On 6/9/2011 12:49 AM, Dennis Erlich wrote:
> John Dorsay<restimula
...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The entrenched
>>authorities do *not* want to confront the issues she raises, because
>>they have long been complicit in the abuse she is exposing.
> That may very well be true, John. But remember, restraining
> out-of-control children (or people in society for that matter) is as
> old as humans. If practitioners consider it a "treatment" rather than
> a temporary solution to a potentially destructive person, that's a bit
> strange to me. But it still could make sense.
Strange to me too. But it is also true. It's how Matthew Israel
started out. From the article I linked to in a previous post:
"On July 17, 1981, at BRI's sister school in Northridge, California,
staffers restrained 14-year-old Danny Aswad face-down on his bed.
Aswad died in that position. The autopsy report concluded that he
died of natural causes, but the state of California placed the
school on a two-year probation anyway. In 1982, the state's
Department of Social Services filed a 63-page legal complaint
alleging abuse at the school. The complaint claimed, among other
things, that BRI withheld meals; showed staff how to hide students'
injuries from regulatory agencies; and, strangely, encouraged
students to act out for a film crew, the footage to be used later to
demonstrate how the children had behaved before BRI. Later that year
the state reached a settlement with BRI in California. The school
couldn't use anything more punishing than a water spray. The state
also forbade Israel—who says he'd turned over control of the campus
before Aswad's death—from stepping foot on the Northridge property.
But this, too, was not the worst of it."
It gets *much* worse. I think this article should be required
reading for anyone who thinks Monica's criticisms are out of line.
Be forewarned. It's long. And it's scary. And it's depressing. And
it's true. http://tinyurl.com/65alj4t
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/scripts/print/article.php?asset_idx=231327
John
