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There’s an urgent push underway to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finally ban the devices that administer electric shocks to disabled students at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton.Driving that push is advocates’ fear that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, will not want the FDA to issue the ban, allowing the shocks used as treatment to continue.”RFK Jr. has a long history of supporting interventions and beliefs about the autistic community that have been harmful to us,” said Greg Robinson, deputy director of public policy at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. The Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton is the only school in the country that uses the shocks on its disabled students, saying it’s aversive therapy used to prevent potentially life-threatening behaviors like self-injurious acts.Massachusetts has tried and failed repeatedly to stop it from happening. So disability rights advocates turned to the FDA to ban the devices that deliver the shocks. The FDA says it wants to do it, but isn’t expected to issue a final rule until the fall.”This has been going on for far too long, and there are people who are currently experiencing these very painful shocks,” Robinson said. “What we need is supports that help us, not supports that harm us or torture us into submission.”Even though the ban of the devices was initially approved during President Trump’s first term, Robinson is worried about its fate because of RFK Jr.The Judge Rotenberg Center calls the shocks “lifesaving treatments” a position disability rights advocates fear will resonate with RFK Jr.”We have a lot of concern that he may be more sympathetic to arguments that these devices should be allowed,” Robinson said.In a statement, the Judge Rotenberg Center tells 5 Investigates it: The Judge Rotenberg Center will continue to advocate for families and clients who have been saved from a life of self-injury and unrelenting pain through medically necessary, court-approved aversive treatment that has worked successfully to prevent aggressive behaviors which include clients having violently attacked and injured loved ones and program staff, and relentlessly harmed themselves by banging their heads on walls, biting their skin, gouging their own eyes, and more. Under the care of JRCs highly specialized medical team, individuals whose lives have been marked by over-medication, physical restraint, and social isolation can learn to live with others in group homes, be gainfully employed, and safely live in the community.However, Robinson says disability rights advocates will keep fighting, even if the FDA doesn’t finalize the ban before Trump takes office.”We are going to continue to make this a priority even when the administration changes. So we’ll be keeping the pressure up if it doesn’t happen,” he said. The FDA tells us the rule is estimated to go into effect in October but that estimate is “subject to change as the FDA continues to thoroughly review and assess all timely comments received on the proposed rule.”Messages left with the Trump transition team were not returned.