Belchertown State School

Belchertown State School

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.

Read more about Belchertown State School:  Conditions and Treatment of Patients, Changing Attitudes Towards Mental Retardation, School Closing and Redevelopment, Collaboration With University of Massachusetts Students

Famous quotes containing the words state and/or school:

    It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.
    Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)

    School divides life into two segments, which are increasingly of comparable length. As much as anything else, schooling implies custodial care for persons who are declared undesirable elsewhere by the simple fact that a school has been built to serve them.
    Ivan Illich (b. 1926)