Boycott in Store for Radio Ads for Canton's Judge Rotenberg Center

Editor's Note: This is the first article in a three-part series. Be sure to read Canton Patch on Tuesday for the continuation, including reaction from parents and supporters.

A self-titled children’s rights advocate is rallying his troops to boycott Massachusetts and New York radio stations from airing advertisements for the .

George Deabold, who refers to himself as a national children’s rights and educational advocate, and is the founder of School Watch, has rallied other advocates and politicians, including (D-Milton) to boycott.

Joyce, who represents Avon, Braintree, Canton, East Bridgewater, Easton, Milton, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, and West Bridgewater, supporteed (electrical shock treatments) that was passed by the state senate in May.

Deabold started the initiative last week and hopes to stop radio stations from running ads for the Canton-based facility. Since the , Deabold has been working on ideas for advocacy. This included the radio station boycott and ultimately shutting the center down, he said.

 “[The Judge Rotenberg Center] should not be able to generate any more money because of these atrocities to children,” Deabold told Canton Patch.

The advocate, who is based out of Long Island, New York, is using an email campaign to spread the word and reach out to executives at Clear Channel Communications, CBS radio and other radio stations in Massachusetts and New York.

He is set to unveil an online petition on www.care2.com to gain signatures to present to the radio stations today, protesting their support of the JRC. The online site has 16,173,699 members, according to the website.

“My goal is over a half a million listeners to start an online petition,” Deabold said.  “Then we will promote with handouts to drive the people to the petition then we’ll send the signatures to the corporations.”

Other advocates are sending letters and emails to stations to ask them to not advertise for the JRC, according to Deabold.

“It’s a public action against a public company,” he said. The stations need “to be held accountable for poor taste, a lack of judgment.”

However, the legal counsel for the JRC told Canton Patch that the center is not worried about any impact a boycott will have.

The boycott by “an uniformed, unauthorized… person would not have any effect whatsoever,” said Michael Flammia, the attorney for the Judge Rotenberg Center.

Flammia said Deabold has no legal, educational or medical qualifications. “It is important to note that has no qualifications of any kind… no affiliations of any kind. He is just a person that has an opinion. He has never been to the JRC, as far as I know.”

“Mr. Deabold has made it clear that he has some uninformed or misinformed opinion about JRC, which is clearly wrong,” Flammia said.  “He has the right to boycott any radio station that he wants.”

In addition, JRC students and parents “have the right to support the school and seek effective treatment and education for their kids,” he stated.

Be sure to log onto Canton Patch tomorrow to read the second article and hear the perspective of parents and supporters of the JRC.