Shocking video of school torturing disabled student released

On Tuesday, a video showing Andre McCollins, a disabled student, being shocked at JREC was shown in court . He was shocked 31 times over a seven hour period in a single day for refusing to take off his coat. He is described as being "catatonic" on a visit three days later with his mother Cheryl who is suing.

The video, from a classroom camera, had been sealed eight years ago.

A description of the video can be found at MyFox/Boston and follows.

Andre is shown seated at a desk inside a classroom as a staff member asks him several times to remove his coat. He stays still, apparently not responding or removing his coat, until he is given a shock.

He screams and falls to the floor, yelling as he tries to hide under his desk. He was eventually restrained face-down, a helmet on his head, without breaks for food, water or the bathroom.

The video below is graphic and should only be viewed with that in mind.

Graphic video of teen being restrained, shocked played in court: MyFoxBOSTON.com

Further testimony taken yesterday included an expert who stated that the shock treatments harmed the autistic teen.

Rehab beating in Serbia caught on video

An institutionalized patient in a rehab facility in Serbia was beaten by staff. The beatings, which occur regularly as part of so-called treatment at the rehab, include the use of fists, paddles, shovels and other objects.

“In the yard, they gather the addicts in a circle to watch the ‘bad one’ get beaten. They hit him with clubs, shovels, fists, bars, belts, whatever they get their hands on,” the former patient stated.

According to him, Archpriest Peranović himself “knows how to hit, his hands are often bloody”.

“When he hits, using his arms and legs, his robe flies all over the place. He practices martial arts,” the man told Vreme.

The video below shows a young man being beaten with a shovel as he lays over a bench. A staff member then punches him around. The young man is then hit in the face with a staff member's fists while another staff member restrains him.

The rehab, which was originally blessed by Archbishop Peranovic of the Serbian Orothodox Church, has "spiraled out of control" and he "gave up on the center", the article claims.

Human rights monitor Sasa Jankovic plans to file charges against the rehab facility.

An investigaion by Serbian authorities continues.




CAUTION: VIOLENCE

Domestic abuse and women with disabilities posters

Women's Aid has posters up featuring women with disabilities and domestic abuse issues. They address situations that can and do occur in situations where a spouse who is a caregiver abuses or neglects a woman with a disability, such as people thinking he is a saint for taking care of them and "are reluctant to criticize" or "think he could be doing these terrible things". Another poster addresses a husband taking a woman's money or failing to give her medication.

You can view the posters at the above link.

GAO reports children with disabilities being restrained, confined against will

In a report issued today by the Government Accountability Office, some schools are said to be restraining and confining children with disabilities against their will to control their behavior as a form of intervention. They report hundreds of allegations of abuse over the past ten years, sometimes resulting in injury or death. Texas and California public schools recorded a combined 33,095 instances in the past school year alone, USA Today reports.

In one case, a New York school confined a 9-year-old with learning disabilities to a "small, dirty room" 75 times in six months for whistling, slouching and hand-waving. In another, a Florida teacher's aide gagged and duct-taped five misbehaving children to their desks; and police say a 14-year-old boy died when a special-education teacher in Texas lay on top of the student when he would not stay seated. Police ruled it a homicide, but a grand jury rejected criminal charges. via USAToday.com

Training is only required in seven out of the fifty states for use of these methods by teachers. No federal regulations are in place, including any requirement to report deaths ensuing from these practices, according to testimony by a GAO official, who has found at least 20 deaths have occurred.

Yet, in cases involving nonverbal children, parents often have no way to know what took place at school.

Bill East, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, says the techniques, if used properly, "can and should be used" in a few instances, such as when a student is a threat to himself or others.

Congressional hearings are being held today after the Disability Rights Network, a Washington DC advocacy group, canvassed states and found instances of injury and death. In his opening remarks, Rep. Miller, who asked for the report stated:

"Recent news reports document appalling stories of teachers tying children to chairs, taping their mouths shut, using handcuffs, denying them food, fracturing bones, locking them in small dark spaces, and sitting on them until they turn blue.

One might start to wonder what could possibly cause a teacher or classroom aide to abuse a child this way. Well, we know what these children did: They fidgeted in their chairs or they were unwilling to follow directions."

Related: Restraint can dispirit and hurt special-ed students

GAO Report:Special needs kids abused in schools

Press release from Wisconsin about PBIS as alternative to restraint and seclusion

Video showing images of injuries to children and seclusion rooms used in various states.

3 arrested in nursing home deaths in California

The L.A. Times reports that

In an elder abuse case described by one investigator as the most outrageous he has ever seen, three former top managers at a Kern County nursing home have been arrested in the deaths of three residents who allegedly were given needless doses of psychotropic medications.

The state attorney general's office contended in a criminal complaint that more than 20 residents at a skilled nursing center run by the Kern Valley Healthcare District were drugged "for staff convenience."
...
The complaint paints a bleak picture of a facility dominated by nursing director Hughes, 55, who is accused of seeking to drug all but the most docile residents. Medical director Pormir, 48, allegedly rubber-stamped Hughes' orders for medication, failed to examine patients and was "either willfully or naively ignorant" of his proper role, according to the complaint. Pharmacist Hayes, 51, told investigators that she went along because Hughes had wide experience in psychiatric hospitals, the complaint says.

According to the article, medication was ordered for residents who "glared at" former nursing director Hughes or "spoke disrespectfully".

Autistic resident of LI group home beaten

Just turned on CNN's Nancy Grace show and Lawrence Carter-Long, a disability advocate, is on her panel discussing this case. Hidden cameras caught several caregivers beating a 50 year old resident with objects including a shoe and a wooden coat hanger.

"The helpless 50-year-old victim was battered repeatedly at the PLUS Group Home Inc. by at least four employees after one of their co-workers alerted police to possible mistreatment of the residents inside the Uniondale facility, police said.
...
According to police, there were four separate assaults.
In the first incident, one of the suspects still at large was captured striking the victim in the head with her hand several times on Aug. 9. Three days later, the second wanted suspect kicked the woman in her buttocks, smashed her in the head with a wooden coat hanger and then threw the hanger at the woman's head.
That same day, health care aide Gedeon used a shoe to batter the victim, hitting her in the head. Djhon-Felix, another aide, used a handful of the woman's hair to shake her back and forth during the last incident Thursday.
Authorities said the victim can not speak or convey emotions or pain because of her disease, which is characterized by impaired social interaction."

I've linked to the article above from Newsday.

Film Review : Touching Wild Horses

I rented this film from Netflix. It's a 2002 movie starring Jane Seymour, who plays a prickly woman (Fiona) living alone on an island off Nova Scotia studying wild horses. When her brother in law and niece are killed in a car accident and her sister left in a coma, she reluctantly takes in her nephew Mark who is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder -both from the accident and also from abuse. It becomes clear as the movie progresses that Fiona is hiding her own secret from a hidden past.

The movie sensitively portrays the characters' influence on each other and the emotional healing of the young boy as Fiona helps him regain not only his self esteem but provides him with safety and structure. It contains beautiful footage of the wild horses, the acting is superb and, although the screenplay wasn't as good as the acting, it did justice to the characters, providing a realistic portrayal.

For more information about this movie, click above.

[visual description: Young Mark is shown standing next to one of the wild horses, a black foal.]

A review : L.A. Hospital dumpings

Back in October 2006, they used ambulances to dump 5 patients.

Via MSNBC

Back in the News: Hospital van dumps paraplegic

Sadly, back in the news, another "hospital dumping" in L.A., throwing a human being onto Skid Row as a hospital release. But in this case, it was a paraplegic - without a wheelchair.

A detective described what onlookers saw:

""He was sliding along on his bottom using his hands," Long said. "He had a hospital property bag in his mouth, in his teeth, and he was trailing a colostomy bag, which was malfunctioning."

He had no wheelchair or any other mobility device - a case of neglect, abuse and shameful disregard of a human being's dignity.

Via Mercurynews.com