Rotenberg Shock Tapes Destroyed

Rotenberg Shock Tapes Destroyed

The spokesman for the Rotenberg School said "There is no
obligation to hold on to these tapes for any length of time."
(Patricia Wen, "Report says shock tapes destroyed against order,"
Boston Globe, January 18, 2008) Oh?
Would that be a psychological obligation, a public relations
obligation or a legal obligation? Few psychiatrists or psychologists
(or PR flacks) know the laws that protect vulnerable persons. They
violate the laws with no curbs from law enforcement due to
institutionalized discrimination among police agencies. Psychologists
operate in a world without the US Constitution and without state laws.
They believe they are superior beings with superior knowledge of right
and wrong conduct, thoughts and speech. They determine what is proper
behavior. They ignore laws because they believe they are above the
laws.
Here is an opportunity for the state to teach these arrogant
professionals who abuse vulnerable students because of their unchecked
power. It is long over due for the state authorities to exercise their
lawful authority to curb these institutionalized abuses. Obstruction
of justice is a crime.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Report says shock tapes destroyed against order
By Patricia Wen
Boston Globe Staff
January 18, 2008

Top officials at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center destroyed
videotapes at the focus of an investigation into alleged abuse at one
of its group homes after being ordered by state investigators to
preserve the tapes, according to a report obtained by the Globe.

The tapes, a compilation of footage from video cameras inside the
group home in Stoughton, recorded an August 2007 incident in which
staff wrongfully administered dozens of shocks to two emotionally
disturbed teenagers, after a caller posing as a supervisor professed
to be delivering orders from the school's director and a chief aide.
One student received 77 shocks, the other 29.

An investigator with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, which
examines abuse allegations and can refer cases for criminal
prosecution, viewed the tapes as part of her inquiry and asked
Rotenberg officials if she could have a copy of them, according to the
commission's report on the incident. School officials declined, saying
that the school "did not want any possibility of the images getting
into the media," according to the report, which was obtained by the
Globe.

The investigator then directed the school to preserve a copy of the
tapes for use by State Police conducting a criminal investigation. She
was later told by a trooper, who apparently attempted to view them
that "the images were not preserved by JRC."

Matthew Israel, founder and director of the school, did not return a
phone call yesterday to discuss the tapes, but a school spokesman,
Ernest Corrigan, said that school officials did not want to keep the
tapes out of fear they would end up in the hands of the media or on
the Internet, further upsetting the lives of the two victims in the
Aug. 26 incident. He said investigators from the commission held an
"exit interview" on Sept. 30 with school staff, leading them to
believe there was no more need to keep the tapes.

In an interview with the Globe earlier this week, Israel said the
tapes had been reviewed by several investigators soon after the August
incident and were not preserved because the investigation "seemed to
be finished."

He said the school normally keeps its recordings for about 30 days and
then reuses the tapes.

Israel gave a similar explanation at the State House on Wednesday when
asked about the tapes at a public hearing on a bill to restrict shock
treatments at the school.

However, he did not mention being asked by state investigators to
preserve the tapes.

The destruction of the tapes has led some critics of the school, the
only one in the nation that uses shock treatments for special
education students, to call for an investigation into whether Israel
or his staff engaged in obstruction of justice.

"I believe the tape was intentionally destroyed because it was
incriminating," said Senator Brian A. Joyce, a Democrat from Milton,
who has long sought to ban shock therapy at the school. "I intend to
ask the attorney general to investigate."

Lawyers with experience in state and federal prosecutions say that
obstruction-of-justice investigations can be complex, but that they
center largely on why a piece of evidence was destroyed.

"Any investigation would want to look into intent very closely," said
Michael Ricciuti, a former prosecutor now in private practice in
Boston.

The disclosure about the tapes occurs as the Disabled Persons
Protection Commission is preparing for a public release of its
findings Tuesday.

Its report concludes that one of the teenage students was severely
physically and emotionally abused by the incident. The commission has
referred the case to the Norfolk district attorney's office.

The Rotenberg school has more than 200 students, most of whom are
mentally retarded, autistic, or emotionally disturbed. It has about
900 staff members.

Started by Israel in 1971, the residential school has attracted
nationwide controversy for its unorthodox behavioral-modification
techniques, which include the administration of two-second skin shocks
as a way to deter violent or disruptive behavior.

Critics say that such shocks are often given for relatively minor
infractions, such as swearing or leaving a seat without permission.

After failing twice in the past two decades to close the school,
opponents have embraced a bill pending in the Legislature that would
allow shocks only to stop students from hurting themselves or others.

Leo Sarkissian - executive director of The Arc of Massachusetts, a
grass-roots organization representing people with intellectual
disabilities - said he was outraged to learn that investigators no
longer have the tapes, saying the destruction of the recordings shows
"a lack of integrity" by Israel and his staff.

But Corrigan, spokesman for the school, said such assertions are
unfair, adding that school officials voluntarily set up video cameras
to monitor the staff and student performance.

"There is no obligation to hold on to these tapes for any length of
time," he said.

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.