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A Letter to Ask Massachusetts Lawmakers to Ban the Use of Electric Skin Shock
As a long-time advocate for disability rights, and as the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint’s representative to the Stop the Shock Coalition, I am deeply troubled that Massachusetts continues to permit the use of the graduated electronic decelerator on disabled students in the name of “behavior control.” The attached letter shares our concerns with Massachusetts…
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Punitive School Discipline and Its Public Health Implications: A Literature Review
Childhood is the developmental stage during which the foundation for an individual’s identity, personality, and self-regulation skills is established (Montroy et al., 2016). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that can profoundly shape development, both physiologically and psychologically (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). The majority of the existing literature surrounding childhood…
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Urgent Call to Action: Support Bill H.245 to Stop the Shock in Massachusetts!
Massachusetts families and advocates urgently need your voice to end the use of abusive “therapy” — including electric shock, forced restraints, food deprivation, and more — on disabled children and adults. On Tuesday, November 18, 2025 (1–5pm), the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities will hold a public hearing on Bill H.245,…
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Hacking School Discipline: A Short Book Review
Current research demonstrates that autistic learners face rates of school suspensions and expulsions at much higher rates than their non-autistic peers. It is likely that many of these punitive and exclusionary discipline practices are a direct result of unmet environmental needs within the school environment. While not specifically focusing on neurodivergent learners, Jeffrey Benson’s Hacking…
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What’s at Stake if Federal Special Education Protections Are Dismantled
Across the country, parents, educators, and advocates are sounding the alarm about recent moves to dismantle key parts of the federal system that protect students with disabilities. The potential elimination or weakening of federal special education offices and oversight doesn’t just change the system; it puts millions of children at risk. In recent federal policy…
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Call To Action Wisconsin: Take Action to Protect Vulnerable Students from Harmful Discipline Bills
Call to action! –In Wisconsin, AB613 and AB614 are two new education bills that are bad news for Wisconsin families and schools. They are discriminatory, promote the use of seclusion and physical restraint, and would do nothing to solve the root cause of problems in education. We need to stop this bill to help families…
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Being Twice-Exceptional: A Short Book Review
The book, Being Twice-Exceptional, by Dr. Melanie Hayes, is, in the author’s own words, a form of activism. While the book focuses on the lived experiences of the 2eA community (individuals who are considered both gifted and autistic), the author’s advice is relevant to the twice-exceptional community as a whole. A champion of the twice-exceptional,…
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The Illusion of “Play-Based ABA”: The Gentle Mask of Control
One of the newest rebrands of Applied Behavior Analysis is “play-based ABA.” At first glance, it looks comforting to parents and teachers who may have heard critiques of traditional ABA. Instead of a child sitting at a table with flashcards, they’re on the floor with toys, building towers, pretending with dolls, or rolling cars back…
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The Invisible Exclusion in Our Education System
Our local news recently aired what appeared to be a heartwarming story: district leaders and our governor making celebratory calls to families whose children have excellent attendance. On the surface, it looked like positive engagement, a feel-good moment highlighting student success. What it did not address, however, are the very real systemic barriers fueling Oregon’s…
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Why ABA Can Never Be Trauma-Informed: Not now. Not ever.
Lately, I’ve seen more and more programs advertising something they call “trauma-informed ABA.” On the surface, it sounds hopeful. After all, who wouldn’t want therapies to be gentler, safer, and more humane for children who have already experienced adversity But here’s the reality: ABA can never be trauma-informed. No matter how many times it is…
