Panel to take up controversy over aversive therapy

BOSTON -- A legislative committee will examine the use of electric shock treatments on students at a controversial special education school.

Wednesday's hearing follows a state investigation into an incident last summer at a group home in Stoughton run by the Judge Rotenberg Education Center. Two emotionally disturbed students were wrongly given dozens of shocks after a prank call from a person posing as a supervisor.

The Committee on Children, Families and Individuals with Disabilities is considering a bill that would prohibit aversive therapy and another that would restrict its use.

Psychologists and former Rotenberg employees are among those expected to testify in favor of the legislation. But some parents are scheduled to testify about what they say are the benefits of the therapy.

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