Search

Suffer The Little Children

The ground-breaking 1968 NBC10 Expose on Pennhurst State School by Bill Baldini:

This text will be replaced

NBC10 logo© NBC10 Philadelphia


Comments:
Want to leave a comment?
Connie08/14/2010
Tragic. I blame some of the families but mostly society. Nobody cares, period. I don't believe they are that much improved today August 2010.
Ron larson08/09/2010
What Mike Farnam says is true, I was there with him from 1965 to 1971 at Traverse City State Hospital
Mary Lou07/18/2010
My twin uncles now 82 years old both were at Pennhurst for 4 1/2 horrible years. What they saw and went through was terrible. Made to eat bars of soap, isolation, terrible.
mel07/15/2010
from age 6-13 i was in a mental institiution in the 90s early 2000s i was at the mayo clinic even for a good hospital it was a horrible experience message me if you hav a question
Erin Higgins07/12/2010
My uncle was in Pennhurst State School untill it closed. My uncle is the reason I decided to work with the Special Needs population. After Pennhurst was closed, he went into a Berks County group home. Feel free to contact me and I can tell you what it was really like from my mothers view.
Joanne05/13/2010
My Uncle spent a good part of his life in Pennhurst from the 1950's through its closing. Sadly he was severely handicapped and could not speak so we could never really know what he went through although I'm sure he had stories. He was moved to a group home when they closed.
Marilyn05/08/2010
I was in 2 different hospitals in Wisconsin. It was bad. God Bless to all.
sara gonzales04/15/2010
I,too,heard of Pennhurst watching a rerun of Ghost Adventures. There's a document written by a survivor of Pennhurst, Roland Johnson that I came upon. If anyone has time read it please!!! It's truly heartwrenching!! I just can't believe the cruelty of the families and the staff!!!
kerry gowans03/30/2010
heard about Pennhurst after watching Ghost Adventurers how horrific this place must have been what is more disturbing is how recent these events happened
Of human descent03/23/2010
Sad. We are all interconnectected. What affects one of us affects all of us. Now, what if this was your son or daughter, gand child? Don't care? I didn't until this happened to us. We have failed our children. BTW Einstein was originally considered retarded. We have such a n
Lynne03/14/2010
I visited Pennhurst with a high school behavioral science class in 1972. We were able to roam rather freely and saw most of the facility. Other than the concentration camp at Dachau, it remains the most disturbing sight I have ever seen. Shame on us all.
Y. Laurusonis03/10/2010
Thank God Baldini had the strength to report what was happening here---it opened many doors and eyes to what was going on in other similar facilities as well, I'm sure.
Michelle02/21/2010
I work for an agency that took many people out of there when it closed. One former patient lives in my home thru Lifesharing. He is seeing a happy ending and many from our agency are living a happy ending.
Samantha02/02/2010
Sask.,Canada, Many people were mistreated while they lived in residential schools aboriginals. After many years and a court battle thousands of people who were involved received settlements, did any of these victims ever received anything for there suffering or were they replaced and forgotten
Thomas Kirkbride01/29/2010
@Silver Fang - The Pennhurst residents were relocated and many are still alive - some living independently. That announcer is John Facenda. He worked at WCAU Philly, but achieved his greatest fame as the voice of NFL Films. His voice was great.
Silver Fang01/26/2010
I wonder what happened to all those people filmed in this report. The youngest ones could well still be alive. Also, who was the commentator in the last installment?
Ariel01/24/2010
Just couple days ago, I heard about this school, I have only 5 yrs in this country, and it has made such impact, that I am researching as many information possible. Please, to all people up there, let' s love and care for the ones that needs us.
Elizabeth01/24/2010
My uncle was a patient here until he was 15. My grandfather, against my Grandma's wishes, put him in Pennhurst. He was physically challenged but his IQ was above average for his age. All because he couldn't walk, he was sent there.
Marc01/23/2010
@Stephane - depending on their level of function, they were transferred either to community living situations or other institutions. The other video here With a Voice comes Understanding talks a bit about that.
Stephanie01/23/2010
do we know what has happened to all of these poor children now? I first heard about this from a TV Show called Ghost Adventures. I saw one patient talk about her time there.
Felicia01/13/2010
My mother was born in 1964 with epilepsy. My grandfather wanted to place my mother in this facility against my grandmother's wishes. I can't imagine what would have happened to my beautiful, intelligent mother if she had been condemned to this hell.
Kathy01/05/2010
As a child I visited Pennhurst in the early 70's. I was left in the parking lot with my father as my mother and cousin went in to visit a family friend's son that was placed there after his mother died and his father could not care for him. My memory includes screams from every building..horrible
Alicia01/02/2010
So incrediably heartbreaking. I can not watch even a few minutes of this without crying. All those poor children. Dear god it makes me ill.
Just Curious12/28/2009
@Michael -- so was Traverse City SH like this as well?
Michael Farnam12/26/2009
At the age of 7-12 in the early 60's I was a patient at Traverse City State Hospital, in Travese City, Michigan. As an Adult I have been interested in comparing what went on behind closed doors at Travese City Satate Hospital with other state intitutions.
Add a comment:
Your Name: *
(Required)
Your Email:
(Optional. will not be posted here)
Your Web Address:
(Optional. will be posted here)
Your Comment: *
(Required. Limited to 300 characters)
please enter the text from the image on the left:
 
© 2009 Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance. All rights reserved.