4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

If it wasn't for the windows on the right of it, it would look creepier to me as being all stone and coldness.

Kinda Wonderlandian somehow....but the stairs to the window...yeah it is like Winchester Mansion...either that or they were making it easier for suicide jumpers.

That elephant looks so evil in the light.

Reminds me of the basement of the playschool I went to. No toys were there, just this cold kitchen. Nobody wanted to go down there but it was only there to keep kids separate and not have a huge ruckus.

Sian, don't you have 10 pingers and ten poes? I do!

e , you see a lot.

Pingers? What are these pingers of which you speak? Should I have pingers? I'm pretty sure I don't......

this is when the children were bad they would put there pingers ion the spinng blade and it would chop them to becuse then they would berry the kids in the grave yard

yeah when i was here i went in this room and the light was broken and hanging

Sorry about the mispell, I ment (I'm) Lift out 'm
Hay! after all look where I went to school. Fernald State School, wasn't any MIT

I've been there (The Fernald State School) My best friend was Fred Boyce who is no longer with us, God rest his soul. I the guy in the book named joey

Hi Lynne,
I was referring to the Opacity home page for the Pennhurst school.That home page and both sets of pictures have information describing some of the conditions at the school.There is also a link to check out some of the Pennhurst documents.None of it paints a very good picture.Some of the things that went on were pretty horrible.That does not mean that everyone was treated like.That also does not mean that everyone who worked there treated people poorly.Most of the people who worked there tried their best.The few who did their job poorly or abused patients made everyone look bad.
Each place shown on Opacity has a little background information.Many of the hospitals,asylums and schools had some history that was sad.For many,that is what they think when they look at the pictures.When you look at the outside of Danvers State Hospital,you see a beautiful building.When you look at the inside,you see darkness..For someone who does not know much about mental illness,it is difficult to think that anything good ever happened there.When a Kirkbride asylum or hospital opened,it was a beautiful,well run facility.By the 1950's many of those places were horrible.They were not funded adequately,there was not enough staff and they had more patients than they were designed to hold.The state goverment has responsibilty for many of the problems.Society has some responsibilty for not wanting to have anything to do with the mentally ill.For many,out of sight was out of mind.
There are many things that get repeated in history.The human race does not always learn from their past errors.We still experience things today that went on in the past such as wars,conflicts over religion,and many other things.The killing of millions in the death camps during WW2 happened 60 years ago.We would have hoped that something like that would not be repeated,but it happened again in Cambodia,Chechnia and many other countries.It happened many times before World War 2.I dont know why this happens.Is it human nature?
I think it is important to talk about mental illness.There are lots of people who would like to know more about it.I have suffered from mental illness since the 1970's.Learning as much as I can about my illness has been very important.It is a learning experience that never ends.Please dont get so frustrated when someone makes a comment that is negative to your profession.People with mental illness have lived with those remarks for a long time.

Sorry, the crib reference was actually on a different picture. Got a little confused. I am allowed occassionally to make a mistake.

Parents neighbor worked at Pennhurst and apparently didn't have a good experience. Also the cribs were not just used for children. Cribs were used for clients who were at risk for falling out of bed and injuring themselves due to seizures, being nonambulatory, many reasons other than having a rail to "chain" them to. You really have to get rid of the image of little children being the dominate inhabitants of Pennhurst. It just was not the case.

not to be the devils advocate, but there can be many reasons for parents intrest , perhaps, he, she was a parent of someone hurt. when i read parents comments i dont see any direct finger pointing . anyone with some smarts knows there are some great mental health workers out there .