Comments

Even though these may not be good posts or people are being misunderstood, evil, trying to get things started or just people posting to say hi and getting blown out of proportion. Or what ever the case may be. Looking at the big picture being the opacity sight. I am "for lack of better word" HAPPY to see all these posts being made between all the people that were at Gaebler. I wish some bad staff or therapists would join the sight. Even though it would be bad, I would live to hear why they felt they could treat kids that way. I liketo see all the sight use. Bad, good or whatever. Thanks to all that share there feelings and experiences about Gaebler here. It helps

flushed I'm not angry at all. I'm truely sorry you had a horrible experience when you were young. I am only trying to imform people that the picture that everyone comments on was not made by retarded children but by the aides that took care of them. It gets old when people refuse to believe it and try and paint some story that is simply not true. I also understand that during a period of time people were admitted to Pennhurst who didn't belong there. Unfortunately you can't go back and change that. However during the time I worked there that wasn't happening. Change did occur and it was for the better. It was not a house of horrors that so many want to believe and cling to that belief no matter what anyone says. I think for myself and alot of other former aides that worked there it's a real insult to be constantly told that we don't know what we're talking about. Anyway I hope you have a better life now and can get on with it . I left Pennhurst behind many, many years ago. It was a unique experience but one that I was glad to be done with.

The poster I worked there is a troll. He seems like he is trying to upset people. Ignore him and he will go away.

I worked there

I understand what your saying, I don't think your sticking up for the staff. Your just saying that the staff you knew weren't like that. And of course you weren't like that. I wish you could have seen the bad parts, and you would understand why some of us former patients get so mad about people saying Gaebler was a caring place. Most of the therapists and DMH workers did not. It was like the more problems they could label us with, the better they would look for helping us with them. That's my opinion. I like hearing from all past staff, but I don't think any of the ones that treated us bad would ever comment here because they know how sick they were to us then and wouldn't want to face real people now. You should che:ck out "Gaebler Hell And Back" there's a letter from s former staff apologizing for how he treated us. It's a good letter to us former kids saying sorry. Mean while if u know anymore staff or kids feel free to have them post. Even though pookie is very mad, its still a real life posting about a place that was torturous for so many children. Thanks

Wow! Just Wow! You can't see the forest for the trees.

I happened to be a small healthy very bright for my age boy, 4-5 years old placed in a protective shelter for children because of my family being broken up by my father's narcissism and grandparents racism about him as well as to hide the abuse I had been subjected to by those grandparents. That Shelter happened to be attached to a hospital. They, my family fully expected/wanted me to end up dead or retarded. You see the abuses that took place there was common knowledge in the community and I am not the only child so discarded by guilty people trying to hide something. It was common knowledge if it wasn't well known why, that trauma affected the memory of children. It was hoped that if I lived , the experience of being tortured and abused would at least purge the memory of the abuse my family had inflicted on me from my mind.
At worst if I did manage to remember anything and say something they could claim I was confused and it must have been something done to me in the Shelter.

I Worked There, you were a boiler room attendant. You have nothing obvious to gain by contradicting the statements by former inmates of having been abused on here yet you do. You have invested an awful lot of personal energy in trying to undermine the statements of these survivors here.
Now your latest migration in the justifications you have provided for this is that you meant to say there was "no conspiracy" among staff. Firstly as has been the case with all of what you said, you cannot possibly know that. Any two staffers who acted together to do or hide anything is a conspiracy. An idea that no one else mentioned.
Once again I must point out that your mind is not as rational as you are trying to portray. That idea has only been posited by you. It is something that only existed in your head until it was posted on here. So again I point you to your own words to seek the reason you are working so hard to avoid. IDK your motives and maybe you don't either but you are being abusive and negative and that is not ok.
I expect if you are as ignorant as you seem to be then you are trying to prevent something from becoming public knowledge, or if you aren't then you are a Troll just abusing people for fun like the scum whom these people are speaking about.

One time back in the '80's they didn't have enough help so they let me work on the wards for overtime. I worked the 11-7 shift many times and never saw anything unprofessional except me falling asleep.

That last message wasn't from I Worked There, sorry, it was from me to I Worked There.....

You worked in the boiler room not on the Wards, so u really have no idea about what went on in the Ward's. Please stop patting yourself on your back that you were good to the kids and bought them presents. I am sure u were decent to them if u ran into them but, u didn't live with us on the Wards with staff so u really can't comment on the treatment us kids got, cause u weren't on the Wards. I do thank you for being nice to the kids that you were nice to, but, please stop sticking up for the staff on the Wards cause u weren't there. Thank you.....

didn't Brooke Sheilds go to vassar

Gosh I would love one of those tubs.....but I can't imagine how terrifying and intimidating it could be to a young disabled child or adults with Alzheimers.

The stuff on the ceiling is simply paint that blistered from the moisture that is cracking and peeling....gravity don't cha know.

oh and to the people who do not know, it is haunted. Greatly. A lot of screwed up experiments happened in that place. I can feel them, they're still there, and angry. I really could care less who believes me or not, I'm also a psychologist and know what I do. The buildings couldn't be restored because of the structural damage. Also it was costing Northampton about 1.2 million dollars a year to heat the place so it wouldn't crumble naturally. But honestly they could probably make that back in tours for people. haha. Oh how i miss the buildings....there are so few that still stand. Along with the tunnels. I don't think those will ever be destroyed.

I have lived in Northampton my entire life, and drove by this place all the time. I just went into the last standing building today, well, one of the four smaller buildings left. It was incredible. I'm not a big believer in "orbs" because of how many have been debunked, but my pictures today....could definitely change that. It was incredible. They were all different colors, and are not in every photo. I am a sensitive, I can read people, and feel the dead. It was amazing being able to connect to them in a similar way. We're both angry that this beautiful building with such rich history and mystery are being torn down so ignorantly. But sadly there is nothing I can do. I hope the dead can move on, the place has an unmarked burial ground that I stood on many times. they stopped burying the dead without families in the 1920's and after that used their bodies as medical school cadavers. wrong, if you ask me. Some buildings are still left, I urge you greatly to take a trip to see them. They probably won't be there much longer.

Once again, they had murderers, rapists, arsonists, atttempted murderers there. At the time it was the only place in the state to send kids accused ot those crimes. The only place.
When I was there I treated the kids good. I bought them presents, talked to them and played with them. I tried my best to an adult who was good to them when many adults in their life weren't.
I was good to the kids then and I'm not gonna gonna be mean or bad to one of those kids today even though you're grown up.
I will leave it at that.

I worked there, Gaebler was no for kids who committed crimes you dam fucking asshole, it was for kids with behavioral problems, get your fucking facts straight. I have all that proof in my hands, I have all my records from Gaebler and Dss, so Mr Boiler Man Room, you don't know what really happened, yes there were staff there that cared, but, there were more that didn't and did abuse us. As for you hoping I find peace in this, I found peace in this the day I left there, my life is great, I am married to a wonderful man with 2 beautiful daughters. Stop sticking up for things that you don't know about and I was there from 82-84 on Ward D, so yes you do owe us an apology but, you just proved to me and everyone else on there that you are just like the abusers that were staff at Gaebler....You had no right to comment, you worked in the friggin boiler room, you were not on the Wards, so please do us all a favor and shut the fuck up, as for say Flushed should have been institutionalized longer is a really mean and hurtful thing to say to someone who was abused, you as an adult should be ashamned of yourself.....I am thankful you weren't one of the abusers on us, but, like Boiler1220 said you were not there to see it, you only saw the good, the bad was really ugly....