Ah yes, I suppose cattle do get shocks. The electric fence is there because there needs to be a fence to keep them from straying, and most other types of fence cause then alsting physical harm if they attempt to breach it. In that case it could be argued that it's the lesser of the evils, though that doesn't make it kind to the cattle.

Negative reinforcement is a very real thing and is counterproductive. The students who request to be put on the program do it because they want to behave in a way that gets them positive attention, and they see the behaviour of thier classmates on the program changing, and want that for themselves. I will not accept that when a child wants to be good, that shocking them is the only way to achieve that. They have come to mentally link the backpacks to good behaviour and it's now a crutch for them. I'm strongly of the opinion that the school should find these students a different and less harmful crutch.

There is also the issue that the electric shocks have been shown to cause brain damage, which when you're dealing with children like this, would seem to be madness. It's running a very real possibility of making these patients less able to behave 'appropriately' in the long term. "I know, lets take these disabled and / or braing damaged people and make their physical problems worse!" *Sigh*