The recently opened Department of Justice investigation on the Judge Rotenberg Center is being noticed by the media.
Mother Jones has a piece, ‘School of Shock’ Under Federal Investigation, which references their 2007 article, School of Shock.
From the recent piece in Mother Jones:
“The initial response of the Department of Justice was that they didn’t believe that they could take action because they didn’t believe they had jurisdiction over privately operated facilities,” wrote Nancy Weiss of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. “I suggested to them that they consider jurisdiction under the ADA on the basis that people with disabilities are being treated in ways that are neither legal nor would be tolerated if applied to people who do not have disabilities.” Weiss reported that the DOJ couldn’t give her an estimate on how long their investigation would take.
US opens Canton school inquiry
Shock discipline at Rotenberg center prompts concern
From that article:
Renee Wohlenhaus, deputy chief of the Disability Rights Section of the Justice Department, said in a letter last week that her agency would look into whether the Rotenberg Center violates the nation’s laws on the fair treatment of the disabled. She did not respond to a request for an interview.
While Wohlenhaus’s letter referred to the inquiry as a routine investigation, federal officials and disability advocates say the investigation is significant because the agency does not choose to probe all complaints they receive.
Nancy Weiss, director of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities and the author of the letter on behalf of the disability groups, said her conversations with Justice Department officials lead her to believe that their probe will be far from “perfunctory.’’
I’ll point out that Kev can be counted amongst the many bloggers who have discussed the JRC in the past. His piece, Judge Rotenberg Center has more comments than I can recall for any piece on this blog.
Addenda: Add UPI with Feds probe school’s shock treatments
and the Boston Herald: Feds probe special needs school
And the Washington Post: Feds probe Mass. special needs school
And FoxNews Boston: Feds Probe Massachusetts Special Needs School That Used Shock Therapy
Left Brain Right Brain 
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