Andre mccollins was eighteen years old in 2002 when he was a student at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts. Like many of the students at the center, a residential institution for people with disabilities, Andre is autistic and has other mental disabilities. One day in October 2002, a staff member told McCollins to take off his jacket. He said no. That was direct defiance and disobedience to directions from staff. The Judge Rotenberg Center staff then pressed a button on a remote control connected to a powerful electric shock device that McCollins, like dozens of the center’s students, was required to wear. McCollins screamed and dove under the nearest table in a futile effort to hide from staff members who were already clambering around chairs to grab his arms and legs. They hauled him from under the table, physically pinning him as they strapped him facedown into...
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Fall 2014
Research Article|
November 01 2014
The Crisis of Disability Is Violence: Ableism, Torture, and Murder
LYDIA BROWN
LYDIA BROWN
Author Information
lydia brown, president of the Washington Metro Disabled Students Collective, is an activist focusing on violence against multiply marginalized disabled people. Lydia previously worked for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and was the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Patricia Morrissey Disability Policy Fellow.
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Tikkun (2014) 29 (4): 31–32.
Citation
LYDIA BROWN; The Crisis of Disability Is Violence: Ableism, Torture, and Murder. Tikkun 1 November 2014; 29 (4): 31–32. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/08879982-2810074
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