4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

Lynne, I guess what I was trying to say, wasif my mind ever took a permanent vacation, I dont want the rest of me left behind.quality vs quantity type of thing.

I'm in California, not even close! I enjoy looking at the pictures and reading Lynne's posts. And of course, thanks for the pics Motts. :)

Well crap someone is using my name to post stuff, I'll have to think of a new one.

Oh my God, Marcia I'm sorry I read your e-mail wrong! It's been a long day. I didn't notice the "I doubt" part somehow. I am so sorry!
I know what you are saying, the picture was harmless to the clients because they couldn't understand it. Sorry but I thought you had said it could have been harmful. LOL I need to rest my eyes! I've been writing all day. Sorry about that again. Just ignore that alst comment, my bad. :)

Well I hope too many clients didn't see it then. That's what I was saying from the begining, if this was going to scare the clients maybe it was a poor idea to hang it up. You know what I mean? It's not your fault at all--whoever ran the class should have had the sense.
Thanks a lot for your explaination though. This must have been a very sad place to work in with all the damged people but at least you did your best to help them. It's a sad situation.

Well I'm glad I cleared it up for you. However one thing you've said disturbs me still. This picture, I doubt, would have caused and client nightmares. Except for the highest functioning client (and there weren't a whole lot of them) I'm sure none of them would be able to interpret this picture to any degree. You seem to be assuming that the clients were higher functioning than what they were. The majority of clients at Pennhurst were in the Severe to Profound range of retardation. Believe me if you can't be toilet trained after 20 years you are not interpreting pictures.

i was here 4/3/06..a couple friends and i passed by this room i just started cracking up....napkins anyone?

my mom makes me sit in the corner sometimes

i like wheel chairs ;)

Not at all, I think it's an interesting discussion, and people who know about the origins of this poster have a chance to say something. It made me start to think about these odd things when I find them in psychiatric hospitals.

Poor Motts is probably regretting the day he took this one...

Thanks Marcia!
In that case then there is nothing wrong with this drawing. It wasn't in an area around the patients and it was viewed merely as a frustrated joke by the staff so there's nothing bad about it at all then.
I wouldn't have been delighted to hear that it was for the children and residents to see but since it was only for the staff forced into a hated class then I can actually see some pretty good humor in the drawing. :D
I feel bad for anyone who is forced to attend these stupid classes, what the hell is the point anyway?
Thanks again for your reply.

I 'm sorry I don't remember what the TA stood for. I want to say transendental something but I'm just not sure. It was a class held for staff to better help us cope with all the negativity that was directed at us through the press etc. I guess there were some people who found it helpful, however I and 95% of this perticular class found it incredibly boring and a waste of time. The main idea was to give each other warm fuzzies everyday and then our lives would be so much better. Whatever. We were the 2nd to last class I believe and most of us had tried to avoid going til the very end. I think the last class had even worse attitudes than our class. There were no clients involved and the class was held in an unused room. The shades were hung up in the room after each class was over. Our painting merely reflected how WE felt being forced to attend a class that no one wanted to attend. I don't think it was childish at all just overall frustration. And it was a way of getting under our instructors skin one last time. Hope that clears it up for you.

Now THAT'S an interpretation I can get behind! 8`-)

I don't know about you people. This clearly depicts a girl in a wheelchair picking the pocket of the black kid, who is stealing a wallet from a white kid, who is reaching to steal the pocket book from the girl who is picking her nose. As for the girl in red, she's a victim waiting to happen.