From AP/Boston Herald, AP/[Waltham, MA] Daily News Tribune:

Two Massachusetts legislators have filed bills seeking to redress historic abuses that took place in the state’s Fernald School, which opened in 1848 and is slated to close next year.

The institution, which is the nation’s oldest publicly funded facility for people with developmental disabilities, was the site of Cold War experiments including some by MIT and Quaker Oats Co. in which children were fed radioactive oatmeal. Other children were erroneously institutionalized as “morons” even though tests showed them to be normal.

Rep. Thomas Sannicandro (D-Ashland) has filed a bill seeking a state apology for alleged civil rights violations, and Rep. Thomas Stanley (D-Waltham) has filed a bill seeking a formal investigation of the misclassifications of patients.

“Everybody there was abused, and we should be all-encompassing as a commonwealth and say we made a mistake,” said Sannicandro, whose own son has Down syndrome.

See also:

The State Boys Rebellion, book by Michael D’Antonio

The voice of a lost generation; Freddie Boyce survived neglect at Fernald, radiation experiments, and told the story — Boston Globe

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abuse, history, institutionalization, politics, research news. 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.