Thursday, August 30, 2007

Torture school subjects children to lethal punishments...


You just have to love the State of Massachusetts!! When we live in Mass, there were over 40 registered Sex Offenders in the town. One of them was a dentist that molested patients while they were under sedation. In the town where I worked there was several "sex offender" schools way up in the hills. I kind of reminded me of Deliverance.

Now to this story.

Posted by Cory Doctorow, August 30, 2007 6:24 AM

Mother Jones has a long, chilling feature on The Judge Rotenberg Education Center, a private radical behavior-modification school based in Canton, Mass. The school is run by a rogue behaviorist who uses discredited "punishment" techniques -- electroshock -- on children as young as nine to change their personalities. Matthew Israel, the school's $400,000/year executive director, straps homemade, overpowered shock apparatus to children (including severely autistic and retarded kids) and has his staff administer strong shocks for even minor infractions. Some children have been shocked thousands of times a day, and several children have died at the school.

Eight states send troubled children to the school, where "high functioning" kids are "educated" by being sat in front of computers all day, running through automated tutorial programs. Talking, fidgeting, or acting out during this "school" time is punished with shocks. Some kids' shock apparatus misfires, shocking them without any provocation. The staff are instructed to activate the shock apparatus out of sight of the children, so that they can't mentally or physically prepare for it.

The Rotenberg process lacks any kind of scientific basis, and the school uses a 20-year-old film of its "successes" to convince parents to send their children to the program -- however, some of the success stories in the film are still institutionalized at Rotenberg 20 years after their "cure," wheelchair bound and in terrible shape.

Then, in June of 2006, a report produced by the New York State Education Department threatened to destroy the program's carefully cultivated image. A group of investigators, including three psychologists, spent five days at the Rotenberg Center and compiled a 26-page document packed with damning findings.

* Staff shock kids for "nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance" and once threatened to shock a girl who sneezed and then asked for a tissue.
* Some students must "earn" meals by not displaying certain behaviors. Otherwise they are "made to throw a predetermined caloric portion of their food into the garbage."
* When students enter and leave the school each day, "almost all" are wearing some type of restraints, such as handcuffs or leg shackles.
* "Students may be restrained"--on a four-point restraint board or chair--"for extensive periods of time (e.g. hours or intermittently for days)."
* Some students are shocked while strapped to the restraint board.
* A "majority" of employees "serving as classroom teachers" are "not certified teachers."
* Rotenberg's marketing reps bestow presents on prospective families--"e.g. a gift bag for the family, basketball for the student."
* Although the center has described its shock device as "approved" by the FDA in its promotional materials, it "has not been approved."
* The facility collects "comprehensive data" on behaviors it seeks to eliminate, but "there was no evidence of the collection of data on replacement or positive behaviors."
* The facility makes no assessment of the "possible collateral effects of punishment such as depression, anxiety, and/or social withdrawal."

This sounds on par for that draconian state that is about 50 years behind the rest of the USA due to it being a Commonwealth. As you can tell, i am not a big fan of that state and did nto like living there.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!

895/150/I95 Interchange

895 Is Pocahontas Toll Way, 150 (Chippenham Parkway) becomes 895 at the top of the bridge/overpass because they all cross over I95 North/South and The James River.

This map gives you a look at what i am talking about.




View Larger Map

South 150

It is called The Chippengham Parkway.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Another incident...


Mom pushes Applebee's on breast-feeding policy.
WANTS CHANGE IN POLICY AFTER BEING TOLD TO COVER HERSELF

I totaly agree with the manager of the resturant in asking her to cover herself.
" waitress came over and said that if she wanted to breast-feed, she had to cover the baby with a blanket. Ryan said it was so hot that she didn't have a blanket. The waitress then repeated her request. Ryan said she then asked to see the manager and handed him a copy of the 2006 Kentucky law that prohibits interference with a woman breast-feeding her baby in public.

The manager said he knew about the law but a customer had complained about indecent exposure, so she had to cover the baby with a blanket."
Now when I go out to eat, I do not want to see a woman feeding her child with her tit hanging out of her shirt. I have been in many public places and seen women feeding their children with a blanket over their baby and that is acceptable to me and I am sure most other people. This woman asked for a booth in the back and proceeded to feed with no blanket.

"Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, who sponsored the breast-feeding protection bill, agrees."She was not treated right under the new law," he said. "There should have been no comment made to her at all; the restaurant overstepped its boundaries. There's no way they can explain their way out of this."

Thirty-nine states, including Kentucky, allow women to breast-feed in any public or private location."

He is probably some dirty old man that likes this. IF you have to feed your children, go to the bathroom or use a blanket to cover yourself, not just flop it out and let the baby suck. I do not agree with the bill and think that it should have an amendment where the mother needs to use a blanket to do the feeding in a very public place like a restaurant or bus station. I do not think that just facing the wall is sufficient for such a personal and private matter especially is there were complaints like in this case.

She, in my opinion is making a spectacle of herself and this practice.

"August is World Breast-feeding Awareness Month, and Ryan has organized two related public events:• A "Nurse-In" at the children's play area at Fayette Mall from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Ryan says the mall is not a target, but has a place for kids to play.• From noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 8, she is holding a "Nurse Out" with posters and breast-feeding in front of the Applebee's on Nicholasville Road.

She's also asking for a public apology from Applebee's and training for its employees about the rights of breast-feeding mothers. Some day, she says, she would like to see the international breast-feeding symbol of a mother and child in every restaurant that supports the practice.
"I'm not trying to be provocative," she said. "I want to teach."

What is she going to teach by doing this type of exhibition in front of the restaurant? It will teach people to think that she is a news monger and a complete NUT!! That is what it would teach me But then again, this is in Kentucky.

What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!

Sugar Ghost Drinking with Paw...

This is out cat Sugar Ghost. She is a very strange cat and she will drink with her paws. She also likes baths and loves to walk in the snow!! We have had her since we lived in Colorado.

What is your opinion?

Blogroll Me!

Sugar Ghost

Drinking with paws

Ambient Massive - There Is Grace In Their Feelings

. Instruments used were: Kurzweil 2000vx Microfreak' Maschine 2 Wavestate Deepmind 12 Virus Ti2 Monotron and various VSTi synths. Releas...