in the Special Olympics and is able to
come home to Sincerely, Grandmother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) Our son is a student at the We were able to get him admitted to a local mental hospital
on He was accepted to the Today our son is on no psychotropic or sedative medication.
He has made strides academically and socially. We had initial trepidations about
the use of aversive techniques in the Our son greatly enjoys his new found freedom. He is polite,
well mannered and knows and accepts the reasonable limits placed in his
behavior.. The quality of his life as well as his academic skill has improved so
much since he has been at JRC there is no doubt in our minds that we made the
correct decision by placing him there and that indeed, they may well have saved
his life. My only regret is that we did not find JRC much sooner and that no
such facility is available in Sincerely, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
The
My son had been placed in three other schools in
My son has a serious behavior problem and a very bad temper. He has
been back and forth to other schools within the last several years and none of
those schools cared about my son like JRC. He has made a lot of progress with
his behaviors and controlling his temper since being accepted at this school.
There have been times when he left JRC to come home and he ended up back in
jail.
My child needs
Thank you for reading this letter
|
|
(Massachusetts) Our son has been at this school for eight years.
He has made significant gains in controlling his aggressive behaviors.
He no longer injures people on a daily basis, he is no longer
over-medicated and sleeping all day, and he is no longer restrained for hours at
a time by five or six staff. He is
responding well to the large concentration of positive rewards in his program.
When necessary, his aggressive behaviors are consequated in a quick and
controlled manner by a mild skin shock, and he is redirected to the task at
hand. He is well cared for and we
feel this is a very safe environment for him. It is important to understand that the students at the The treatment program at the Sincerely,
|
|
(New York)
My son is 13 years
old and is currently a student at JRC. When he was at home, I had to be by his
side all of the time. My son was so self abusive, that he would repeatedly slap
or bang his head, he would slam his jaw against his shoulders so hard, you would
think he would have broke it off. He would kick himself, throw himself to the
floor, and so on. I think you get the idea. If I had to let his hands go, I
would have to resort to tying his sleeves together so the blows to his head were
not as intense.
After admitting my
son to JRC and placing him on the GED, especially at such a young age, was one
of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make, but it was by far the
best decision for his safety and well-being.
He has been on GED for about two years. He no longer requires anyone to
hold his hands, he no longer wear a helmet or special parts. He no longer
requires arm splints. After he was placed on GED, it was the first time I had
ever seen my son feed himself or drink without assistance. What a feeling of
relief. Do you know what that feels like?
Without JRC, I do
not know where my son would be right now, maybe dead.
Sincerely,
Parents of a JRC Student |
|
Massachusetts Prior to
being admitted to JRC, my son was on many medications. He was moved from school
to school just because the schools were not capable of taking care of my son’s
behaviors. He used to hit others, hurt himself, runaway, take of his clothing at
inappropriate times, and many other behaviors.
The
progress that my son has made has been enormous and extraordinary thanks to the
GED treatment. My son has recovered significantly. First, I give thanks to God,
and then the staff of JRC for having the patience, the love, and the dedication
with our children. It is very
difficult to work with these children that exhibit self dangerous behaviors such
as, hit and bite themselves. They also exhibit aggression behaviors towards
others, as well as, destructive behaviors. They hit and bite others and they
break objects. Sincerely,
|
|
(New York) My son is a 16 years old, 5’
4 inches tall, 188 lbs. with Down Syndrome, Oppositional defiant Behavior
Disorder. He was raped in August
2003 while attending the Fresh Air Fund Summer Camp.
My life has been pure hell
since then! My son started hurting himself by sticking pencils in his belly
button and other objects in different orifices of his body.
He was very aggressive at home.
He hit both my mother and me and many times destroyed property.
He was out of control. I had
to have him admitted to All the New York State
Facilities, about 6 that I know of, reviewed my son’s packet, turned him down
because he was too aggressive. My
son arrived at JRC on Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about my
son who is a student at the Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) I am writing to you to tell you about a facility named Sincerely,
|
|
(New York) I am th My daughter required the use of many paraprofessionals-
they came to our home, they rode the school bus and were with her in class- none
of which helped improve her behavior. She couldn't even hold her water and was
wetting the bed, biting her lips, fighting, cursing a lot and she would not
listen to me or her older sister. There wer If
she was ever forced to return to NY, they would put her back on medication;
return her to a secluded classroom –where she would not be able to associate
with the others kids. Now I can see hope for my daughter’s future and I WILL NOT
let my child live that kind of life again! I need a lot of things for her if
she comes back home and I know NY is not prepared to offer her. She now has a
chance for a bright future and should have the opportunity to remain in a
setting that has helped her immensely. JRC helped her with the problems that NYC
couldn’t- they did not want to deal with a child with a behavior problem. All NY
seems to do is put a child on meds or put a child in a room and leave them
without making attempts to help them. They don’t seem concerned with what a
child needs; all they care about is how they are getting paid and when they are
going home.
Very truly yours, Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) I am the mother of a
child that has Autism. My daughter
at the present time is living at the Before my daughter was
sent to the |
|
(New York)
My son currently attends the
My son has been on 30 different combinations of
psychotropic medications since the age of 9 years old. He has carried a
psychiatric diagnosis of ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Personality Disorder, and
Intermittent Explosive Disorder over the last 10 years. He has been
hospitalized on several occasions due to unmanageable, dangerous, and
suicidal behavior. He was in individual counseling, group counseling, and
family counseling since the age of 8 years. As far as his education he was
left back twice before he even entered Special Education and did not respond to
the Special Education programs that he was placed in after that (Inclusion
Program, Collaborative Team Teaming, Charter School, and 12:1:1 program).
My son was not able to be maintained or programmed in these settings.
He was not in school from 6/05 to 1/06
(approximately 7 months) because the New York City Board of Education and the
New York State Department of Education could not find an appropriate program for
him. During those 7 months he wandered the streets, got in
trouble with the police, and was hospitalized once again.
My
son was eventually admitted to JRC the beginning of 1/06.
My son has made a significant turn around
in his life since entering JRC. First, he is totally off psychotropic
medications; this is the first time that he is medication free since he was 9
years old. Second, he has moved through four different residences since
entering JRC; when he entered he was in a crisis residence and he is now in a
small apartment with three of his peers. Third, he has mastered many
educational lessons which are individualized on his own personal computer; this
is the first time he is attending to his education and working hard. Fourth,
his overall attitude has changed; he is actually interested in his future and
the things that he will be able to accomplish. Fifth, his coping
strategies have improved significantly since he entered JRC. He is
expressing his needs and emotions in an appropriate manner for the first time in
over 10 years.
My son has responded remarkably to the intensive
behavioral interventions that are utilized at JRC. Staff are incredibly
well trained and focused on meeting every need that a student has.
JRC has helped save my son’s life. No other
program in
Sincerely,
|
|
(New York)
My son has
been a resident of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) since July of 2005.
He has made behavioral and academic achievements, which in a large part
has come from the programming efforts at JRC. |
|
(New York) Before my granddaughter
attended the Since she has been attending
the My daughter has shown she
has learned to control her temper.
Her social skills are improved, because she can handle most situations when
presented and even speak politely to people.
She also shows that she is concerned about her appearance and taking care
of her body’s needs. The The Sincerely yours, Family of JRC Student
|
|
(New York) As a parent, I have seen my own child suffer physically and
mentally from the side effects of prescribed psychotropic medication from age 5
to age 8. While my son was attending a private special educational school in With repeated failure of this program to meet my son’s
needs I was once again brought back to the table to discuss my child’s future.
It was recommended that they would assist me by the end of the year to seek
other placement if thing did not work out.
Respectfully, Mother of Student
|
|
Letter #45 (New York)
Our son has been attending
the
Sincerely yours,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
Letter #46 When my
son was six months old, the doctor noticed there was something wrong with him.
After going through many different tests, the doctor diagnosed him with Autism
and Multiply Handicapped. From six months to five years of age, he went to the
Special Children’s Center. The school district then placed him in BOCES until
one day something upset him so much that he tipped tables over, breaking the
computers. He was kicked out of BOCES and the school district sent him to a few
more schools. As it turns out he didn't last long at those schools either. As my
son got older, when he got mad or frustrated, he would beat his head on the wall
and floor or he would scratch himself raw. The school would always suggest that
I take him back to the doctor to increase his medication. When the school
district had nowhere else to send him, they sent a tutor to the house for one
hour a day. I called ARC and they didn't have any kind of program for him
either. After I spent months calling the school, they finally sent out
applications to different placements that is how I learned about THE JUDGE
ROTENBERG CENTER. Since my son has been at JRC, he has come along way; he goes
to school every day, he has learned so much. My son no longer has self abusive
behavior; he is talking and also able to complete basic ADL's. He can write his
name and is learning how to count, write and read. Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
Letter #47 (New York) I am the mother of a student at the When my son lived at home, he would fight with people in
the street. He threatened my life but he was so sick and did not know how to
control himself. He would even be aggressive towards smaller children. I remember when people in my neighborhood wanted to fight
me because they wanted me to hit my son and discipline him more harshly for his
behavior, but I would not because I understood that he was sick. I did not
know how to handle the situation. I was so sick with worry that I was in therapy
because I did not know how to handle him. I looked at several different places for him and they were
places that I did not want to place my son. I worked with my social worker
to visit JRC and my prayers were answered when I found the I love my son and wanted to do what was best for him. My son has received GED treatment in addition to positive
programming because his behavior was inappropriate. I have seen the change
in him and it is for the best. To me, this is the best thing to happen to my son.
Sometimes I do not want him around the neighborhood because of the other
children/teens, but now he knows when they are behaving inappropriately to come
home. He instead chooses to watch TV and go to movies. Right now, I am so proud of my son because he really acts
like a gentleman. My daughter and my other son tease him and say that he
talks like a “white guy” because he does not swear. The way that he
expresses himself is very different than the other children/teens in this
neighborhood. I want to take him home because his behavior is so good but
I know that he needs to finish his education. Generally, I thank god that I found this school for my
son. I prayed and they were answered. This is the best thing that
could have happened. Sincerely,
|
Letter #48 (Connecticut) My son is currently 41 years old and has a significant
history of exhibiting very severe and dangerous behaviors. Although testing
indicates that he falls within the average range of cognitive functioning, he
suffers from a diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder, and has a severe case of
Borderline Personality Disorder.
My son was born August, 1964 in Earlier hospitalizations were for suicidal thoughts and
depressed mood. Subsequent hospitalizations were for things like auditory
hallucinations commanding him to hurt himself or others, take his clothes off,
or commit suicide; verbal threats to hurt himself, jump off a bridge, shoot
himself, swallow razor blades, set himself on fire, or walk in traffic; and
actual attempts to hurt himself such as swallowing a thumbtack and cutting his
wrists with glass. In 1989, while
hospitalized, he swallowed pencils, toothbrushes, a chess piece, a pen, half a
piece of soap, and engaged in biting himself. One swallowing episode resulted in
a perforation of his esophagus, and during another episode he broke his nose by
hitting it with a telephone. In
October of 1989 he damaged his right eye by gouging it when his restraint was
loosened so that he could feed himself. The lens was damaged, and he has poor
vision remaining in that eye. Prior to JRC admission,
attempts to treat him with medications and psychotherapy did not produce any
lasting success. Some of the medications used during his psychiatric history
were:
Anti-
Anti-
Anti-
Anti- Mood
Beta psychotics
anxiety
depressants convulsants
Stabilizers
Blocker Clozaril
Amytal
Anafranil
Depakene Catapres
Inderal Haldol
Ativan Desyrel
Dilantin
Lithium Carb. Mellaril
Benedryl
Norpramin
Navane
Valium Prozac
Tegretol Prolixin
Xanax
Tofranil
Stelazine Thorazine Trilafon ORAP In mid-1989 at Whiting Forensic Institute he underwent 14
sessions of Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) over a 6-week period without
successful results. ECT involves the passage of electric current through the
brain, with the result of inducing seizure-type activity throughout
virtually the entire central nervous system. At a later point, while in full
restraint, he ripped his scrotum and required stitches. Just prior to admission to JRC, my son was being considered
for the psychosurgical technique known as “stereotactic cingulotomy,” a
procedure involving bilateral lesioning (destruction) of the cingulate bundles
in the brain with thermistor electrodes. In short, this would have consisted of
the irreversible destruction of specific brain tissue.
Prior to embarking on this last-resort treatment procedure with possible
irreversible negative side effects, my late husband and I along with his service
providers and attorney-advocate sought placement at JRC for comprehensive
behavior modification treatment including the use of contingent electric shock.
My son was subsequently admitted to JRC in April of 1992. Since his admission to JRC and treatment with the positive
reward program supplemented with the GED there has been a significant
improvement in his behavior as well as his overall functioning and quality of
life. He has been faded from all of
his medications and is in good health overall.
Over the course of his years at JRC, he has been relatively symptom free
most of the time; however, he has had occasional periods of confused thinking
with depressive and paranoid thoughts. He could decompensate at any time, as he
has done in the past, and quick action must be taken to deal with these
regressions which are few and far between.
JRC continues to work with him to provide him with the most effective and
least restrictive treatment.
Currently, he is faded from wearing the GED 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and
has been maintaining appropriate behavior for over 6 months.
He works independently for 2 hours a day in the housekeeping department
and is eligible for multiple field trips out in the community.
He takes guitar lessons on a weekly basis and is planning supervised trip
to I can not even begin to imagine what his life would be like
without JRC. There is absolutely no
other treatment available that would allow him to function as independently and
safely as he does right now. I am
thankful every day that my son is alive, not hurting himself, not hurting anyone
else and not on medication that produces severe side-effects.
As a parent I want what is best for my son.
I truly believe that the behavioral programming at JRC has saved my son’s
life and given him a quality of life that he and I can be proud of.
Sincerely, |
Letter #49 (New York)
My son was enrolled in various special education schools . For some
reason, which we never understood, he stopped going to school; he refused to get
on the bus, refused any transportation that would take him to school. We live in
Far Rockaway and he was sent to a school in
Ms. Lucy McEntee, CBST at District 27, Region 5, referred my son to the
My son has come along way, with JRC's help; if it wasn't for JRC, I
don’t know what would happen to my son.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mother of a JRC Student |
Letter #50 Before my son went to the While taking these medications, he was kicked out of five
treatment centers because they could not handle his dangerous behaviors or
provide him with an education.
He has been at the Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
Letter #51 (New York) We are the parents of a 13 year old child with
disabilities, attending Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in According to IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act): “all children with disabilities have available to them a free
appropriate public education and related services designed to meet their
unique needs.” Our son’s problems seem to have been evident at a very
young age. The day after his first DPT shot at 8 weeks old, he had to be
hospitalized for 5 days, due to high fever, and vomiting. The ear-piercing
screams that came from him were the scariest things we have ever heard in our
lives. He seemed physically fine afterwards, however as he got older his
neurological problems surfaced. He was diagnosed with possible ADHD when he was
5 years old. It seemed to be the “flavor of the month” of disorders to label
problem children with at the time. He was then put on Ritalin, which literally
made him look like a crack-head. His eyes were glassy, he had racing thoughts
and speech, and he lost so much weight he looked like a concentration camp
victim. Our son has never had a firm diagnosis. With all the
evaluations over the years, we have been told that he is too young to
“pigeon-hole” him. We have been told that he has “components” of several
disorders including: ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, PDD, and
Asperger’s Syndrome. He is labeled by the school district simply as Emotionally
Disturbed. What’s criminal here is that the NYS school districts
essentially force parents to put their children on psychiatric drugs that can
cause permanent damage to them. Between the ages of 5 and 12 Patrick has been on 15
different psychiatric drugs including: Ritalin, Dexedrine, Risperdal, Wellbutron,
Effexor, Lithium, Depakote, Seroquil, Topamax, Abilify, Buspar, Zyprexa, Zoloft,
and Geodon. He has also had more than a dozen shots of Haldol. Our son has suffered several drug-induced side effects in
the past including: seizures, thyroid problems, elevated cholesterol, migraine
headaches, skin rash, speech problems, extreme weight gain, numbness, severe
mental confusion, coordination problems, suicidal and homicidal thoughts,
reckless, violent, destructive behavior, anxiety and paranoia. Some of these
side effects he had to be hospitalized for. He has been in BOCES, Sagamore, and Woodward Children’s
Center, and each placement was worse than the one before. Our son has an IQ of 117, and is in the 8th
grade. As of April, 2005 he was working at a 2nd -4th
grade academic level. His physical outbursts had gotten to a severity and
frequency that the district did not have anywhere to place him on Granted, JRC is not for everyone, but they address the
unique needs of our son by customizing their educational and behavioral
program to his individual problems and needs. Their program has taken my son OFF
the drugs, and emphasizes a healthy diet. He has dropped down to a healthy
weight and has NO more physical health problems that he used to have while on
the psychiatric drugs. His mind is CLEAR, and has managed in less than a year to
raise his academic level dramatically. He is currently working between 6th-8th
grades in his studies. His physical outbursts have decreased dramatically after
being taken off the drugs, and supported by the positive rewards system. He
still has to be physically restrained, but the frequency and duration have made
a steady decline since his admission. Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
My brother is now 18 years old, and has been attending JRC
since he was 12 yrs old. Let me give you a little history. My brother was born
premature at 28 weeks, but did well until he was 18 months when he started
regressing, developed febrile seizures, and stopped talking. He was then
diagnosed with Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder, then Bipolar Disorder,
and then finally Landau |
|
(New York) A brief history about my son: The Thank you so kindly,
Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
My son is a student
at the
Sincerely,
Parent of a JRC student |
|
(New York) We are
the parents of a 23 year old young man who suffers from autism. He is the
youngest of four children. Our son
seemed normal until he was about two and a half, at which time he began to
regress. He stopped talking, started
acting strangely, and seemed to withdraw into himself.
After many weeks of trying to convince doctors that this was not normal
behavior for a 2 year old, we received a diagnosis of autism.
He began school at the age of 3 in a so called "rewards only" program
that specialized in autism. By the
age of 6 he had begun to develop some aggressive and destructive behaviors and
by the age of 9 he was a handful! He
would bite, pinch, hit, and kick others and he was very strong even at that age.
In one week, he destroyed our TV, VCR, microwave, and threw the vacuum
down the stairs. Around this time he
was labeled "rare and complex" by our school district. He could also be a
wonderful and loving child when not displaying these behaviors.
We as a family just loved him so much and just kept thinking things would
turn around and the bad behaviors would go away.
They didn't! Thus began a
series of medications, you name it; they tried it on him (blood pressure meds,
anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, anti-seizure, etc.).
We might add that the effects of most of these medications have not been
studied on young children. Our son
now suffers from permanent tremors in his hands.
In addition to medications, the behaviors were dealt with by restraining
him (including mechanical restraints as he got older) and putting him in
time-out. At
around age 15, he was sent to Bancroft Neurobehavioral in A
consultant, from Devereaux, was hired to develop a program especially for him.
It was supposed to reward him for the positive things he did and keep
building on that. It didn't work!
Over the years many of the so-called experts in this type of behavior
were called for consultations. The
next few years passed by with pretty much the same patterns of behavior.
He would sometimes go through a good period for a few days.
We were always hopeful that this was a sign that he was changing, but he
wasn't. He was growing increasingly
bigger (6'2'' and ~200lbs), stronger, and
lightning quick, so his aggressions were increasingly more difficult to deal
with. It could take several people
to tackle him to the ground and restrain him.
Many times staff and our son were injured.
About 3
years ago, things went from bad to terrible.
He began to try to bite anyone that got near to him.
Biting has always been his worst and most difficult behavior to deal
with. The doctor began to increase
his meds and to add new ones. We
hear people refer to their children as "zombies" on the meds; that wasn't the
case with our son. He just kept
coming; they didn't slow him down at all.
At one point he was on 2 to 3 times the recommended dose of 2 powerful
meds with a couple other meds thrown in.
They weren't slowing him down, but they were slowly killing him.
His liver enzymes were dangerously high, his cholesterol and
triglycerides were high, and his white blood count and platelets were
dangerously low. He vomited, almost
continuously, throughout the day.
Finally, a GI doctor said he had to come off of these particular meds.
We might add that once on these kinds of medications, it is no easy task
to come off. You don’t just stop
taking them. You must be slowly
weaned off and there are many side effects from coming off.
Then began many trials of others medications and their side effects.
It became a vicious circle. He ended
up in a private psychiatric facility for about 10 days.
This was a place the doctor said he would be safe (as opposed to the
state mental hospital). He was kept
in a dimly-lit room, not much bigger than a walk-in closet, on a filthy blood,
urine, and vomit soaked mattress.
There was someone posted at the door to make sure he didn't try to come out.
He was covered in bruises and cuts.
There
were nationwide searches being done for a placement for him and experts were
being consulted. One after another
of these "reward only" places refused to take him after reviewing his behavior
and seeing how many staff he had injured.
He was considered a liability.
We were devastated each time we were told another place had refused to
take him. We were losing our
beautiful son and were helpless to do anything about it.
It felt like we were all being slowly buried alive.
We tried bringing him home, hoping that maybe we could calm him, but he
would attack us. We had to resort to
using pepper spray and calling 911. After
about a year and half of this, we had two possible placements for him, the
Our son
went to JRC a little over a year and half ago and he has come so far.
Soon after going to JRC, the aggressive behaviors stopped.
The aversive therapy, along with a lot of rewards, and a very healthy
diet has turned his behavior around.
He is no longer on any medication and is quite healthy and happy!
Sometimes when we take him back after a visit, he skips through the
halls, smiling, and hugging staff members along the way.
He has been able to come and stay at the hotel with us for visits.
We take him shopping, out to eat, and for walks, which he really enjoys.
This past Christmas we were able to bring him home for the holidays.
We can't even begin to tell you what a joy that was!
In short, our son has his life back and we have our son back.
We can never get enough hugs or hear enough of his laughter. We have
witnessed many families praising what JRC has done for their child.
We are very thankful for this program and what it has been able to do for
our son. We can only imagine where our son would be (or if he would even be
alive) if he had not gone to JRC.
Sincerely, Parents
of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) My daughter has been put in
this program so that she may receive the help she needs and so far she has been
getting it. Sometimes she does have to be put in restraint because of her
behavior and it hasn’t effected her negatively in anyway but has helped her. To
my knowledge, this is the only program that will accept my daughter and due to
her behavior I am unable to care for her myself I think it is important that she
stays in tins program until it’s her time to leave so that she may continue to
receive the help that she needs. Again, I think you should not close the JRC
program because it’s the best place for my child and others. Sincerely yours Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
Our son has been a
student at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in
Our son began this
therapy three years ago, after six months of positive only programming which
once again proved unsuccessful. Now his major behaviors (aggression, property
destruction, non compliance) occur so infrequently. His dramatically improved
behavior has enabled him to benefit from his educational program and he is now
preparing for the GED exam.
Sincerely,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
I am the parent of one of the children at the In February of 2003, he was admitted to JRC.
After just six months I noticed a huge difference in my child. He had
been weaned off of all psychotropic medications and he was no longer hitting
himself. He looked healthier and
happier than ever before. The
care and supervision being offered by the staff at JRC is the best I have seen.
He is now able to work consistently on tasks. My son’s self-abusive and
aggressive behaviors are now under control.
I have been able to spend time with my son and am able to bring him home
for Christmas. His father and I are
truly amazed.
I know that if my son was not at JRC, his quality of life
would not be what it is today. I am a true believer in JRC’s treatment approach
as they have given my son a second chance.
It is because of JRC and their treatment that my son is able to
experience life. Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
In the school year prior to my son’s arrival at JRC, he was
in danger of failing most academic subjects. My son would become verbally
oppositional, breaking or attempting to bend the rules whenever the opportunity
arose. He would claim that others were expecting too much from him, leading to
failure and criticism. The school attempted to
intervene by having him repeat the 10th grade in a 12:1:1 classroom. This was
ineffective as he continued to refuse to comply with school rules. When he was
not sleeping in class, he was speaking out of turn and becoming physically
aggressive with the staff. My son
reportedly would wander away from the group when transitioning and become
extremely physical, running in the halls, running into the classroom, getting up
from his seat and distracting other students. He would also become argumentative
with peers and adults. These types of
behaviors led to him being separated from his class for behavioral problems. My son was described at his last school as needing more
than the average amount of “time-outs” with the crisis intervention staff. In
peer interactions, he was subject to impulsive violent outbursts.
He would become verbally aggressive, silly, and make inappropriate
sounds. He purposely completed assignments incorrectly to gain attention or
avoid tasks. My son has historically had great difficulties interacting
with his peers in an appropriate manner. He has a history of teasing peers with
comments that are annoying or hurtful to them. He would also perseverate on
tasks or social issues that arose. He was often unavailable for instruction due
to being withdrawn or self-absorbed. From 1/04 to 6/04, for a portion of each
day, the principal worked with P individually to keep him focused on academics
and to prevent him from harming others. Unfortunately, he still did not progress
academically and his behavior continued to be aggressive and oppositional
whenever he was not working with the principal. His behaviors were beginning to
approach extreme levels when, on
Since his admission to JRC, my son’s response to treatment
has been variable. While he has
demonstrated that he is capable of up to two weeks without significant
inappropriate behavior, he has also exhibited significantly aggressive,
dangerous, destructive, and disruptive episodes that have endangered his own
safety as well as the safety of others.
During several aggressive episodes, he rushed at staff persons to charge,
jump upon, and assault them. He can
be extremely disruptive. He often talks loudly about his intent to cause harm to
others, flaunts his disregard for rules, attempts to escape and bend rules by
lying and manipulating staff. He
would play a primary role in provoking, agitating, and instigating other
students to join in creating aggressive and dangerous situations (e.g.,
attacking staff members that are in the process of working with other students).
Moreover, he had participated in two episodes in which he and a group of other
students coordinated an attack against staff.
In both episodes, he physically assaulted staff members while instigating
other students to do the same. During behavioral episodes, he had not been able to be
maintained in his regularly assigned classroom.
He has required separation from his peers in a staff-supervised room
where he has no access to other students.
My son has also been suspended from attending school at the main facility
of the My son’s treatment plan was approved on Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(Delaware)We visited JRC in November 2004 as a possible
placement for our son, a resident of Delaware, and we observed a number of
students there who had achieved progress that astounded us once we learned where
they had started. We successfully
enrolled our son in JRC on Our son has been in private and institutional placements since age 5 because of his extreme and aggressive behaviors. Some of these programs have had excellent reputations and we were very hopeful for them, but none was successful in reducing his behaviors or in leading to less restrictive settings. He has just reached the age of 30 and still has the same behavioral problems. We were apprehensive about the aversives used at JRC until we saw the results with other students and saw the extremely disciplined approach to their use that was in place. We insisted on experiencing the GED applications ourselves and decided that the effect was mildly unpleasant but temporary compared to the constant drug-induced stupor which had become the preferred method of treatment with him. It is totally inaccurate to compare GED to “electroshock therapy” in any way. Pulling a band-aid off of your arm would be a more accurate comparison. The full program at JRC could not be implemented until a
court hearing could decide that the GED treatment was appropriate for him and
this took almost four months to get into the court’s calendar. JRC has a very
consistent behavior program, but for those first four months, he showed no
improvement in his aggressive behavior. We were not disappointed because he was
being withdrawn from the antipsychotic drugs he had been on since 1991 and this
resulted in a reversal of the obesity that had been caused by the drugs.
He was still in
mechanical restraints several times a day because of aggressive behavior.
We thought that over time, because of the consistent program, the rate of
aggressions would go down. It never did,
until the GED program was initiated on He is now in a regular classroom and workshop – something we have hoped for in our dreams. He no longer needs to be placed in mechanical restraints and he was named "student of the week" for his outstanding progress. He is smart but his behavior has always interfered with his learning. In the past he was always drugged so he could be dealt with but no behavior program was ever successful until now with the GED. His GED applications have been infrequent because he very quickly learned to avoid them by stopping the behaviors that cause them to be applied (which is the whole idea). Since the GED program started, his Major Aggressive instances have dropped from 10-90 per day down to 0 to 2 per day in only two months. (We know this because all progress is provided daily online to parents and guardians by JRC’s charting staff.) We can see that this program is going to lead to R developing internal controls on his behavior rather than using chemical or mechanical “straightjackets”. Anyone who is asserting that the aversive aspects of JRC’s programs are inhumane needs to realize that every non-aversive program always includes chemical, mechanical, and physical restraints as techniques to deal with aggressive and destructive behaviors. We have witnessed the dehumanizing effects on our son from these methods including drooling, falling asleep in his food, becoming grossly obese from medications, and all without any positive effect on his behaviors. We hope that politics will not jeopardize this wonderful program. JRC is totally open to anyone visiting their facilities. They will display any aspect of their program and they don’t attempt to hide anything. Our son has been in many facilities where we couldn’t see where he slept or ate. Please come see for yourself and if you would like permission to see our son and review his progress, we would be happy to provide it. Thank you and best regards,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York)
I am a parent of
a 26 year old adult son with Mental Retardation and a Schizophrenic Axis.
As I write my
story, my eyes fill with tears of remembering the incident I had in 1992.
My son, then 12 years old, was out of control and after beating me up at
a McDonald’s Restaurant; he was escorted to the emergency room at
By age 12, still
an infant, my son was a victim of child abuse and neglect at the hands of
His last
placement was a well known school in
I visited the
While at JRC, he
participated in the Special Olympics, obtained his Special Education High School
Diploma and within the past years he has been participating in a vocational
program where he works for an outside contractor. My family is very proud of my
son’s accomplishments and grateful for all the pain staking work that the
Sincerely,
Mother of a JRC
Student
|
|
(New York)
Our son is a student at the My husband and I eventually received information about the Our son entered the Since his admission to JRC, he continues to make
substantial progress. His math has
improved from a second grade level to a fourth grade level and his reading has
improved from a third grade level to a seventh grade level. He can be managed in
a classroom and works hard on all of his assignments.
We are especially appreciative of JRC for all they have done for him and
know that he is getting a quality education.
He continues to make progress everyday.
All those involved in his life have seen the positive changes.
My husband and I are now able to sleep at night knowing that our son is
safe. Sincerely, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) My nephew is a student at
the My life dealing with my
nephew was a constant struggle because of me having to leave my job early too
many times. He was being abusive with the babysitter and at school (not being
able to get anyone to baby sit him as no one wanted to deal with him) and I had
to stay home with him and numerous other things he was doing, I was in the
process of losing my job. I knew at that time he needed much more help than I
can give him and made the decision to send him to the When he was sent to JRC
his behavior became worse as his medication was gradually lowered. Once he was
finally off the medication he became aggressive and his behavior had gotten
worse. At that time we knew he had to be put on GED therapy. Since he’s been on
this therapy his behavior has improved; I see the improvement. He knows there
are consequences if he misbehaves. He’s even won an award; something he could
have never achieved. I would be lost without JRC. As a parent to see your child
go through what my nephew has gone through in the past is devastating. Sincerely, Aunt/Guardian of a JRC
Student
|
|
(New York)
Our son
has been attending JRC since the age of 12.
His placement came about when his behaviors became extremely
self-injurious and life threatening.
It was after much research and visits to numerous facilities recommended by the
Dept. of Mental Retardation in
resided at home he was enrolled in a day
program since the age of 2. Staff in
that facility were trained well enough to work with children with his condition
who are mentally challenged and autistic.
He suffers with generalized grand-mal seizures from age of 6 months old
and was diagnosed with medical condition of Tuberous Sclerosis.
From the age of 6 B commenced to display self-injurious behavior of
slapping, pinching, and biting himself (sometimes others) to the extent that by
looking at him he seemed like an abused and battered child.
He also exhibited rumination and projective vomiting which has caused him
ulcers and scarring of the trachea and stomach.
Due to the slapping of the face and head he suffered a detached retina
which had to be surgically re-attached.
Because of all the aversive behaviors the day program no longer was
functional and staff could not meet his needs nor were they able to work with
him.
Respectfully Yours, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
My brother is a 39-year-old student/resident at the Judge
Rotenberg Center, and has been placed there since January 1978, when it was then
known as the Behavior Research Institute. I believe I can lend a unique
perspective to how his life and my family's life has evolved in the last 28
years.
Sincerely,
Brother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York)
We would like to tell you
about our daughter and how the
We
first discovered our daughter was different when she was about 2 years old.
She would not relate well to others, had very little speech, and
would stare at her hands or small objects for hours at a time.
She also had frequent tantrums, and cried often.
She began with early intervention, and over the next ten years, she
went to four specialized schools for autistic children. (Variety Pre-schoolers
Workshop, The Young Autism Program at DDI, AHRC, and finally The Anderson
School in
Despite, all these well caring professionals working with our daughter
progressively deteriorated. Over
the years, she became more violent. She would attack us, other children, and
her teachers. She would bite,
scratch, kick, hit, pinch, and head-butt. In addition she became more
self-abusive. She would throw
herself on the floor, hit herself, and throw herself against hard objects.
She constantly had marks, and bruises
on her from her own self abuse. We were also prisoners in our own
home, as we could not take her anywhere, due to her behaviors, this had an
impact on our other children as well. The final straw came when she hit
herself in her head with such force, that she detached both retinas of her
eyes, and was virtually blind. This has subsequently required 6 eye
surgeries to repair, and her vision is still far from normal.
The
Within
several weeks of getting treated with the GED device at JRC, a miracle
happened. She stopped hitting herself, and stopped her violent behavior. She
appeared much happier. She was
able to be weaned off all of her psychotropic medications. She continues to
do well, and only require 1 or 2 GED applications per week.
Clearly, we
tried positive reinforcement, and psychotropic medications, for over 10 years,
and the GED device and JRC have accomplished more in just a few short weeks,
then the treatments of the previous 10 years.
Sincerely,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
(Massachusetts)
We are the parents of a young man currently served
at The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in
Since our son entered this program, his progress
has been amazing. He has progressed from exhibiting severe aggressive and
self-abusive behaviors, including biting, hitting, kicking and head butting
others, biting himself, banging his head, poking objects in his ears and
slamming his body against the back of chairs and beds, to working in a workshop
and washing school vans.
This program, JRC, has been successful through the
use of the GED, a brief skin shock device, which is used as part of a
comprehensive behavioral treatment plan, which also provides powerful rewards.
Thanks to this program, our son was able to have surgery to correct his severe
scoliosis, curvature of the spine. Prior to this treatment, he was unable
to have this corrective surgery, since it required weeks of recovery. It
was important that he remained still and cooperative, rather than having the
tantrums he had before JRC.
Sincerely,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) I am the mother of a 14 year
old child who has been placed at the Before he was placed at the
My son has a
history of depression and for many various reasons I had to take him to the
emergency room because he attempted to take his life. Ernesto loses control
easily, and becomes violent. When he does, he destroys things that are around
him. These things are devastating for a mother and father to watch. Each time my son was
transferred to a different school, in time, there would be major problems, his
behaviors got worse, he
was victim of innumerable events, including suspensions, verbal abuse, physical
abuse and threats to call to "downtown" so that they would remove him
from his home and his family. In the end, a teacher was calling daily saying
that they were going to call the police on my son. One day I was called, and the
teacher said to me, “Ms., your son is arrested downstairs.”
When I arrived in desperation at the school, it was a lie. It is because
of all of these innumerable experiences that I am writing this letter. The main point
of this is that public school system, that I trusted the care of my son to, does
not have the training or the tools necessary to teach children with these types
and severity of disorders. It is my duty as a mother to look for and find a
school where they could help my son and prepare him for a future in society, and
I did it. For that reason
I remain surprised that the media has tried to state that children are tortured
at JRC. Torture is to have to your
son on the street and using drugs; torture is not to knowing where this your son
at dawn; torture is having to go to the police precinct to look for your 13 year
old son because he was arrested for throwing stones at cars, causing an accident
and putting the lives of others in danger. On one occasion, my son threatened to
set a fire and burn the house down with acetone. It is also
torture that a child has to take 7 different medications that do not work for
him, and that made him worse than ever. While he was on the medications, he
started speaking of suicide (a side effect of the medication.) All this is
torture for a mother like me, who has been a good parent in raising my son. Then
JRC came in. JRC offers structure, supervision and limits, so that I know that
my son if safe at any time of the day or night. I do not worry about my son’s
welfare. I know that he is well taken care of at JRC. He is working on his
academics all day, and is being prepared for the day when he will be able to
work and be a productive member of society.
Sincerely, Mother of a JRC
Student
|
|
(New York) I
am the mother of a current student at the It
is very difficult to raise my son at home.
He started attending the The
Thank you,
Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
I am the
mother of a 22 year old son who attends the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC). My son is
diagnosed with Autism and Mental Retardation. He has several, life
threatening, self-abusive behaviors. A little over six years ago, when
things were as bad as we thought they could get, he went to the My son has
been there for almost 6 years. His self-injurious behaviors have gone from
thousands upon thousands a day, to a handful a week. He no longer is on
any medications. He is healthy, and even more important, for the first time in a
long time, he is happy. When I
used to visit him, I was lucky if he realized I was there. Now when I
visit my son, we go out (just the two of us) and have pizza. Visiting him
now is a fun and joyful experience. It is no longer the heartache of
watching him mutilate himself. I am proud of my son and all the hard work
he has done; with the help of JRC he has a life.
Sincerely, Mother of
a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I am a mother of two
autistic identical twin sons. My
first son at age 16 started ramming his head into sharp points.
His head finally had to be closed by a plastic surgeon.
He was admitted to Since being at the His twin, started having
serious behavior problems about 4 years ago.
He was already placed in a group home.
He tried to burn another client’s hands on a stove. He was given various
medications and has had psychiatric hospitalizations over the past four years.
He as started to have grand mal seizures
and weight gain from the medications, which he says he hates.
His behaviors have improved recently because he wants to get off the
medications but I don’t know how successful he’ll be, given the lack of any
behavioral treatment plan. Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
As a
parent of a student who has attended JRC since December 2004, I would like to
share my family's experience with you.
|
|
(Massachusetts) As a guardian and brother of
a behaviorally challenged person who is currently enrolled in
the -- I and my family are
greatly disturbed by the possible loss of accreditation that would
result from passage of this bill. As mentioned, my brother has benefited
greatly over the years from the programs available through the JRC,
and although his current diagnosis/treatment plan for a pervasive
developmental disorder does not call for aversive interventions, recent media
reports (containing many distortions and misrepresentations) may
cause those in a position to make decisions so many people to act in ways that
do not take into account all sides of the issues at play. As a family,
concerned citizens, and your constituents who are part of the behavior disorder
community, we believe the best interests of those enrolled in the JRC program
have been admirably and ably served over the years. settings as effective as the
programs available through the JRC, and we as a family know this through
hard, bitter experience. The loss of this vital resource would be
devastating to not only my family, but to hundreds of others. Please take this into
account when debating this bill, as the therapies provided have proven without
exaggeration a lifeline for families such as mine dealing with behavior
disorders. These opinions and beliefs,
in particular the advocacy we have expressed for the use of electric skin
shock or GED and other aversive interventions are based on long, hard,
first-hand experience with the health-dangerous side effects of psychotropic
drugs (such as Thorazine, Haldol, Navane, Tegretol, Depakote among the others my
brother Brian has been prescribed in the past only to suffer the most
harmful side effects; including, but not limited to: malnutrition, severe weight
loss, loss of vitality and personality, and behavior regression) or an
inappropriate residential/therapeutic placement in NY State. Before his
placement at the JRC, then known as the Behavior Research Institute of carefully researched the
options for his education and treatment of his mixed diagnosis and even
more carefully subjected ourselves to all the aversive interventions that
could have been used on our son and brother. I would beseech you to take
into account the fact that families like mine who care deeply for their
disabled children would not blindly place such children in a facility that
engages in anything remotely resembling torture or mistreatment. In fact as
a person with close and varied experience with the alternatives to JRC, I
would posit that his current progress and stability would be presented with
torturous challenges should the JRC program be shut down. As it is your mission to
represent the people, families like mine would exhort you to
fully consider the good work being done on behalf of our families and others
from around the country in light of our full and varied histories -- and not
simply on the basis of media reports or a lawsuit
that has been filed ex parte alleging abuse of a single JRC student. There is much more at stake
here than the survival of an educational facility. I will say without
exaggeration that my brother's very life could be at stake. To that end, I
fully support the and directorship, and
believe that aversive behavior modification (in its various forms) should be
legally available, especially in light of the fact that reasonable, comparable
alternatives do not exist. Please feel free to contact
us, to meet with us personally and hear all sides of this vital issue
before making decisions that will ring down disastrous consequences for
our brother and son. We have gathered a wealth of data and scientific
evidence that will show the efficacy of the treatments and provide
much-needed context by which you may make your decisions and votes. Thank you for your
consideration, Family of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) Our daughter was diagnosed with autism at around 2 years of
age. She has attended Early Intervention, pre-
Thank you, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
From her time of infancy it
became clear to me that my daughter was not progressing the way my previous two
children have progressed. It was obvious from her failure to achieve the
simplest signals such as mere eye contact to the more advanced indications such
as mimicking words. At 12months my husband and I took her to the doctor for an
evaluation. The doctor diagnosed our daughter with Microcephaly. From this day onward I knew my
life would never follow the road I predicted. But, I still didn’t know the
extent of the major obstacles that would stand in the way of my family’s bright
future. Basically, major changes had to be made in order to secure our daughter
as well as my family’s well-being. To describe the next few years of
her life I would have to depict it as a downward rollercoaster. Till the age of
six, she was living at home, supervised by a 24-hour nanny. Her behavior
was not solely bad, it was unmanageable. At dinner, she took pleasure in
swinging her hands across the table, knocking all the plates to the floor. She
would grab anything and everything in sight. She was putting all objects, even
plants and soil in her mouth. Soon enough our house became daughter proofed. The
sofas had chronic rips and bite marks and anything glass could not surpass a
week or two in her premises. When she reached six years old,
my husband and I made one of our most difficult, life altering decisions. We
decided to send her away to boarding school. Just as we were unable to manage
her behavior, neither was the school. The school had suggested various
medications in order to manage her wellbeing. Before beginning with medication
we tried every other remedy suggested by all sources. This included swimming
with the dolphins, oxygen therapy, acupuncture, and the list goes on till
desperately we turned to western medication. This was only the starting point of
constant aching decisions. Each cocktail medication brought about another side
effect. One caused drowsiness, while the other caused heart racing, others
caused insomnia, which was treated by medication cocktails which caused unusual
hair growth and weight gain. Soon enough she was controlled completely by
medication, all of which caused her to act as a zombie. Medication after
medication yet, we couldn’t seem to whip up the right cocktail to cure her. Her
progression was non-existent furthermore as the years passed it seemed as though
she was digressing instead. Our daughter switched schools
twice more because of safety issues. She was hazardous to herself as well as
other kids, opening the gates and running into the streets. The last school she attended was
Upon our decision to send her to
JRC, they were adamant on detoxifying her from all medication. We were attracted
to the fact that they believed in ridding her of all medication, a task that is
highly difficult to attain. Furthermore, it was a task that no other school was
willing to partake in because of its difficulty. At the same time she was placed
on a behavior modification program which at first was implemented without the
use of aversives. For the first time we started seeing signs of her progression.
At last she became a bit more manageable. Six months later she began the
aversive therapy program which caused a leap forward in her progression. We were
finally able to take our daughter out to dinner without having to worry that she
would flip over the plates or grab food off a strangers table. Her behavior has
miraculously developed. Today, at age 18 she is able to function and learn. As a
family we are able to enjoy and look forward to her visit. Her company is no
longer a burden. Thank you JRC! Sincerely, Concerned Parents of a JRC
Student |
|
My 13 year old grandson is a
student attending the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC). He is also
amongst the majority of children who entered JRC with emotional disabilities,
oppositional defiant disorder, behavior problems and severe aggressive episodes. Although he would be
considered by definition as “higher-functioning,” his lack of ability to control
and regulate his anger, his reluctance to submit to authority and his inability
to stay focused put him not only in jeopardy of an education, but also there was
a question of his safety and the safety of his peers. The medication he was
required to take to control some of these symptoms unfortunately worked only
temporarily, and the side effects proved to be devastating. He was awake almost
around-the-clock, he lost a great deal of weight, during the day he was
lethargic and at night when the medication wore off- aggravation and paranoia
set in to the point where he stabbed and killed the family pet who he felt was a
threat to him. My grandson was hospitalized
in a pediatric mental hospital, where he was restrained, put in a strait jacket
and placed in a padded room until he “calmed” down. I sought numerous therapists
and psychiatrists and questioned the use and the long term effectiveness of the
medication used to treat his condition. As far as his education, a
“suitable” placement for him in the community could not be found. I went in
search of a school out-of-state that could offered a safe environment, an
education, and hope for a figure for him so that he could live independently.
The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) was the only school I found that not only
offered me these things, but they were open and honest with me about my
expectations for Terry and the schools criteria which included the use of
aversion therapy. I got a chance to witness personally the restraining methods
used on one of the students and I also was given a chance to test their aversive
therapy for myself. I cannot begin to tell you
of my joy that he has proven to be a true success story. He has made slow, but
steady progress in both his behavior and education. What was once a very
depressed and emotionally drained little boy is now a young man who is
confident, independent, and makes good decisions, most of the time. I cannot
speak for all the students that come through Sincerely yours, Grandmother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
My son's story is no different than any other parent at
JRC. We became his foster parents when he was three years old. We adopted him
when he was eight. We were told he was "slightly retarded," whatever that means.
He has been diagnosed with "slight mental retardation," ADHD, Asperges, and PDD.
We came to believe that James' biggest problem may well be that he couldn't be
accurately diagnosed.
Sincerely,
Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) My daughter is now 18 ½
years old. My daughter is now able to stay without a diaper on all day long and
barely have any mishaps. My daughter is now able to match items of the same kind
(with some prompting) on a computer. I was I raised her for 14 years. I
woke up every morning to have to bathe her so that she would not smell of urine
because she would wear a diaper. I would have to scrub her bedroom walls, her
dresser, her bedroom floor, her windows, and wash her sheets and pillows because
she would take off her diaper and rub her bowels all over the room. She would
sometimes not sleep at all until maybe 3 or JRC has taken my daughter
off of all of those unhealthy medications, they have taught my daughter better
self-control, they have taught her not to injure herself and others around her.
JRC got my daughter at the age of 17 ½ to use the toilet appropriately and now
one year later, she is more consistent with her toileting. JRC has accomplished
so much with my child; something NYS was never able to. JRC fully and completely
explains every aspect of the program when you visit with them. We, the parents of special
children like my daughter, need a JRC here in NYS. JRC would be our Savior, our
God send. There are many parents like me who do not want to put our children on
medications. My daughter is on Depakote for the rest of her life. I don’t want
her on anything else. JRC has everything a parent like me needs for our children
and for our peace of mind. Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I am writing this letter
about my son who is a student of The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. Before
he was enrolled in this wonderful program, we had many difficult days. Our son
was very aggressive and would assault his classmates by striking then in the
face, jumping on their backs, throwing things at them as well as trying to choke
some of them. Similar behaviors were exhibited towards staff.
He has started a fire in a previous school, has broken other’s property,
has thrown chairs and managed to flood the entire school. He has made suicidal
threats, left school grounds and has stabbed himself with sharp objects.
Noncompliance and disruptive behaviors were also occurring on a daily basis. Can
you believe that all of this happened before the age of ten? Due to his
problematic behaviors, I would receive calls on a daily basis to come and pick
him up. As a result, I ended up losing my job. It was decided that my son would
benefit from a residential program. I agreed with this but the challenge of
finding an appropriate school was a difficult one- until I found The Judge
Rotenberg Educational Center. My son has been at JRC
for the last four years. My son is not on medication and continues to make
behavioral progress on a daily basis. His academic achievements continue to amaz My son might be lying in
a psych hospital- overmedicated if I did not find JRC. If he continued down the
path he was going, h Sincerely,
Father of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) It is so unfortunate that
the perception of the public becomes reality via the media.
If anyone had any clue how negative an impact this can have on our child
and other children that have experienced a pain that only those who have
experienced it can understand.
Today, almost two years
later, Thank you for taking the
time to read this. Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I will try to be brief but it will be hard letting several
painful years into a couple of sheets of paper.
I will start by saying my son’s problems started when he was two years of
age. |
|
(New York) I am writing regarding the proposed bill to ban the use of
aversive interventions. Our son is
ten years old and is severely autistic.
For years we have been seeing various doctors, Psychiatrists,
Psychologists, Neurologists, Case Managers, and Social Workers in an effort to
secure help for our son. We were
told that he was in need of medication.
He was prescribed multiple psychotropic medications in an effort to
determine what would work for him.
None of the medications were successful.
He was hospitalized on more than one occasion due to his compulsive
behavior disorder which included him biting his hands to the point of bleeding.
We felt lost and didn’t know what to do.
His schools would constantly call us at work regarding his disruptive
behaviors. He would knock things
over in the classroom and pull on people.
The educational setting, which was geared toward autistic clients, could
not handle him. Sincerely, |
|
(New York) My son is an individual with some behavioral, cognitive
and academic deficits. When he was
2.5 years old, he was diagnosed with a toxicity level of lead, which
consequently caused some brain damage.
When he began school, the problems began to materialize.
He was in a small independent school in Sincerely, |
|
Letter #84 (New York) My son
has been diagnosed as Mentally Retarded and Emotionally Disturbed.
He is required contact redirection, and supervision to complete
assignments. He is very impulsive
and oppositional toward staff and peers.
He has little regards for the property of others.
My son has a poor sense of personal boundaries.
He sometimes shows insight into his behaviors, and can’t correct himself
for short periods. My son requires
24 hour/12 month residential services in a highly structured behavior,
modification program. Due to his
limited judgment it is necessary for him to require constant supervision.
He needs to learn to manage himself in the school setting, at home, and
in the community. My child was
rejected or ejected from many schools before one was found that could
successfully treat the serious behaviors and also provide him with an education.
Now with the use of rewards and punishment therapy, we have seen
improvement in my child’s behaviors. This
ensures a parent and family’s right to choose what ever professionally
recognized treatment they believe is best for their handicapped child. The Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
Letter #85
This is in regards to my
daughter, age 18, with a diagnosis of Autism, she began attending the
The sight of my daughter banging her head into a wall with so much
force as to break skin on her forehead and to cause the plaster in the walls to
crack was repugnant. She has slammed
her head down so hard on a school desk that she cracked a front tooth.
She has taken more blows to the head and limbs than a seasoned
prizefighter. Years of medication,
behavioral interventions, 1:1 class paras, and bus paras have failed to reduce
her Self Injurious behaviors. It was a hard heart wrenching decision to send my daughter to a residential school. But after being repeatedly called by her school, to come get her because she was out of control, I knew she needed more help than me or the school could give. The last draw was, when the Assistant Principal tried to get her taken, by ambulance, to the “G” building (psychiatric hospital), before I could get to the school to pick her up. When I arrived before that could occur, I was discouraged from sending her back to school. In my daughter, there is a bright young lady, trapped inside that is begging to be free, but her behaviors will not allow i
Since entering JRC, My daughter is on her
way to becoming drug free for the first time in almost 12 years, and soon free
of health dangerous behaviors. .JRC is allowing her to
laugh, enjoy, and participate in community activities.
Sincerely, Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts)
We are the
cousins of an autistic child who is a student at The Judge Rotenberg Center (
Prior to being enrolled at JRC, his
behaviors were extreme. Despite
having worked with many professionals specializing in these types of behavior
problems, his parents continued to struggle and our cousin made very little if
any progress. At one point he became so violent that he required a
paraprofessional 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
He was prescribed many different psychotropic drugs, as many as 12.
Our cousin’s response to being medicated
was far from positive. He was
lethargic and often had drool running down his face.
This had been going on for nine years. Any energy he did have was used
during his violent outbursts. In
December of 2004, he was admitted to the hospital.
He had become lethargic and disoriented.
He was diagnosed with Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS), which was the
direct result of being over medicated with Thorazine.
He remained in a coma for eight days and almost died.
The
My cousin’s quality of life has improved
tremendously, along with his health.
He is starting to work on the computer and can work consistently on a regular
basis. He is classically autistic with a full scale IQ of 41.
He is non verbal and will most likely require residential placement for
the rest of his life.
Sincerely,
Cousins of
a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts) My
nephew is an autistic child who is a student at The Judge Rotenberg Center (
The My
nephew is now medication free. His behavior and quality of life has improved
tremendously, along with his health. He is starting to work on the computer and
can work consistently on a regular basis. He is classically autistic with a full
scale IQ of 41. He is non verbal and will most likely require residential
placement for the rest of his life.
Sincerely,
Aunt and Uncle of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts) My
cousin was on a variety of psychotropic drugs. At one point he was given so much
medications he became comatose, he was hospitalized for 9 days and almost died.
He was rejected or ejected from many schools before one was found that could
successfully treat the serious behaviors and also provide him with an education My
cousin resides at the Judge Rotenberg Center ( He
is now medication free. His behavior and quality of life has improved
tremendously, along with his health. His family is ecstatic with the
improvements we see in him. It has changed his life for the better. He is
healthy, his inappropriate behaviors are in control, and he appears happy.
Sincerely,
Cousins of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts) My cousin was rejected or ejected from many schools before
one was found that could successfully treat the serious behaviors and also
provide him with an education. Now, with the use of reward and punishment
therapy we have seen improvement in his behaviors. JRC has proven to be
life-saving for him. He attends a program which utilizes positive behavior
modification techniques along with supplemental aversive therapy. The alternative to this effective therapy is psychotropic
medications. My cousin resides at the Judge Rotenberg Center ( My cousin is now medication free. His behavior and quality
of life has improved tremendously, along with his health. His family is
overjoyed with the improvements we see in him. It has changed his life for the
better. He is healthy, his inappropriate behaviors are in control, and he
appears happy. Sincerely, Cousin of a JRC Student
|
|
(Massachusetts) My cousin
is a person whose quality of life has been tremendously improved since the
introduction of aversive therapy. Prior to receiving this effective treatment,
he was on a cocktail of psychotropic medications which did not stop him from
exhibiting dangerous behaviors. He had to be hospitalized and ended up in a coma
for nine days due to psychotropic medications. Obviously, they were not the
answer. Instead,
the Bristol Probate Court has authorized the use of a two second skin shock for
his dangerous behaviors as a supplement to his positive rewards. He is not on
any psychotropic medications. We believe that his parents should continue to
have the right to choose this therapy. He is now
medication free. His behavior and quality of life has improved tremendously,
along with his health. His family is overjoyed with the improvements we see in
him. JRC has
changed Marc’s life for the better. He is healthy, his inappropriate behaviors
are in control, and he appears happy.
Sincerely, Cousins
of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts)
My son has been a client at the
Another tremendous benefit has been the reduction, and eventually elimination,
of the numerous meds that he had been taking, without results, since he was 10
years old. He is now completely
medication free. Along with this he has dropped 100 pounds and is finally at a
healthy weight. He has a job at the
center and is leading a healthy and productive life.
As a parent I feel that JRC does an excellent job informing us about the program
and the use of aversive therapy. My
son’s treatment team keeps me very well informed on the use of this treatment
with him. I also feel that my son is
safe and free of abuse at JRC unlike at other programs.
My son has suffered true abuse at programs that do not use the alleged
“abusive” aversive therapy. At
My wife went to her grave feeling confident that because of JRC that our son now
has a chance to get better and live a somewhat normal life.
Sincerely,
Father of a JRC Student |
|
(Virginia)
My father and I are the sole guardians of my brother, a 25 year old man,
who has legally and repeatedly been diagnosed with several serious disorders
such as mental retardation, impulse control disorder, and bipolar, which can
lead to unpredictable violent incidents.
For approximately the last 10 to 15 years of his life, prior to the
court’s order to finally place him to JRC, we as a family had to go from number
of different group homes to different hospitals, to different courts, and even
to different detention centers in the state of
From the time he has been admitted to JRC to date, A has lost
substantial weight and looks much healthier. He has amazingly learned to
somewhat read at a very elementary level, which he hadn’t been able to do
before. The medication usage has been at an absolute minimum, which had been one
of our great concerns all along. It is worth mentioning that prior to his
placement, jails and hospitals were putting him on high medication and I clearly
remember, when we visited him at times, his arms and legs were shaking due to
the side effects of such medication.
In conclusion, I must admit this center has been a heaven for us and we
as a family are truly happy that this center exists; otherwise, we’d still be
going from one jail or hospital to another.
Regards,
Brother of a JRC Student |
|
My husband and I are the adoptive parents of a young lady.
Currently, she is a student at JRC and she was admitted to JRC in
December 2004. She was admitted to
JRC because her behavior was out of control.
She would go into a fit, physically fight with me, and refuse to do
reasonable things that were asked of her.
She would do what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do them.
Our daughter was aggressive toward others and ran away a lot.
She acted out quite often, was on a lot of medication and became
overweight. Since her admission to JRC, she has lost weight and feels
better about her self. This is
because of the treatment program that JRC offers.
Also, since JRC has begun the optional aversive therapy program, her
behavior has improved even more.
JRC is the only school prepared to educate her and deal with her intense,
dangerous behaviors. JRC has helped
to put her back in line and she is able to participate in activities that she
was not able to do before. She is
calmer and doesn’t interfere as much and enjoys her family more.
Without the JRC, people could not handle her. Her behavior was
unconscionable. We definitely could
not handle her. We can’t go through
that again. It is impossible for others to really understand the degree
to which our daughter has harmed herself and others and created disruptions in
our family. JRC, with the use of
aversive treatment options, has made our daughter’s live safer and our family’s
situation more livable. Sincerely Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) My son has been at JRC since 2004. The progress he has made
has been incredible. My son is 15 years old.
Before being admitted to JRC, my son was very aggressive.
He used to runaway from school almost every day and the days he did not runaway,
I had to go and pick him up because his behavior were uncontrollable. He used to
become aggressive towards his teachers and peers. He used to scream, yell, and
destroy everything in the house and at school. He was prescribed many different
medications to control his behaviors which did not work at all. After being at JRC, my son has changed very much. He is not
as aggressive as he used to be. He is focusing more on his academic skills, as
well as, his future goals. Also, he is not on any medications and he has made so
much progress in this school. Sincerely, Father of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) Our son is a student at JRC and this is his third time that
he has attended the school. He has many problems including emotional and
physical. He has been in at least nineteen placements since he was 4 and 1/2
years old. None has been able to keep him. He ran away from one apartment type
placement and ran across 6 lanes of traffic. He has put his life in danger many
times while at other placements. We feel that the only place where he is safe
and well taken care of is JRC. They have taken care of his health problems as
well as behavioral problems. Since our son has been there he is able to go home for
visits and taken part in the field trips that he can earn. Before they started
using aversive therapy his behavior was extremely hard to manage and since they
started using it he is like a changed person. He still has a long way to go. We
feel that if he was sent somewhere else his life could be in danger. Thank you, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I am the parent of a student at the When my son lived in my home he was difficult to manage.
He was uncooperative and would often bite, hit, push, and run away.
When I took him in public, he would try to run away.
I needed a leash to protect him from running into the streets. When
he would see something that he wanted, he would pull and drag me around in an
effort to gain access to what he wanted. In school, he had similar
behaviors and was unable to make any academic or behavioral progress. He needed
to be taught daily living skills, to care for himself, and how to behave
appropriately. When my son was twelve, he was growing, getting bigger and
stronger. He became more difficult
to manage at home. I did the best that I could with him for the twelve years
that he lived with me but there were no positive changes in his behavior. I
realized that he needed to be with professionals; those that had the skills and
ability to teach him. My son could have attended a school on My son was admitted to the Since his admission to the Thank you, Mother of a JRC Student |
|
(Massachusetts)
Growing up with my brother was not always pleasant since he was such an
aggressive child. He used to like to
fight pull and grab your hair, bite and spit.
Needless to say being around him was quite difficult at times.
He was so strong that if he got a hold of you, it would literally take
the whole house to get him off of and those people would have to be careful
because they may get spat on and or kicked.
He would often really try to grab your hair and pull it out by the
handful. For this reason we kept a
lot of Tylenol in the house. My
brother was definitely not a person that you could bring to a restaurant.
He never sat down, he crammed very hot food in his mouth, made very loud
noises and just like to jump around.
Since he has been attending the He
still needs help because we notice that when he comes home on Sundays, he still
tries to get away with some things and we can say something as simple as “hey
cut it out” and he’ll stop. In the
past you may have gotten pushed into a wall or spat on, but not anymore.
Needless to say, I think the Judge Rotenberg center has been quite a blessing to
our family and I don’t know where we would be without the Center or the help of
the state for people like my brother who need this kind of help and attention.
The progress that he has made at JRC has made it possible for our family
to be together and for my brother to be safe.
Sincerely,
Sister of a JRC Student |
|
(New York) I reside in Center Moriches, As a result of the inability of our school district and the
New York State Department of Education to locate an appropriate educational
setting for our daughter, she was admitted to Brunswick Children’s Psychiatric
Hospital from April of 2006 until her admission to the Additionally, JRC was the only school that was willing to
accept our daughter and agree not to treat her with dangerous medication to
manage her difficult behaviors. They are the only school that we found, both in
and out-of-state, that would accept her without the threat of discharging her to
a psychiatric facility when her behaviors got too difficult to manage. The treatment team at the Our daughter has responded extremely well to the positive
programming and structure that JRC has offered, which is not available in any
program within the state of The staff at JRC communicates with us regarding our daughter’s
progress and needs and is very responsive to the individual needs of the student
and their family. The school has an open visiting policy which allows us and
other family members to visit her unannounced. We also have access to all of her
treatment and education records twenty-four hours per day via a secured website.
All of these features allow us to have full confidence in the staff at the Sincerely, Parents of a JRC Student |
|
(New York)
My daughter attends the
Sincerely,
Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
Letter #100 (New York)
I am the father of a student currently at the
In 2003
The school district started looking for another school for
him and it took over six months to get my son enrolled in JRC. JRC was very
careful to take him because of his cardiac condition. JRC wanted his
Cardiologist to check everything before allowing him to join JRC. More over
JRC's cardiologist was also involved in this process, after fully understanding
the situation he was permitted for admission to JRC.
JRC did not put my son on aversive treatment right away.
They studied his behavior and then they put him on this treatment. After that we
have noticed a great difference in his behavior. He is not dangerous to himself
and to others any more, he listens and follows instructions and his life is back
on the track. Me and my wife are hoping for a reasonable future for him now. He
is 11 years old, very soon he will be 12 and soon after that he will be 18. We
are very concerned about him about his future and the days when we will not be
around. We desperately want him to be able to have some independence and lead a
productive life and JRC has given us hope that this will be a possibility.
JRC has improved the quality of life for our son as well as
the other students at JRC. This wonderful and fruitful education program and
they have saved our son’s and other’s lives.
Thanks,
Parents of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York) My
fourteen year old son is diagnosed with Autism and Mental Retardation and has
always been educated in the New York City Public School System.
Approximately two years ago, my son’s local school started having difficulty
educating him in the public school system. As a result, his case was brought
before the local Committee on Special Education. At the time, that committee
recommended that my son be placed in an approved private residential program
appropriate for his learning disability. The New York City Department of
Education sent referral packets to eight well known As a
result of the fact that the local school district was unable to provide my son
with an education and there are no schools within the state of It was not
until I learned of the Since his
admission to JRC, my son has made wonderful progress and is attending school
every day. They have been able to reduce a large amount of the very dangerous
medication that he was on and he is finally receiving an education. My son is a
very large and strong young man and while he continues to display some
problematic behaviors, I do not fear for his safety. The staff members at the
There
continues to be no other program, either in or outside of the state of Sincerely,
Mother of a JRC Student
|
|
(New York)
I have known a student who attends the |