School Shocks Students with Disabilities. The FDA Is Moving to Ban the Practice
January 23, 2019
By: Jenifer McKim
Source: NPR
Luigi Disisto is a 47-year-old man who has autism and lives at a private special education center based in suburban Boston best known for being the only school in the country that shocks its students with disabilities to control their behavior.
Disisto wears a backpack equipped with a battery and wires that are attached to his body to deliver a two-second shock if he misbehaves.
The controversial practice at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has pitted family members, who swear it has been the only way to control their loved ones, against critics who call it torture.
The privately operated, taxpayer-funded school caters to 270 adult and minor students from across the country, many who struggle with profound disorders causing severe aggressive and self-injurious behavior, such as repeated head banging and biting off their own body parts.