Action/Next Steps

]Leaders in the Movement

• Nancy Weiss and Jan Nisbet

Nancy Weiss is a disability advocate who toured the Judge Rotenberg Center in 1992 in order to expose the torture that has occurred at the school. Now, she has started an effort to gain restitution (financial compensation) for the victims of shock therapy. This will consist of a lawsuit against the Judge Rotenberg Center and Weiss urges that the identity of these survivors will be confidential.

On October 8, 2021, Nancy Weiss and Jan Nisbet published a book about adversive therapy and the lack of action being done in Massachusetts to prevent this torture. This book is a historical study of the events that have happened in regards to the Judge Rotenberg Center throughout the past 40 years. To learn more about the book and purchase, click here.

• Lydia X.Z. Brown

Brown has created a living archive of materials relating to the Judge Rotenberg Center and adversive therapies. Brown's website is an amazing resource to use in order to become more educated on the social injustice of shock therapy towards autistic people. Click here to view their website.

• U.S. Senators

In February 2020, eight U.S. senators signed a letter to urge the FDA to ban shock devices. These Senators include Senator Patty Murray, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Chris Murphy, Senator Bob Casey Jr., Senator Tim Kaine, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator Tina Smith, and Senator Doug Jones. Once the FDA ban was overturned, the senators wrote another letter to the FDA to ask them to reconsider. However, Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren did not sign this letter.

• Jennifer Msumba

Jennifer Msumba is an autistic author, singer, and content creator who went to the Judge Rotenberg Center. Msumba has been active in educating others on her experiences through her short films, “The Fish Don’t Care When It Rains” and "Escaping the Judge Rotenberg Center." In November of 2021, she published her book Shouting at Leaves, which has helped to amplify the conversation surrounding shock therapy so that we can stop the shock.

The core of my action plan is education. I think that the biggest steps towards making change in this social injustice is by teaching others about ableism and making them aware of this issue because so few people know that shock therapy still exists. I have made an Instagram page with the username @stopthestock so that friends, family members, peers, and community members can learn more about this injustice and discover the ways that they can support the autistic community in this fight towards justice. On this Instagram, I will be posting facts about the usage of shock therapy, highlighting autistic influencers who have shared their story, and providing resources for people to use such as petitions, articles, sample letters, and more.

I also plan to host a round table conversation with shock therapy survivors in order to educate others on the experiences that these individuals have faced. I am currently still looking for participants, so if you or anyone you know is interested, please email me at madeleine.manno@fontbonneboston.org. Shock therapy is difficult for survivors to talk about, but their stories also hold so much power to them. By having one person listen to the story of a shock therapy survivor, society can become further enlightened on how prominent this issue is and just how much shock therapy and other adversive therapies traumatize autistic people.