Please push for the Keeping All Students Safe Act. This bill would ban restraint and seclusion, two life-threatening practices that disproportionately impact students with disabilities and students of color.
Please include an amendment in the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) that would expand the bill’s prohibitions to include aversive interventions and pass this Act. The FDA previously banned the use of the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) only in relation to behavior, which has just been overturned by the D.C. Circuit Court. The GED devices need to be outright banned as they serve no purpose other than to provide pain and torture to the person receiving it.
The Judge Rotenberg Center tortures autistic people, people with intellectual disabilities, and people with mental illnesses with this shock device. They currently use the GED-3a and GED-4 devices. This GED-4 device gives out up to 90 mA current, nearly up to 3 times over the maximum current limit of the FDA. The GED-3a and GED-4 devices are not approved by the FDA and never have been.
The GED devices accidentally discharge, staff accidentally shock the wrong student, and the students are forced to wear these devices 24/7, including while bathing or showering, which has caused 2nd-degree burns due to malfunctioning in water.
The GED is abusive. Shocking autistic people and people with intellectual disabilities for not taking their coat off fast enough is abusive. This device should not be considered a medical device or a “treatment” in any way. This device is torture.
