TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) – The father of a teen who was given 77 electric shocks after group home workers were duped into doling out the punishment blamed poor staffing for the mistake.

Charles Dumas said workers at the Stoughton home run by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center are often immigrants with poor English skills who are afraid of being fired.

Dumas’s 19-year-old son was wrongly given the shocks in August after a prank phone call from a runaway from the home.

He told The Boston Globe his son viewed the incident as mistake, though he was scared and angry after it happened.

The incident has renewed criticism of the controversial shock therapy.

Dumas of Taunton said he didn’t initially like the idea of shock treatments to control his son’s aggressive behavior, but said it seemed to help.

AP-ES-01-19-08 1722EST