A federal appeals court has overturned a decision to ban the use of electric shock devices in disciplining developmentally impaired students at a speciality school in the US. In March last year, federal officials confirmed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had put a stop to staff at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Centre in Canton, Massachusetts, using Graduated Electronic Decelerators on children and adults whose behaviour was deemed problematic. But on Tuesday evening, the US Court of Appeals in DC determined the ban was a regulation of medicine, which is not within the FDAs authority to make judgement on, so the ruling was overturned.