Should Fall River pay for school that uses shock treatment? School Committee weighs options

FALL RIVER — The School Committee is weighing how to address the placement of a Fall River student at a facility that has come under fire for its treatment methods that include administering electric shocks to disabled people.

“It’s not just about finding a placement. It’s about finding a safe place,” committee member Shelli Pereira said during their Nov. 14 meeting.

The committee was discussing whether to pay for a contract the school district has with the Judge Rotenberg Center, a school and residential facility in Canton for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, severe psychiatric illnesses and serious behavioral problems.

The district’s now former Assistant Superintendent of Special Education/Student Services Michael Losche signed off on a contract with the facility to educate a high-needs special education student from Fall River Public Schools this past spring. The committee tabled discussion of whether to pay for the contract at a meeting in June, and again at their meeting in November.

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Controversial shock treatments

The Judge Rotenberg Center has been criticized for some of its treatment methods including the use of electrical stimulation devices (ESDs) on people in its care. ESDs in this context involve placing electrodes one the skin of individuals and administering electrical shocks to interrupt dangerous behavior or attempt to condition them to stop engaging in the behavior.

The Judge Rotenburg Center is the only facility in the country that still uses the devices. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration banned facilities from using ESDs as a way to address self-injurious or aggressive behavior, saying “a number of significant psychological and physical risks are associated with the use of these devices, including worsening of underlying symptoms, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, pain, burns and tissue damage.”

“In addition, many people who are exposed to these devices have intellectual or developmental disabilities that make it difficult to communicate their pain,” the agency said at the time.

Last year, a federal appeals court overturned the decision, saying the ban was not within the FDA’s authority. The FDA has filed an appeal.

Information on the Judge Rotenberg Center’s website says less than 20% of the clients there receive what they call “contingent skin shock,” that the method is currently only used on adults and that they have observed “no negative long-term adverse events” resulting from the practice.

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DCF placed a child from Fall River schools there

Superintendent of Schools Maria Pontes told the committee that the Department of Children and Families opted to place a Fall River student who is in the department’s custody at the Judge Rotenberg Center this past spring after looking at all their options and not finding any other facility that could accommodate them.

“It’s a student that has very complex, high needs,” she said. “There was pushback, there was. I know that Mr. Losche worked with (DCF) trying to find an alternative placement. And there was no other alternative placement.”

The student was placed there in May, with the district now expected to pay for one year of education there. The district currently owes the facility just over $176,000 for the student’s education and a one-to-one aide; DCF is paying for the student to live at the facility.

Kristen Farias, the district’s Interim administrator of special education, said the district has requested that DCF continue to look for an alternative placement but that, so far, the search has been futile.

“Residential placements right now are extremely limited,” she said.

Farias said DCF has requested for the district to pay for a second student from the district to be placed at the facility, but the district has so far declined to pay for that placement. That student is currently in a hospital waiting for a different residential placement as a result, she said.

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School Committee hesitant to pay the school

During the November meeting of the School Committee, committee members discussed whether they could simply not pay the bill for the contract with the Judge Rotenberg Center. Committee member Kevin Aguiar suggested they pay for just the six months of education that the student has already received and inform DCF that they would not pay beyond that.

Pereira said she opposed any students being sent to the facility but pointed out that the committee’s hands appear to be tied in terms of paying for the current one-year contract.

“I think we can all agree that place is gross; it should be closed down. But I think the way that’s going to happen is we talk to our legislature to ban this ‘treatment,’ for lack of a better word,” she said.

School Committee member Sara Rodrigues said she opposed the committee authorizing any payments to the facility. Even students who do not receive shock treatment are likely traumatized by witnessing it, she said, pointing out that students living in a residential treatment facility likely already have plenty of existing trauma.

“If people continue to fund a placement like that, it’s going to continue to operate,” she said.

The committee opted to table the discussion of paying the contract again. Mayor Coogan, who chairs the School Committee, said someone from the district should visit the school and requested a report from DCF about their efforts to find a new placement. The committee is next set to meet on Dec. 12.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River School Committee weighs paying Judge Rotenberg shock school