4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

Well, many of the patients here probably had constant medical problems that needed constant tending to. If you're alluding to prefrontal lobotomy procedures, they were most likely performed at the state hospitals; I haven't heard of any being done here.

It's a multi-series documentary made a while back to publicize the mistreatments from within Pennhurst State School. A video can be on El Peecho's site: http://www.elpeecho.com/pennhurst/pennhurst.htm

What is ''Suffer The Children" about

I've always wondered what type of "surgury" the performed in these rooms.

Interesting... thanks for the info, zodiac.

Visitors of this site may or may not be familiar with the book "THE STATE BOYS REBELLION" by Michael D'Antonio, if you haven't read this book you really must (prepare to have your heart literally torn loose). It describes the plight of a group of boys at the Fernald School in Massachusetts, a near carbon copy of Pennhurst. Specifically it details the lives of a number of boys who were not necessarily retarded to begin with, but merely had a speech problem, or didn't "test" well; the tests used in those days to determine that a child was "defective" are now known to be faulty and not at all a good indicator of there true intelligence or potential. This practice of placing essentially normal children (they are referred to as "almosts") in an institution as a method of disposing of them was widespread. Here is a segment from "Suffer the Children" that I have transcribed:

TV10: This boy, was he mentally retarded when he came to Pennhurst?

Dr. JF: He was mentally retarded in the sense that he did not receive proper education, he came from parents that were delinquent themselves

TV10: In other words this boy was normal as far as his mind and being retarded was concerned?

Dr. JF: He can progress to a normal level

TV10: But he never will as long as he is here at Pennhurst is that right?

Dr. JF: I can not say that but chances are poorer here than they would be where they had a program set up for this type of case

TV10: There are too many Johnnies here at Pennhurst this Friday evening.

It just makes me sick with shame that this could have happened

i love this place, im goin to go pack up all my stuff and go in and live there

my brothers had the same toy in their crib, this picture saddens me in a way that i can not describe.

Could it have been some type of location indicator, like numbering systems onboard a ship?

aw...well, that means I'M going to have to go down!

Poor Jean!
What about the people ON the pit? Are they stuck between oblivion and escape? WTF

Hmm...low rent, comfy, seems perfect for any college student in need of a dorm! Another joke on Pennhurst...

...very ominous...but where's the dunce cap? haha, but I shouldn't joke around - this ins't a very light situation, but oh well. MaDMaN is right, there's always something randomly weird like that in an abandoned building.

Weird. The architecture (spelling right?) of the building reminds me of a level of a video game - Second Sight - where you have to invade an asylum in Vermont. Anyway. I haven't been near the medical buildings long enough to explore (with friends, and time was against us) so that stunk. But yeah, check out El Peecho's site. Good!

Did they make some of the patients do the work of others??