or maybe it's "please DO taze me?" Musings on the JRC Hearings

Score one for effective PR when Brandon Sanchez was brought in front of the committee (like an animal on exhibit at a zoo, Which was gut wrentching because, well, I know folks like Brandon,) and yeah, his behaviors were a bit disconcerning, but he was not wearing the GED system, so I figured at least the hearings were positive in that the student who led Matthew Isreal to create the GED was, for eight or so hours, not wearing a GED.

I wasn't prepared to see this and see an similar photo on the cover of the Boston Globe today. It's a compelling photo, but I feel, being there, it was compelling for a whole host of different reasons than seeing it on the front page today. It's sad that the reality as a person at the hearings, essentially, Brandon was kept out of the hearing room until his uncle decided to put him on show as if he is an exotic animal. "The hardest to treat, the GED saved his life" his uncle, a member of the legislature who has stopped previous anti-aversives legislation, said. I thought he looked scared. He walked in a sullen way, head down, like the other children described in the Mother Jones article or other published reports of the treatment at JRC.

As a person who has been labeled a "behavior problem" who "probably won't finish high school" let alone college, I felt a sense of "wow, I'm lucky I had a mother that refused to even consider a residential placement." A full decade after I got my degree in English, and Disability Studies, I'm glad JRC's "advertisements" weren't big in the Lewiston School System.

1-14-08 Blogging Against Aversives

The Massachusetts legislature is hearing 4 bills specifically against JRC, a controversial facility that uses aversive therapy to treat autism and much lesser antisocial behavior. Mother Jones wrote an amazing story. JRC may make headlines, but in schools across the country time out rooms are used far too much, ed techs are asked to do "take downs" on students, and while some states have great laws regulating their use in schools, who knows what happens in non-school settings, from the "difficult" nursing home patient, to a developmentally disabled adult who might be frustrated and unable to express his thoughts fully. It just seems that while it is necessary to prevent someone from hurting themselves or others, it is a slippery slope to where it seems physical abuse could potentially occur (in any facility! staff and people with disabilities are both in danger of getting hurt), and it's always nice to think about realistic alternatives to aversive therapies.

Here is a list of bloggers who plan in writing stuff - email uppitycrip (((at))) gmail dot com if there is any you find i may have missed.

The Furnace of Doubt

Not Dead Yet

http://stirthis.blogspot.com/ - Veralidaine

http://www.crip-power.com - Mscripchick


http://www.livejournal.com/users/trinityva/ - Trinity

http://thegimpparade.blogspot.com/ - Kay Olson

http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com - lastcrazyhorn


http://mybignoise.blogspot.com/ - Cilla

http://mommydearest1514.blogspot.com/ - Mommy~dearest


http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/ - Andrea

http://disstud.blogspot.com/2008/01/whatever-works-is-not-free-pass-for.html - Penny L. Richards

80 arrested at ADAPT Protest

80 ADAPT Disability Activists Arrested Attacking Segregation in Chicago

Chicago, IL--- More than 500 ADAPT activists from around the country
converged in Chicago September 8th-13th to take action against a
crisis in Illinois that is the poster child for a larger national
problem. The crisis is directly caused by a record of bad decisions
made by Illinois state officials, and the institutional bias built
into the way the nation’s long term care (LTC) system is funded.

Today activists made “house calls” to the American Medical
Association (AMA). Thus far, 80 have been arrested. Their demands are as
follows:

Demands are to

1. Endorse Community Choice Act and actively promote its passage (e.g.
include on AMA website and on advocacy agenda);

2. Work with ADAPT to develop an action plan to assure that people with
disabilities and seniors get REAL CHOICE in services/supports and are
able to live in most integrated setting. Provide membership with
continuing medical education programs about community-based
alternatives to institutionalization;

3. Require that AMA Board of Trustees and leadership divest
themselves of all financial interests in nursing facilities, etc.;

4. Develop AMA ethics policy that all AMA member MDs must full
disclose their financial interests in any facilities to their
patients when discussing issues, and not refer any patient to an LTC
facility in which they have any financial interest

ADAPT will assure that Gov. Blagojevich knows that his plans to
reopen a state institution for persons with developmental
disabilities and his lack of support for Money Follows the Person
legislation are actions of segregation and in violation of the U.S.
Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision. ADAPT will also challenge the
Illinois Congressional delegation to take a leadership role
nationally in eliminating the institutional bias so people with
disabilities and older Americans can live at home with dignity.

Currently, Illinois ranks 41st in the nation for providing the
community-based services that will allow disabled and older citizens
to stay in their own homes. Illinois’ long record of being in the
bottom ten states puts it among the worst when it comes to human
rights in general and disability rights in particular.

“It turns my stomach to know that my state, historically a home of
civil rights in America for people of color, is the same state that
is one of the worst civil rights performers in regard to people with
disabilities,” said Chicago native Larry Biondi, an organizer with
Chicago ADAPT

While in Chicago, ADAPT held a national housing forum that will
be attended by HUD Fair Housing Assistant Secretary Kim Kendrick, and
state and local officials. At the forum, ADAPT presented its
national housing agenda; took testimony from people across the
country who have had difficulty finding affordable, accessible,
integrated housing; and distribute information on pending
visitability legislation, and the redirection of HUD’s 811 Supportive
Housing program funds to projects that are integrated. Currently, the
811 program primarily funds segregated housing situations for people
with disabilities.

“As we have begun to make progress in getting people out of
institutions, and preventing people from being forced into
institutions, the lack of affordable, accessible, integrated housing
in typical neighborhoods has become glaringly apparent,” said Beto
Berrera, a member of Chicago ADAPT and a Chicago housing expert. “We
are hosting this national housing forum so that federal officials can
hear just how bad the situation is, and to gain their support in
working with us to right this wrong.”