Dignity and Privacy Compromised
Too many stories in which autistic individuals’ safety has been severely compromised—and their dignity, and privacy—have been circulating. Violations continue to occur at the Fairfield Center in Ohio, where Joseph Beaudoin was killed by his roommate on Feburary 21st.
And, in Hollywood, Florida, 20-year-old Emanuel Martinez is accused of sexually assaulting his autistic client, as reported in today’s Local10.com. Martinez was employed as a companion for the 21-year-old autistic man who has little speech but can type on a computer. The autistic man was able to write to tell his mother that he had been assaulted.
And if that’s not enough, New York State has issued its Report on the Judge Rothenburg Educational Center, which notes that such “punishment techniques” as “movement limitation (i.e. mechanical and physical restraint), contingent food, helmet, and electric skin shock” are used. Electric skin shock is used for behaviors that are not “aggressive, health dangerous or destructive.”
Among the report’s findings is that
The privacy and dignity of students is compromised in the course of JRC’s program implementation.
I would add that the privacy and dignity of Joseph Beaudoin and of the young autistic man in Florida and of how many other individuals has been severely, terribly compromised. What kind of a society are we, that we treat those in need, the disabled, the young, this way?
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