ALBANY — A Bethlehem couple is suing the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, alleging their adult son who has autism has been trapped in a vortex of hospitalizations and arrests after New York discontinued authorizing his residency at a Massachusetts facility that specializes in treating individuals with severe behavioral disorders.
The federal lawsuit was filed recently in U.S. District Court in Albany by Christian and Elizabeth Dribusch on behalf of their 25-year-old son, Craig, who has been diagnosed since early childhood with “severe developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder.”
From 2017 to 2023, Craig Dribusch had been a resident at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center outside Boston, a facility that has faced scrutiny for its use of electric stimulation devices (ESDs), which aim to deter injurious behavior by delivering electric shocks to patients. The U.S. food and Drug Administration banned the therapy in 2020 but the Rotenberg center successfully appealed the ban in court…