CSS – Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
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Archived: 2026-04-23 17:25
CSS – Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
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Information About The Use Of
Contingent Skin Shock For Severe Problem Behavior
THEN
Staff scream for help as Jane sheds her protective helmet, throws her iPad, and sinks her teeth into well-formed hand callous (from a decade of biting) drawing blood. Jane moves towards a wall and ruptures the spleen of an approaching staff with a kick. Now against the wall, Jane bends over and throws her head backwards disintegrating drywall not bolstered by 2 x 4’s. Six men sweat, strain, and struggle to contain Jane (now supine on a mat: aka emergency restraint) as she bites, scratches, and screams for an hour. This isn’t a bad day, this is every day….an inevitability unchanged by drugs, love, 15 years of treatment; and yes, unchanged by state-of-the-art function based behavioral treatments.
Jane’s behavior problem required her to leave her home at age 11. By 16, forty residential programs rejected her, dozens of experts evaluated her, and hundreds of staff restrained her thousands of times. The result? Jane is left wearing a helmet 24 hours per day. An attendant hovers over her all night, when she is in the bathroom, and anywhere else she goes to stop Jane from self-inflicted blindness, brain injury, fracture, laceration, or other injury. Jane does not go home. Jane rarely goes into the community. Jane’s development is arrested by her intractable behavior disorder.
NOW
Once per month on average, Jane raises her unblemished hand to her mouth to bite. A highly trained and experienced staff member skillfully opens a plastic box and presses a button causing 2 seconds of safe electrical current (one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand) to pass between two nodes of an electrode. Jane stops biting, puts her hand down, and returns to the task presented to her. Yesterday, Jane went the mall and ate at a restaurant. This weekend, Jane is vacationing in Vermont with her family. She is never restrained. She is never injured and never injures. The terrible, pernicious, and pervasive behavior problem that dominated her life is in remission.
FDA Line by Line Illustration of False FDA Statements
Medical and Engineering Reports
Bruner Evaluation 1994
Durffy Report
Miner Eval 2009 with CV
Understanding the Electrical Parameters of the GED
Quick Reference
Bruner Evaluation 1994
Research Literature
Risk Benefit Analysis of Antipsychotic Medication and Contingent Skin Shock
Contingent Skin Shock
Evaluation of Electric Aversion Therapy for Inappropriate Sexual Behavior After TBI
Response Patterns for Individuals Receiving Contingent Shock Aversion Intervention
Bibliography
Elimination of Refractory Aggression and Self-Injury with Contingent Skin-Shock
Contingent Electric Skin Shock: An Empirical or Ideological Issue?
Responses to Controversies and Statements
MDRI Report Response
Response to Massachusetts ABA Position Statement
Safeguards for Aversives
JRC Policy – Safeguards for the Use of Aversives
Skip to content
Information About The Use Of
Contingent Skin Shock For Severe Problem Behavior
THEN
Staff scream for help as Jane sheds her protective helmet, throws her iPad, and sinks her teeth into well-formed hand callous (from a decade of biting) drawing blood. Jane moves towards a wall and ruptures the spleen of an approaching staff with a kick. Now against the wall, Jane bends over and throws her head backwards disintegrating drywall not bolstered by 2 x 4’s. Six men sweat, strain, and struggle to contain Jane (now supine on a mat: aka emergency restraint) as she bites, scratches, and screams for an hour. This isn’t a bad day, this is every day….an inevitability unchanged by drugs, love, 15 years of treatment; and yes, unchanged by state-of-the-art function based behavioral treatments.
Jane’s behavior problem required her to leave her home at age 11. By 16, forty residential programs rejected her, dozens of experts evaluated her, and hundreds of staff restrained her thousands of times. The result? Jane is left wearing a helmet 24 hours per day. An attendant hovers over her all night, when she is in the bathroom, and anywhere else she goes to stop Jane from self-inflicted blindness, brain injury, fracture, laceration, or other injury. Jane does not go home. Jane rarely goes into the community. Jane’s development is arrested by her intractable behavior disorder.
NOW
Once per month on average, Jane raises her unblemished hand to her mouth to bite. A highly trained and experienced staff member skillfully opens a plastic box and presses a button causing 2 seconds of safe electrical current (one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand) to pass between two nodes of an electrode. Jane stops biting, puts her hand down, and returns to the task presented to her. Yesterday, Jane went the mall and ate at a restaurant. This weekend, Jane is vacationing in Vermont with her family. She is never restrained. She is never injured and never injures. The terrible, pernicious, and pervasive behavior problem that dominated her life is in remission.
FDA Line by Line Illustration of False FDA Statements
Medical and Engineering Reports
Bruner Evaluation 1994
Durffy Report
Miner Eval 2009 with CV
Understanding the Electrical Parameters of the GED
Quick Reference
Bruner Evaluation 1994
Research Literature
Risk Benefit Analysis of Antipsychotic Medication and Contingent Skin Shock
Contingent Skin Shock
Evaluation of Electric Aversion Therapy for Inappropriate Sexual Behavior After TBI
Response Patterns for Individuals Receiving Contingent Shock Aversion Intervention
Bibliography
Elimination of Refractory Aggression and Self-Injury with Contingent Skin-Shock
Contingent Electric Skin Shock: An Empirical or Ideological Issue?
Responses to Controversies and Statements
MDRI Report Response
Response to Massachusetts ABA Position Statement
Safeguards for Aversives
JRC Policy – Safeguards for the Use of Aversives