Investigators say two employees beat, whipped and spat on a restrained patient.
article by Sean Philip Cotter for The Patriot Ledger | June 22, 2017
The state recommends that the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center take a hard look at its policies after two now-former employees were charged with assaulting a patient.
The Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission investigation into the matter substantiated the abuse claims, according to the investigation report obtained by The Patriot Ledger.
The two ex-employees are charged with striking a tied-down mentally ill man with a belt and their hands on multiple occasions, as well as spitting on him at a Randolph residence owned by the Canton-based center.
″(The Rotenberg Center) should review and revise this system to ensure the best protection for students and staff,” the report states.
No one from the center returned a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
Emil DeRiggi, the deputy executive director of the commission, said that the recommendations in the report are non-binding, but facilities generally acquiesce to them.
“They are typically followed pretty closely by whoever the recommendations are made to,” he said on Thursday.
The commission says that the main goal of any investigation the commission does is to determine if there’s further harm possible to any victims, and how further harm can be prevented.
As is normal protocol, the commission sent the completed report to the state Department of Developmental Services, which is one of the licensing agencies for the Rotenberg center.
No one from that department could be reached for comment Thursday.
The two employees charged are Mohamed Tarawally, 36, of 200 Hancock St., apartment 33, Boston, and Claude S. Guerrier, 24, of 67 Weston St., Brockton. Rotenberg suspended and then fired the two men after the allegations surfaced. They are both due to be arraigned in Norfolk County Superior Court at 2 p.m. Friday on assault charges.
Police say that Tarawally threatened, punched and hit with a belt an adult male patient. Guerrier shoved the patient, threatened him and spat on him, according to police.
Randolph police wrote in their report that video surveillance in one resident’s room in the facility at 20 Country Club Drive showed that one or the other of the men, both working the overnight shift, had committed these crimes at various times in October and November.
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has been the center of controversy for years, mostly over its use of electrical shocks on some of its patients as behavior-modification therapy. The private center, which provides various educational and behavioral services, was using skin shocks on 55 of the center’s 235 patients as of 2014.
That year, the federal Food and Drug Administration recommended that the center stop using the shocks; the FDA became involved after years of complaints from disability-rights groups and even a U.N. report that the shocks are tantamount to torture. Rotenberg has settled lawsuits in the past regarding the use of electric shocks.
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20170622/state-finds-abuse-seeks-changes-at-judge-rotenberg-center
The state recommends that the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center take a hard look at its policies after two now-former employees were charged with assaulting a patient.
The Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission investigation into the matter substantiated the abuse claims, according to the investigation report obtained by The Patriot Ledger.
The two ex-employees are charged with striking a tied-down mentally ill man with a belt and their hands on multiple occasions, as well as spitting on him at a Randolph residence owned by the Canton-based center.
“That (the two employees) acted with so little regard to (the victim’s) dignity and his behavioral program for such a period of time suggests that staff is either insufficiently trained or supported to carry out complex treatment programs for individuals with disabilities,” the commission wrote in its report.The investigators found that the two employees had been doing this from time to time for nearly a year, according to the report. The commission wrote that the length of time this went undetected was concerning.
″(The Rotenberg Center) should review and revise this system to ensure the best protection for students and staff,” the report states.
No one from the center returned a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
Emil DeRiggi, the deputy executive director of the commission, said that the recommendations in the report are non-binding, but facilities generally acquiesce to them.
“They are typically followed pretty closely by whoever the recommendations are made to,” he said on Thursday.
The commission says that the main goal of any investigation the commission does is to determine if there’s further harm possible to any victims, and how further harm can be prevented.
As is normal protocol, the commission sent the completed report to the state Department of Developmental Services, which is one of the licensing agencies for the Rotenberg center.
No one from that department could be reached for comment Thursday.
The two employees charged are Mohamed Tarawally, 36, of 200 Hancock St., apartment 33, Boston, and Claude S. Guerrier, 24, of 67 Weston St., Brockton. Rotenberg suspended and then fired the two men after the allegations surfaced. They are both due to be arraigned in Norfolk County Superior Court at 2 p.m. Friday on assault charges.
Police say that Tarawally threatened, punched and hit with a belt an adult male patient. Guerrier shoved the patient, threatened him and spat on him, according to police.
Randolph police wrote in their report that video surveillance in one resident’s room in the facility at 20 Country Club Drive showed that one or the other of the men, both working the overnight shift, had committed these crimes at various times in October and November.
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has been the center of controversy for years, mostly over its use of electrical shocks on some of its patients as behavior-modification therapy. The private center, which provides various educational and behavioral services, was using skin shocks on 55 of the center’s 235 patients as of 2014.
That year, the federal Food and Drug Administration recommended that the center stop using the shocks; the FDA became involved after years of complaints from disability-rights groups and even a U.N. report that the shocks are tantamount to torture. Rotenberg has settled lawsuits in the past regarding the use of electric shocks.
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20170622/state-finds-abuse-seeks-changes-at-judge-rotenberg-center
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