"Shock those kids!" "Yes, SIR!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22347088/

"Seven people have been fired over electrical shocks given to two emotionally disturbed teenagers at the direction of what turned out to be a prank caller..."

As I read these words, a tiny lightbulb flickered on in the back of my mind. Haven't we all heard this somewhere before? It seems like a bad dream, or a satirical story written to ruffle feathers and stir up a few laughs at the idea that we, here in America, at the close of the year 2007, would use electric shock as a punishment. But I'm sure I've heard this before.

"The teens were awakened in the middle of the night and given the shock treatments, at times while their legs and arms were bound. One teen received 77 shocks and the other received 29. One boy was treated for two first-degree burns."

It came to me. This nightmare was played out by actors and unwitting participants in the Milgram Experiment:

"The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner."

As most anyone who's taken a psychology class or even cracked a psych text knows, 65% of participants in Milgram's originally study inflicted three 450 volt shocks on the learner, which completed the 'test,' and no subject attempted to leave or decline to administer shocks at a level below 300 volts. The study, designed to determine whether or not Eichmann and the millions who participated in the Holocaust were just following orders, rather than acting on an inner sadism, shocked the world and was repeated on different continents, with different age groups, and at different times. The results were remarkably consistent.

Back to the group home:

"The center is believed to be the only school in the United States that uses two-second skin-shock punishments to change destructive behavior. The center says the treatments are used in a minority of cases and only with parental, medical, psychiatric and court approval.
The center has survived two attempts by the state to close it over allegations that its unorthodox methods amount to abuse."

School? Center? Call it what it is- a prison, an institution, a horror movie set. A school is a place of learning. A facility that shocks a teenager 77 times for misbehavior alleged by an authority figure whose identity was not verified by the "trained" staff members is not a place of learning. It's about time for a third attempt to close this "center," and if three times really is the charm, it won't survive this attempt.