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If you want to help the #StopTheShock campaign and end the torture of disabled people at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, MA, this is how. If you are in the US you can now sign an open letter to US Congress by following the link below. The letter calls for an amendment to the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) which would prohibit the use of aversives on disabled students, including the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) which is the device used at the JRC to administer painful electric shocks for behaviours such as talking out of turn, stimming or even for taking too long to remove a coat.
Once you follow the link it’s as simple as sending a text to the number shown. You can also print the page with the QR code and put it up on bulletin boards to raise awareness!
If you are not living in the US there are other ways to help, see this previous post, the AuTeach website and the rest of this blog for details. Share this message far and wide, and hopefully we can make a difference to the students at the JRC. Thank you.
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 an image drawn by Jennifer Msumba, a patient at the Judge Rotenberg Centre. A literal child.
A child like Andre McCollins who was restrained on a 4 point board and shocked 31 times over seven hours. His supposed crimes that justified this abuse? Refusal to take his coat off. Then tensing up and screaming when he was shocked. He required hospitalisation for the 3rd degree burns on multiple body parts he received from the ordeal.
This is torture. The UN calls it torture. The only reason the ban is getting overturned is because of a loophole exploiting lawsuit from the Judge Rotenberg Centre. The GED was initially banned for use as a behaviour modification device. According to the lawsuit the FDA does not have the power to ban a device for a specific use so either has to ban the GED outright or let the JRC continue as they please.
Michael Israel, the founder of the JRC and inventor of the GED, has stated
“ [The GED] could be used everywhere… It could and should be used—not as a last resort, because it has no side effects. I think it should be used in the schools. Prisons have the problem that people see that as coercion. But if it works here, why shouldn’t it be used elsewhere? “
So not only does he not see disabled kids as human, he wants to torture them more globally for minor infractions so he can profit.
TheJudge Rotenberg Center is a special needs day and residential school located in Canton, Massachusetts which accepts ages 5 to adult.
They use behaviour modification to control their residents such as Applied Behaviour Analysis. But in some cases, they also use extreme and torturous forms of punishment such as prolonged restraint, food deprivation and electric shocks.
Theskin shock is not to be confused with ECT, which is done for very different reasons and also under anesthesia, so that the person doesn’t feel any pain.
No, Electric Skin Shock, also known as the Graduated Electronic Decelerator, is MEANT TO CAUSE SEVERE PAIN in order to punish undesired behaviours in actual children and adults.
This is Jennifer Msumba’s story of how she escaped the Judge Rotenberg Center. If you have 14 minutes to spare, please watch this video (or save it to come back to it when you have time).
She describes what her life was like at the JRC and what it felt like to be shocked by one of these devices. She was under court-appointed guardianship so her parents had no say in where she stayed or what therapy she underwent.
After her first escape attempt, she was secluded for two months and kept in restraints in a cold isolation room. Her home visits had already been taken away from her and if staff members heard her say anything negative about the JRC on the phone to her mom, the call would be terminated instantly.
This is what the #StopTheShock campaign is really about.
I never thought I would have to explain why this is wrong.
Disability is not a joke. I don’t care if it was “just for laughs” or “not meant to offend anyone.” It did. It’s offensive. It’s ableist. And I am sick and tired of able-bodied people claiming ableism as comedy. It is 2021. 2 0 2 1. How is this any different from making jokes about someone’s race? Or sexuality? Coming from someone who has been physically disabled SINCE BIRTH, this is unacceptable. Unless you have experienced a disability of your own, you have no right to joke about it. And even then, if you have a disability, you would know. it’s not. a fucking. joke. We are not here for your amusement. We are human beings and we deserve the same respect afforded to every other human on this planet.
So I’m gonna say it. If your “sense of humor” involves mocking a legitimate, physical condition that that person never chose to have. Unfollow me right now. Cut me out of your life. I do not care who you are to me. I am beyond angry. I will not apologize this time for being harsh. I am done. Do not call me “soft.” Do not call me “karen.” Do not claim that I “can’t take a joke.” DISABILITY. IS. NOT. A. FUCKING. JOKE. Period. End of story. Goodbye. The end. This is not an opinion. This is not a debate. This is a fact. A fact that I am devastated to have to repeat over and over because people just cannot take a hint.
Now, I only ask you to do one simple thing. Notice I did not block out her @. She has received THOUSANDS of comments condemning her actions. And she has yet to take it down or issue any kind of apology. Look it up. Report it. Report her. AND SHARE THIS POST. DO NOT JUST DROP A LIKE. REBLOG. I refuse to let this stand. I refuse to let this go. Ignoring this only sends the message that this shit is okay. It’s. Not. Fucking. Okay.
Also, like- can we normalize all types of stimming, not just flapping hands? Normalize pacing. Normalize vocal stimming. Normalize tapping your toes. Normalize singing to yourself. All stims are valid stims, and we deserve to be able to use them.
im so sick of tiktok nurses and doctors trying to mock their patients for coming in and saying their pain is at a ten but not performing the pain for them
every time ive been in the hospital near death i was simply too exhausted to perform pain for these people. it was a ten on the pain scale but they thought i was faking it for whatever reason until they got my lab tests back and realized i would need to be checked in for quite a while
like maybe you, able bodied young doctor/nurse who has never experienced chronic pain and disability cannot fathom me rolling up near death and a flat expression unable to scream and holler about my agonies but I assure you some of us are just too fucking tired to scream about something we generally live with every single day
on god wanna punch the smug off their faces.
where do these people who have never experienced the pains theyre trying to judge others rankings get off mocking how chronically ill people express themselves?
one video in particular drives me up the wall, as it is some young nurse pretending to do patient intake in the ER and he is both the patient and nurse so he asks himself
what would you rank your head pain?
and he the patient flatly without emotion is like “ten”
so skeptically he as the nurse is like “so ten is the worst pain youve ever felt, like if someone with a chainsaw cut off your arm right now how would you rank your pain knowing that”
and he as the patient flippantly is like “9.5”
and the whole ~joke~ is “yeah youre lying”
but this situation really happened to my brother, he has a brain tumor and brain swelling to where he was dying, but was in too much pain to express it in a way an intake nurse would recognize as legitimate pain, so ofc they blew him off and he did get way too close to death because of that.
not all of us express extreme pains the same.
also need i fucking remind anyone, head pain and head injuries specifically can alter how you express your emotions and moods
theres a case of a man being literally shot in the head and he said he was in a lot of pain but everyone ignored that because he kept forgetting to act out the pain.
I have Cerebral Palsy. I walk and stand in eays that are not natural for our bones and after 28 years, that shit hurts. All the time. Its hurt my entire life, so I have a God damn HIGH pain tolerance.
Add onto that that my parents actively told me not to perform my pain. I was told that expressing or showing that I was hurting was selfish, annoying and needy. What’s the end result of that?
I get to an 8 on the pain scale and the only ways I perform that high of a pain are:
Deep breathing
Closing my eyes against it
Pinching my nose
Maybe rubbing the bones that hurt if I can reach it
I spent the last 5 or 6 years with my daily average being a 6 and I would hit an 8 at least 3 times a week.
Constantly being in that amount of pain means that you earn to mask it very well. And yeah, when I’m in terrible pain, seeing double, about to puke, my voice is flat as fuck. I turn really pale but I keep my mouth shut.
I’ve had doctors not believe my pain levels were that high regularly and all it did was make me reluctant to reach out for help managing my pain. They also refuse to believe my pain is that bad and yet I’m not taking opioid-based pain medication. I dont because I’m an addict. Same reason I dont keep a giant bottle of vodka in my house, I wont, but I also CANT. I promise if I did I’d become a raging alcoholic, just like one of my grandmothers.
My point, though, is that people are sometimes taught that they aren’t even allowed to perform pain or discomfort and fuck those doctors and nurses who mock their patients or dont believe them.
I literally had my back broken in four places as a kid and had to wait for my dad to essentially force the supervisors where I was working to take me to the hospital, because all I could do was sit and cry silently and they insisted I’d be screaming my head off if it was “that bad.”
My older brother has Downs Syndrome. He’s really good at masking his pain. Like, when he was 7 he had tonsillitis and my parents didn’t know until he passed out, because he didn’t tell them he wasn’t feeling well. We have to watch him to figure out if he’s hurting, and it scares the shit out of me that a doctor or nurse might not believe that he’s in pain because he doesn’t show it.
Would like to again point out my experience from being a firefighter/emt who has had to do triage at multi-car pile ups:
Dead people don’t scream.
The more hurt someone is, the quieter they are. People who are screaming are breathing. People running around and shouting for help have brain and motor function. It’s the person quietly sitting still on the corner who is going into shock from internal bleeding.
Also some people are just built different. I’ve had a person with a broken leg offer to limp themself to the ambulance. I had a woman complain of foot pain, apologized for calling 911 over something trivial, and when we put her on the 4 lead heart monitor she was clearly having a minor heart attack. The heart attack was presenting weird symptoms, which is not unusual for woman as they have higher pain tolerances than men. If we had assumed she was just being dramatic and skipped the ECG part of the assessment protocol she could have fucking died.
This is why when you go to the hospital every medical person who sees you keeps asking the same questions. We don’t know if the last asshat who did an assessment missed something important.
also, like, if I performed my pain according to expectations, I’d probably be shouting all day and crying all night
instead of doing literally anything useful, entertaining, or even distracting
I feel like this would start annoying my housemates fast and me faster
so like, how about I save expressions of intense pain for when it’s acute pain, something that needs immediate attention, not merely the chronic nonsense
Performing being in pain takes energy; pain itself also takes energy. At a certain point, the energy you would need to perform how much pain you’re in is deemed less important by the body than the energy needed to deal with the pain itself and/or the cause(s) of pain—or, depending on your circumstances, the basic acts of living. Medical and emergency professionals need to remember this.
So earlier today, a court ruling dismissed a regulation that would have banned a GED, a shock device used to punish autistic/disabled people’s ND behaviors. This device has caused many autistic people psychological and mental/emotional trauma and we need your help to stop this. This isn’t just activism, this is basic human rights on the line. More info below:
What you can do to help is to fill out this form below against the use of the GED or any other kind of torture device used on disabled people. As an autistic woman, I am practically begging you to take action with me. (Please note this can only be filled out by US citizens!!!!!)
“Accessible” bathroom stall at LAX. For reference, my wheelchair was easily 4 inches too wide for this door. I would have struggled with it if I were standing, too. Almost missed my flight waiting for ableds to leave the disabled stall in the bathroom proper, and learning that with my wheelchair in the stall, there was no room to stand and transfer. At all. Feet against the toilet. If you’re flying through LAX with a large mobility aid, prepare to piss on the plane. If you have a motorized chair? I genuinely don’t have an answer for you except make sure you have a longer layover than you need.
I didn’t wanna post this and trigger people (especially my black followers) bc there’s enough racist weirdos online but since this person is still floating around I wanna warn you. When I say I’ve been getting harassed and/or tagged in racist shit (I’m not black but they’ve started doing this because I said black people deserve better than their fave racist character) THIS is the worst example of what I mean. Can you all please report this disgusting troll account; I tried blocking but it didn’t initially work as it only blocked them from my main (I’ve since logged in on desktop to block them on here). I think the Applebee’s post is gone from their account bc I reported it for racism when they first tagged me in it last week but I held onto the screenshot in case this account reared its ugly head again and low and behold, it has. Tonight they’ve sent a message telling me that bringing up neurodivergency while I explain to people why I might misinterpret/have trouble understanding them through the internet is “a bit troubling” (but trolling and being a racist online isn’t??). This is obviously upsetting bc the reason I’ve done so is because I’ve felt misunderstood and wanted people to know where I was coming from, and they’re purposely trying to upset/anger/provoke me by implying I’m weaponising neurodivergency. I’m not posting this so yous get into fights or target them bc I promise that’s exactly what they want (one glance at their page will tell you that) so please just straight-up report & block them/spread the word!!!!! I’m gonna delete the app again and take another break but tbh I feel like this is the type of weirdo who’d make more accounts if one gets deleted and that makes me feel so gross and anxious about being on here. Now yous can see why I’ve refused to share my real name and/or other socials (I’ve also deleted all photo and video evidence of myself from this blog) bc there are such creepy weirdos on here and I’m glad they know as little of me as possible. Please stay safe in your interactions and/or with what you share on here (especially if you’re a minor!!!), you just never know what weirdos are keeping tabs on you
Guys, please, for yours and others safety, go block @/youra-c-u-t-iepie-y-o-u-r-s-e-lf , they’re extremely ableist and have been following random neurodivergent people just to harass them and to tell them to “ký$”. Please stay safe, and if they message you, delete the message andBLOCK THEM.
The definitive reason film Jack is so much better than stage Jack:
Film Jack: Severely defensive of Crutchy when he’s called the g- slur, beats the hell out of the Delanceys for it
Stage Jack: Straight up calls his best friend a slur without any doubt or sense of remorse
Okay so I want to add something to this as it seems like a good place to explain that Disney theatrical’s decision to allow productions leasing the script to cast Crutchie as “either a male or female,” while warranting the opportunity for genuinely and precisely everything I wanted in life growing up from the time I was small, is ableist as hell. Here’s why:
Remember when harvey fierstien said that he only so drastically changed the script in the first place because “the story has to follow the romance”? This is what theatre audiences read into and are always, consciously or unconsciously, expecting. There are a very large number of people on this website who read Jack and Crutchie’s relationship as romantic even when he was a man, and this following would only grow tenfold in front of a Disney audience if it were a man and a woman. That’s just how audiences work whether you’d like to admit it or not. Anyhow. Please keep that in mind as you read this summary of how the show would play out:
We open to hear Jack Kelly sing a duet ballad with his disabled female best friend whom he share sleeping quarters with about how one day he will run away with her and make her a better life out west
Later that same day he meets a woman who can walk and continues to make unwanted advances towards her. This is all behind Crutchie’s back.
Crutchie actively helps rally people for Jack’s strike, standing behind him no matter what, even when it means risking starving and “sleeping on the street in a worse neighbourhood.” This line has far more of an impact given the exponentially higher safety risk that would imply for a girl, especially a vulnerable one. Jack is proud and encouraging. Their relationship has not changed.
Jack continues to flirt with Katherine behind her back
Crutchie is dragged off to the refuge. Jack doesn’t even try to fight it.
The notable absence here is that Jack does not break into the refuge to save her. He simply allows this to happen, despite the fact he has broken himself out of the house of refuge in the past.
Jack sings about their dream to run off to Santa Fe. He calls Crutchie a “damn cr[*]p” and “just too damn slow.” He effectively clarifies with that that he thinks of her as broken, as not good enough. This makes it clear that Santa Fe is his dream, keeping him alive, it does not matter who he takes with him.
Crutchie writes Jack a letter about getting beaten and starved. About her plan to escape, and the fact that she needs help with it and cannot make it on her own. About how she’s only surviving on their dream to run off to Santa Fe together, and misses him. Disney wrote in their official production handbook that the line “your brother” is to be replaced with “your family”. This is clearly indicative of the fact Jack’s entire character arch is about his search for a family; clearly parallel to the fact Jack was meant to stay in New York because he found his family in Sarah; that his family has been the one by his side all along. The sheer amount of times she signs “your friend,” even in the original production, was made to sound ironic and indicative of more.
Jack still does not help her escape the refuge. He leaves her for dead. He does not even fight to avenge her. He ignores her and goes off to kiss Katherine instead.
Crutchie returns. She runs to Jack, all ready to go to Santa Fe, as she planned on doing upon escape, and now Teddy Roosevelt, after presumably speaking to Crutchie about it on the carriage ride in, which explains why he already knows about Santa Fe, has made it possible. Jack barely says a word to her, and immediately gives up on their dream of running away to Santa Fe to stay in New York City exclusively because of Katherine.
In conclusion, it very much reads as a story of Jack Kelly, giving up on his best gal because she is disabled, in favour of an able-bodied woman. I should not have to explain how despicable and disgusting that implication is. Cowboy Jack Kelly was NEVER that cruel. I rest my case.
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