Bill H.123, An Act regarding the use of aversive therapy
would prohibit the use of procedures which cause physical pain or deny a reasonable humane existence to persons with disabilities.
We just received word a hearing has been scheduled on 09/24/2019 from 10:00 AM-01:00 PM at the Statehouse in B-1.
If you would like to give testimony at the hearing, or share your story, tip us off here:
More efforts are happening to stop the use of aversives in Massachusetts. See the information below we received from our partners about efforts to get aversives on the ballet in 2020.
Read on if you believe using electric shock and other painful procedures as therapy is wrong.
Two petitions have just been certified by the Massachusetts attorney general to potentially be up for a vote by Massachusetts voters. These petitions, if approved would eliminate the use of aversives such as those used at the Judge Rotenberg Center. The first, ‘Petition G’, would prohibit any state-approved facilities from. using pain or deprivation to modify the behavior of persons with disabilities. The second, ‘Petition H’, would make administering painful electric shock to a person with a disability for the purpose of behavioral intervention is a crime with a potential penalty of up to five years in state prison.
Each petition needs to be endorsed by 80,239 registered Massachusetts voters by this November 20th — time is short. The organizers of the petition need people who are from Massachusetts (or who are able to go to Massachusetts) to volunteer to collect signatures on forms we will provide. The organizers will collect your signed forms and submit them to town clerks by November 20, 2019. No more than 25% of the signatures can be from any one county so we need volunteers from across Massachusetts. The town clerks review the signatures to make sure they are valid and that each person who signed is a registered Massachusetts voter. Then the forms are submitted to the Secretary of State by December 4, 2019. Provided that at least 80,239 valid signatures have been submitted, the state legislature has until May 2020 to act on the proposed laws. If the legislature does not enact them, it takes 13,374 additional signatures to put the proposals before the voters in November of 2020.
100,000 signatures in less than 3 months are needed to allow for signatures that may not be validated. The organizers of the petition plan to send blank forms by email in the next week or two to anyone who can help get signatures. They need original signature forms mailed back by mid-November (we need originals to they can’t be scanned/emailed).
It doesn’t matter if you think you can collect 10 or 5,000 signatures — we have the power to make this horrific practice a thing of the past and every signature gets us closer to the goal. If you think you can go to populated places (sporting events, festivals, concerts, conferences, shopping centers) or even door-to-door to collect signatures, click on the link below to provide your contact info. The organizers of the petition will send you instructions and the forms to be printed and completed.