#StopTheShock call to action: We need New York residents to call your State Senators and voice support for Andre’s Law, which would prevent New York residents from being sent to the JRC! Please share this with any resident of New York and make some calls! 

Systemic ableism and racism intersect to create barriers to reproductive rights in health care, education, and the child welfare system. Learn more in our new reports, created with the National Partnership for Women & Families: nationalpartnership.org/ReproandDisability

Content note: Judge Rotenberg Center

“Children should not continue to suffer because of bureaucratic equivocation. Electric shock must end. The FDA was right.” 

The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) would end the discriminatory practice of subminimum wage, and give states and service providers the resources they need to create better employment support programs. Learn more here.

Disabled students deserve better than restraint and seclusion, and passing KASSA is an important step forward that our community wants and needs. Tell Congress to act now by contacting your members of Congress with our easy-to-use email tool.

Register now for a webinar about alternatives to guardianship for AAC users on August 19th at 3pm Eastern.

#WeActAugust is the time to let your members of Congress know you are watching as they take important steps to recognize our rights and expand our rights! Here’s how you can take action this month: https://autisticadvocacy.org/action-august/

Support community reparations for Autistic People of Color through the Autistic People of Color Fund!

“States can and should shift their services for people with disabilities away from institutions and other congregate facilities and toward more individualized services. And Congress is right to help, with greater investments in community-based support.”

This is an interesting read. Content warning for outdated diagnoses of learning disabilities and ableist language as well as discussion of eugenics and institutionalization of disabled people. One quote in particular that struck me was:

This report from the National Disability Institute examines the financial impacts of systemic inequality on Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) with disabilities.

The pinned post on this blog will direct you to action points to help fight this decision, even if you are outside the US.

STOP THE SHOCK

Please stop scrolling and please take 26 seconds to watch this video (TW: Abuse of disabled people):

(Reposted by kind permission of @/auteach on TikTok).

On July 6th, a federal court overturned an FDA ban on the use of electroshock devices on autistic people, which the United Nations recognises as torture.

This blog will be dedicated to the #StopTheShock campaign and will include survivors’ stories and action points to help fight this decision and stop the torture of autistic people.

For a current list of action points, head over to the AuTeach website. PLEASE REBLOG and spread the word, even if you are not autistic, and follow this blog for updates.

Just to clear up some misconceptions I have seen elsewhere: This is not the same as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This is a device called a graduated electronic decelerator (GED) worn on the ankle which is used to administer remote electric shocks as a form of corporal punishment.

There is a group of people who are fighting a legal battle to be allowed to shock disabled children simply for displaying traits related to their disability. And they are winning.

This is a clear violation of human rights. Hell, we don’t even use shock collars on dogs because of its cruelty, yet these people want to use this on human beings.

Stop the shock!

I’m angry that we live in a world where I actually need to say this

OH COME FUCKING ON! JEEZ! SOMETIMES I WONDER IF PEOPLE ON THE SPECTRUM ARE EVEN CONSIDERED PEOPLE TO LAW PEOPLE! I mean look at Austism speaks! Their still legally running AND THEY KILLED A KID!

No, the students at the Judge Rotenberg Center are most certainly not considered people. They are considered subhuman because they are disabled and because the vast majority of them are children of colour. They are considered as nothing more than a list of "problematic" behaviours and I cannot emphasise enough that this is not unique to the JRC, although it is an extreme place even by ABA standards.

Six students have died at the JRC. Food deprivation, physical restraint and seclusion are all commonplace there, and indeed are written directly into students' care plans.

I would strongly encourage you to seek out Jennifer Msumba's interviews, she is a survivor of the JRC and I have linked some on this blog.

It is not a place that humans should be sent to. But they are.

Register now for an event TONIGHT at 8:30EST about what the overturned GED ban means for our community and how to fight back, featuring Lydia X.Z. Brown.

If you have been impacted by the recent news stories about the Judge Rotenberg Center and their use of electric shock devices on disabled children, please consider looking into wider use of restraint and seclusion. The electric shocks are just one aspect of the abuse that goes on at the JRC, with physical restraint, food deprivation, invasion of privacy, isolation and loss of contact with family commonplace.

These practices are not limited to the JRC; restraint and seclusion are widely used in schools and residential care and are considered the norm in many places. The practice of prone restraint, which has led to the death of autistic children (including Eric Parsa, Max Benson and Corey Foster among many  others), was further normalised in Sia’s ableist movie Music earlier this year.

To find out more, please visit the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint website linked above.

Just to add to this, please also consider looking into how to support the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA), which will address issues such as seclusion and restraint of disabled students and the practice of using electric shocks on disabled children and adults at the JRC.

(Resources on KASSA and how to help to follow on the @stoptheshock blog, follow for updates!)