Autistic individuals are being stripped of their autonomy and respect when oppressors continue to neglect their social, emotional, behavioral, and educational needs by inflicting pain upon them. Those in power are clearly not educated in why students behave in certain ways, and they may not know the methods that are used to support students rather than harm them. These educators are not fulfilling their duty to treat each student with care because rather than fighting this injustice, they allow this torture to continue.

Matthew Israel, the founder of the only school in the United States to use shock therapy, the Judge Rotenberg Center, is benefiting from this social injustice. He is garnering revenue from the school tuition and from Graduated Electronic Decelerators, which are the devices he created to shock students. Israel studied under BF Skinner, who was a famous behaviorist that attempted to change human behavior by rewarding positive behavior and discouraging negative behavior. Israel drew inspiration from his time with Skinner and developed his own behavior communes where he restricted the behavior of his residents. He then created a school for autistic children with Skinner’s reward-punishment model. Punishments included spankings with spatulas, pinches, and being doused with water.

However, Israel noticed that there was still room for “improvement”, so he created the Graduated Electronic Decelerator with 15-30 milliamps, which is a higher amperage than most stun guns. Eventually, he decided to make an even more powerful machine called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator 4 that produced an electrical charge three times higher than that of the original. The only reason that shock therapy worked was because children were controlled by the threat of punishment and abuse. They would rather not do a certain behavior in order to save themselves from harm. Some parents initially viewed this to be helpful to children because it prevented them from hurting themselves, but Israel began to abuse this system when he shocked students for minor behaviors, such as swearing. Israel benefits from the fear of children because he gains power by controlling their minds. The end clearly does not justify the mean because if pain, trauma, and torture are what it takes to help a child become better in educational, social, and behavioral situations, clearly it is not worth it.