Thursday, December 20, 2007

Shocking story out of Massachusetts

This from ABC News: Steven Senne/AP Photo.

An apparent prank phone call to a Massachusetts special-needs school led to at least two students unnecessarily receiving electric shock therapy treatment, according to a spokesman for the school.

"This [incident] happened, we reported it and we've taken steps necessary so that this doesn't happen again," said Ernest Corrigan, spokesman for the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, where the shock therapy was mistakenly administered. "This was not a normal day at Judge Rotenberg."

The prankster, believed to be a former student of the Canton, Mass., school, reportedly posed as a member of the administration and phoned in instructions for shock therapy on Aug. 26, according to a report by the Department of Early Education and Care, the organization that licenses the residential program at the school and is conducting the investigation.

Unaware that the phone call was a prank, school officials delivered 77 shocks to one student and 29 to another, according to the report.

Both victims, males under the age of 22, were seen by medical professionals after the incident and later cleared, according to the school. Only one of the students has remained at the insitution since. The names of the victims have not been released.

"I think it's fair to say that [giving someone] 77 shocks is unusual," said Corrigan. "It is excessive to what is normal protocol. Giving 22 shocks is also excessive." ...

Related Story: School of Shock

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