From the Concord [New Hampshire] Monitor:

Dozens of men and women who once lived in a New Hampshire institution gathered recently at a reunion to share stories about the place. Laconia State School housed children and adults with disabilities, and was closed in the early 1990s after a historic class action lawsuit revealed evidence of widespread abuse and neglect.

The reunion, sponsored by People First of New Hampshire, is part of a broader effort to record the memories of people who survived institutionalization and went on to change expectations for people with disabilities.

“We wanted to make sure that the history was preserved and that the things that people went through weren’t ever repeated,” said Denis Powers of the Community Support Network.

Guests gathered in small groups to tell their stories. While some recalled dances and working on the school farm, others described beatings and straitjackets.

In testimony in the 1980 trial, as recounted in the Nashua Telegraph, witnesses described the school as a human warehouse where residents were often left alone to sit naked in their feces and urine, and short-tempered, ill-trained staff used hatpins to prod inmates into moving because the pins left no marks.

(Photo of James Stoodly from the Concord Monitor)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 2:55 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, history, independent living, institutionalization, intellectual/developmental disabilities, law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post