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Human Rights Groups Calls on School to Stop Shocking Kids

a woman teacher offers a reward to a female student strapped with an electric device during a class

Teacher Lauren Talbot (center) offers a reward to a student strapped with an electric device during a class at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. (Steven Senne/AP)

By Brian Freeman | Tuesday, 18 December 2018 03:18 PM EST

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called for an immediate ban on the controversial use of electric shocks on severely disabled children at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

The school is believed to be the only one worldwide that regularly gives high-powered electric shocks as a form of punishment to vulnerable children and adults.

Forty-seven of the school's students are currently subjected to the punishment, in which individuals are zapped with electric currents more powerful than those from stun guns.

Disability rights activists have tried for decades to stop the practice, but the school has so far been successful in deflecting opposition, claiming electric shocks are a proper technique to discourage what the institute calls harmful behavior.

The IACHR issued a resolution determining the practice poses a "serious impact on the rights" of the children, "particularly on their right to personal integrity which may be subjected to a form of torture."

The school said the resolution was based on inaccurate information, insisting "No one from the JRC or the families of clients whose lives have been saved by the treatment were interviewed, and there has been no response to multiple invitations to visit the school."

The resolution gives the Trump administration 15 days to impose a ban on the practice. Although the demand is non-binding, the U.S. would be open to international condemnation for refusing to comply.

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