Meanwhile in Massachusetts: School Wins Court Battle to Use Electric Shock Devices on Students, That’s One Way to Teach Math

Photo: Simon McGill (Getty Images)

If you’re anything like us, you’re young enough that you never attended a school where corporal punishment was used. You never had an elderly teacher wack you in the knuckles for swearing in class. You probably simply got detention for dropping an F-bomb during social studies. You definitely never had an electric shock device used to punish you. That seems like something used as a punishment decades ago, right? Well, apparently not. That’s because a Massachusetts school just won a court battle to allow it. Yes, really.

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Massachusetts is allowed to use electric shock devices on aggressive and self-harming students again. This is even though the FDA banned the use of these devices in 2020. By a vote of 2-1, that ruling was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

While we can’t fathom how this could possibly be a good thing, apparently parents and guardians of the students are completely on board with this as the school is for emotionally disturbed students. There are around 300 students at the facility and 55 receive the “Graduated Electronic Decelerator shock devices”.

They’re worn 24 hours per day and give the wearing a strong shock when triggered. This is the only school in the US that uses this form of treatment and since we’re not experts we won’t comment on its validity. We just know we’re glad the only form of correction or punishment we got was a two-hour detention after school.

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