On July 7th, 2021, the D.C. Circuits overturned and overruled a ban on the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) device (case: The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center Inc v. FDA, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, No. 20-1087). This device briefly shocks the patient, causing them to reduce or cease their self-injurious behaviors.
Shock treatment has historically been used on autistic children in the name of “behavior modification.” Ole Ivar Lovaas, the founder of the autism treatment known as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), describes the situations in which he administers this treatment in a 1974 interview.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed this device’s ban in 2016 and finalized it in 2020 (USCA Case #20-1087, Document #1905079), stating that it presented several “psychological and physical risks: Depression, fear, escape and avoidance behaviors, panic, aggression, substitution of other behaviors (e.g., freezing and catatonic sit-down), worsening of underlying symptoms (e.g., increased frequency or bursts of self-injury), pain, burns, tissue damage, and errant shocks from device misapplication or failure.”
The case document goes on to say that devices such as the GED could result in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The FDA also reviewed the evidence of the devices’ effectiveness and concluded that the evidence was weak. According to the FDA, some studies showed that the devices immediately interrupt the targeted behavior, but that the evidence was inconclusive as to whether the devices “achieve[d] durable long-term reduction of [self-injurious or aggressive behaviors].” Id. at 24,387. In reaching those conclusions, the FDA reviewed the medical literature at large and data from the Center itself. Id. Based on the evidence of harm to patients, and what it regarded as weak evidence of durable effectiveness, the FDA determined that the devices presented a substantial and unreasonable risk to self-injurious and aggressive patients, justifying banning the devices for that purpose.
However, the decision that the FDA made last year based on evidence is overruled by the decision made yesterday based on a technicality lobbied by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center and a group of parents and guardians of its students (please note that it wasn’t the actual students themselves) that the FDA has no such authority to make this ban.
Stop the Shock: Supporting the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA)
The Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) (House Bill H.R. 8782) was reintroduced by Congressman Don Beyer (VA-08), Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA), and Congressman Donald McEachin (VA-04).
KASSA would make it illegal for any school to seclude children and would ban restraint practices that restrict a child’s breathing such as prone or supine restraint. The bill would also prohibit schools from physically restraining children except when necessary to protect students and staff.
Please support disabled students by getting KASSA passed! Ask your state representatives to support legislation to reduce and eliminate these harmful practices. Visit this website to get started in writing letters of support to your representatives.
