Belchertown State School
Encyclopedia
The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts
. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1994.
, while state schools were institutions for the mentally defective
(the name is a misnomer, as they did not generally involve any form of education).
Throughout its first 40 years, Belchertown operated mostly without scrutiny from outside sources. It was later discovered that since its inception the residents—some of whom had lived on the wards their entire lives—were being terribly mistreated and abused by the staff; author Benjamin Ricci referred to the conditions there as "horrific", "medieval" , and "barbaric" .
Doctors at the school had little regard for patients' mental capacity, evidenced by this quote:
Attendants on the wards were overworked, with dozens of patients in each ward, and as a result their treatment of the residents was nothing short of atrocious. Because there was not enough time for proper toilet care, residents were left "half-naked rolling in their own excrement" .
Those who were severely physically handicapped were left in their beds the entire day, without any form of entertainment. Patients who were unable to feed themselves were force-fed by the attendants (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 42), and when it was necessary to move a patient they did so roughly, causing injuries to the patient . As a result of this gross mistreatment, some patients were prone to "moaning in the hallways" , "reaching into[their] diapers and spreading whatever [they] found all over, [...] repeatedly banging their heads against the walls" (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 50), or any of a number of other responses. Additionally, the facility suffered from vermin infestation .
Beginning in the Kennedy administration, and partly due to the civil rights movement started by African Americans, awareness of disabled people as individuals with human rights
increased. In 1966 Massachusetts passed the Mental Health and Retardation Services Act, which mandated a gradual transition from a few institutions around the state to a more community-based system of care facilities. The horrendous conditions at Belchertown were revealed in 1971 in a newspaper article entitled "The Tragedy of Belchertown." Parents sued the school, and when the state Attorney General toured the facility, he described it as "a hell hole."
This was the first lawsuit against a state school, and others followed in Massachusetts for the next few years . In 1973, the unnecessary death of a patient resulted in a lawsuit that saw the hiring of nearly 100 new ward personnel. In 1975, Belchertown was sued once again for denying its patients the right to vote (this was one of the first disability-related voting rights
cases in the United States), and in 1977 a case was brought against the school on behalf of a 67-year-old severely retarded man with leukemia to determine if a court appointed guardian ad litem could refuse treatment on his behalf. .
. More recent improvements have been the makeover of Foley Field into a baseball diamond for the local Little League team , and restoration of the overgrown cemetery (with numbers marking the graves) to appear cleaner and properly memorialize dead patients by name . In 2001, a town meeting designated the school property as an Economic Opportunity Area for 20 years. This economic development plan provides tax incentives to businesses who establish themselves on the site .
For more information about Belchertown, there is a book entitled Crimes Against Humanity: A Historical Perspective. It was written by Benjamin Ricci, who sent his six-year-old son Bobby to live there not knowing what the conditions were like, and who was involved in the initial 1972 lawsuit. Another book with vivid descriptions of Belchertown is Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer
's I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes; she was a resident of the school in the 1960s and 1970s. Sienkiewicz-Mercer's book refers to a young male nurse who worked at Belchertown in the late 1960s and early 1970s who later became a junior senator from Massachusetts. His name, she says, was John Kerry
. This is a disputable statement, since Senator Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1970.
. Four teams of landscape architects, architects and regional planners studied the campus, the town, and its surrounding context. The focus of the studio was to get down to the site planning level dealing with the integration of interior and exterior spaces. The 155 acre (0.6272633 km²) parcel of land, owned by the Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, is ripe with opportunity. The teams looked at creating jobs, mixed use development as well as recreational opportunities on the campus and the adjacent property, owned by New England Small Farm Institute.
The site has dozens of buildings that are beyond repair, but the majority of the substantial buildings on site would provide a strong starting point to build a community around. Landscape architect and architect students worked to integrate these buildings and the landscape together, while the regional planners looked at the feasibility of the proposals as well as zoning regulations and potential overlays. The final product was four detailed master plans and a strong sense of support from the community.
Belchertown, Massachusetts
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,968 people, 4,886 households, and 3,517 families residing in the town. The population density was 245.9 people per square mile . There were 5,050 housing units at an average density of 95.8 per square mile...
. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1994.
Conditions and Treatment of Patients
Located at 30 State Street, the 876 acres (3.5 km²) campus contains ten major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. The state schools of Massachusetts were different from state hospitals; the latter was for the mentally illMental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, while state schools were institutions for the mentally defective
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
(the name is a misnomer, as they did not generally involve any form of education).
Throughout its first 40 years, Belchertown operated mostly without scrutiny from outside sources. It was later discovered that since its inception the residents—some of whom had lived on the wards their entire lives—were being terribly mistreated and abused by the staff; author Benjamin Ricci referred to the conditions there as "horrific", "medieval" , and "barbaric" .
Doctors at the school had little regard for patients' mental capacity, evidenced by this quote:
His method of evaluating me consisted of looking me over during the physical exam and deciding that since I couldn't talk and apparently couldn't understand what he was saying, I must be an imbecile. [...] Since I couldn't ask him to speak up or repeat what he said, he assumed I was a moron. (Sienkewicz-Mercer p38)
Attendants on the wards were overworked, with dozens of patients in each ward, and as a result their treatment of the residents was nothing short of atrocious. Because there was not enough time for proper toilet care, residents were left "half-naked rolling in their own excrement" .
Those who were severely physically handicapped were left in their beds the entire day, without any form of entertainment. Patients who were unable to feed themselves were force-fed by the attendants (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 42), and when it was necessary to move a patient they did so roughly, causing injuries to the patient . As a result of this gross mistreatment, some patients were prone to "moaning in the hallways" , "reaching into
Changing Attitudes Towards Mental Retardation
The reason for this situation was partly due to the prevailing cultural perspective of what was often called "mental deficiency". Around the turn of the 20th century, many people with handicaps were simply kept at home when possible. This changed in the 1920s and 1930s because state governments and bureaucracies developed special divisions to manage these individuals—in Massachusetts and elsewhere, this was the role of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation. In addition, expertise on "the infirm" became a specialty in the medical world, which in turn helped shape social policy. And while few parents would want to send their child to live in squalor and suffer abuse, many felt they had no other choice as there was simply nowhere else for a child with severe disabilities to go.Beginning in the Kennedy administration, and partly due to the civil rights movement started by African Americans, awareness of disabled people as individuals with human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
increased. In 1966 Massachusetts passed the Mental Health and Retardation Services Act, which mandated a gradual transition from a few institutions around the state to a more community-based system of care facilities. The horrendous conditions at Belchertown were revealed in 1971 in a newspaper article entitled "The Tragedy of Belchertown." Parents sued the school, and when the state Attorney General toured the facility, he described it as "a hell hole."
This was the first lawsuit against a state school, and others followed in Massachusetts for the next few years . In 1973, the unnecessary death of a patient resulted in a lawsuit that saw the hiring of nearly 100 new ward personnel. In 1975, Belchertown was sued once again for denying its patients the right to vote (this was one of the first disability-related voting rights
Voting rights in the United States
The issue of voting rights in the United States has been contentious throughout the country's history. Eligibility to vote in the U.S. is determined by both Federal and state law. Currently, only citizens can vote in U.S. elections . Who is a citizen is governed on a national basis by Federal law...
cases in the United States), and in 1977 a case was brought against the school on behalf of a 67-year-old severely retarded man with leukemia to determine if a court appointed guardian ad litem could refuse treatment on his behalf. .
School Closing and Redevelopment
After hobbling along for several more years, Belchertown State Schools were finally closed in 1992 because of the disgusting conditions in which these people were living. Two years later it was added to the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. More recent improvements have been the makeover of Foley Field into a baseball diamond for the local Little League team , and restoration of the overgrown cemetery (with numbers marking the graves) to appear cleaner and properly memorialize dead patients by name . In 2001, a town meeting designated the school property as an Economic Opportunity Area for 20 years. This economic development plan provides tax incentives to businesses who establish themselves on the site .
For more information about Belchertown, there is a book entitled Crimes Against Humanity: A Historical Perspective. It was written by Benjamin Ricci, who sent his six-year-old son Bobby to live there not knowing what the conditions were like, and who was involved in the initial 1972 lawsuit. Another book with vivid descriptions of Belchertown is Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer
Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer
Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer was a quadriplegic and American disability rights activist. She is best known for her autobiography I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes, co-authored with Steven B. Kaplan.-Biography:...
's I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes; she was a resident of the school in the 1960s and 1970s. Sienkiewicz-Mercer's book refers to a young male nurse who worked at Belchertown in the late 1960s and early 1970s who later became a junior senator from Massachusetts. His name, she says, was John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
. This is a disputable statement, since Senator Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1970.
Collaboration with University of Massachusetts Students
In the Fall of 2008, Belchertown State School campus was the focus of an interdisciplinary studio done by 30 graduate students within the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
. Four teams of landscape architects, architects and regional planners studied the campus, the town, and its surrounding context. The focus of the studio was to get down to the site planning level dealing with the integration of interior and exterior spaces. The 155 acre (0.6272633 km²) parcel of land, owned by the Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, is ripe with opportunity. The teams looked at creating jobs, mixed use development as well as recreational opportunities on the campus and the adjacent property, owned by New England Small Farm Institute.
The site has dozens of buildings that are beyond repair, but the majority of the substantial buildings on site would provide a strong starting point to build a community around. Landscape architect and architect students worked to integrate these buildings and the landscape together, while the regional planners looked at the feasibility of the proposals as well as zoning regulations and potential overlays. The final product was four detailed master plans and a strong sense of support from the community.
External links
- Sienkiewicz-Mercer, Ruth, and Steven B. Kaplan. I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes. Whole Health Books, 1996. ISBN 978-0-9644616-3-5 *http://www.1856.org/historicalOverview.html
- Advocates seek DOJ review of Texas Youth Comm. Facilities - WebGUI
- Hampshire County, Massachusetts 1930 (T626-912) Team Census Transcription
- http://www.matsuishi-lab.org/mentalretardationinusasummaryJ_E.htm
- A collection of photographs
- Additional photographs from an artistic view
- Amateur Photographs of inside Belchertown State School
- A history of the school