Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 123. Willowbrook State School

Transcript

123. Willowbrook State School · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:00
Speaker 1: You're listening to you an Airwave Media podcast. Hello delicious friends,
0:18
Speaker 1: and welcome to Who Did What Now? The history podcast
0:21
Speaker 1: That's Not Your History Class with mayor host Katie Charlewood,
0:26
Speaker 1: history harlote and reader of books. It has been an
0:30
Speaker 1: interesting couple of days. I had a video of mine
0:34
Speaker 1: go away bit viral on Instagram. It's got like one
0:37
Speaker 1: point four million views last time I looked, and it's
0:40
Speaker 1: about pavlovstocks. Because it's October, it's book a month, and
0:45
Speaker 1: so I decided to just go full on horrible history,
0:49
Speaker 1: like the bad stuff, and so people have been warned.
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm doing it this month. Same thing with
0:55
Speaker 1: the episodes this month on the podcast. They're all terrible, terrible, horrible,
1:01
Speaker 1: the true horrors of history, and that is where we
1:05
Speaker 1: are at today. So if you have a decent sense
1:08
Speaker 1: of morality, empathy, and you don't have a strong stomach,
1:13
Speaker 1: you might want to set this one out because this
1:16
Speaker 1: is going to be discussing the abuse and mistreatment of
1:20
Speaker 1: intellectually disabled children and adults. So if you think that's
1:25
Speaker 1: going to be a bit much for you, just skip
1:26
Speaker 1: this episode, or if you want to give me the interaction,
1:29
Speaker 1: just like mute it and let it play if whatever
1:32
Speaker 1: whatever works for you, your mental well being and sanity and safety,
1:39
Speaker 1: they're important. So if you need to skip this, you
1:42
Speaker 1: have absolutely my blessing. Don't worry about it now. I
1:45
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting the video to do as well as it's doing,
1:49
Speaker 1: because I've spoken about this stuff before. Like anybody who's
1:52
Speaker 1: listened to me or watched me for like a long time,
1:54
Speaker 1: you'll know that my background is, you know, the social sciences, history, sociology, soho, geography,
2:00
Speaker 1: and psychology, right, that's my main sort of forty and
2:05
Speaker 1: so like ethics and misinformation, especially within the scientific community,
2:11
Speaker 1: I find very interesting, and like I love stats. I'm
2:15
Speaker 1: like bad at regular maths, but see you put me
2:18
Speaker 1: in front of like analytics and statistics, I am all
2:22
Speaker 1: up in that for some reason. I don't know why,
2:25
Speaker 1: But I've discussed sort of you know, propaganda and misinformation
2:31
Speaker 1: and history because that's my jam, you know. And so
2:35
Speaker 1: I discussed these sort of unethical experiments and especially the
2:38
Speaker 1: way that they are misrepresented and or sanitized so that
2:43
Speaker 1: you know, they're given out like really PG. Thirteen information
2:47
Speaker 1: without showing you know, just how dark and terrible it
2:52
Speaker 1: really was, which you know is my jam and my butter,
2:56
Speaker 1: which brings me to my next point. Somebody had come
3:00
Speaker 1: into oh, you're pronouncing the T and Katie is just
3:04
Speaker 1: because I used to accidentally call you KD, you know,
3:06
Speaker 1: with a D or other people walking.
3:10
Speaker 2: You as well.
3:11
Speaker 1: And I am looking at this comment, looking at the profile.
3:15
Speaker 1: I even go in and look at it, and I'm like,
3:17
Speaker 1: I have no idea who you are anyway, how do
3:23
Speaker 1: we think about how I pronounced the letter T? And
3:25
Speaker 1: now that I've said this, you probably won't be able
3:28
Speaker 1: to unhear it. But depending on what I'm saying, I
3:31
Speaker 1: will pronounce the ta as a very enunciated ta, that
3:36
Speaker 1: sort of symbol sound, or I'll pronounce it like a D,
3:42
Speaker 1: or i won't pronounce it at all, and I'll do
3:45
Speaker 1: a glottal stop glotto like sometimes my wee girl will
3:49
Speaker 1: just come up to me and be like a bottle
3:50
Speaker 1: of water. Now I have a theory as to why
3:53
Speaker 1: I do this, like why me specifically? Well, one, my
3:57
Speaker 1: dad's a Cockney, so yeah, I had that accent growing up.
4:03
Speaker 2: I live in.
4:04
Speaker 1: Rural Donneygall where we speak high Berno English, right, And
4:08
Speaker 1: then you have my gran my mum's mum who I
4:11
Speaker 1: lived with a lot growing up. Like she was Scottish
4:14
Speaker 1: and she was really into manners, so she would basically
4:16
Speaker 1: do her only version of like elocrition and table manners,
4:19
Speaker 1: and she did that thing where you walk with a
4:21
Speaker 1: book on your head. She liked to make me walk
4:24
Speaker 1: with great expectations, which I think was what she expected
4:28
Speaker 1: of me. But I really fucking hate Charles Dickens as
4:31
Speaker 1: a person. So it's somehow very very funny in the scenario.
4:35
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's why that is. And I know what
4:37
Speaker 2: you're thinking.
4:37
Speaker 1: You're thinking, Kadi, quit your jibber jabber in fact me,
4:41
Speaker 1: In fact you, I will. But first we've got to
4:43
Speaker 1: get our source on. Our sources are The Willow Book
4:48
Speaker 1: Wars by Sheila and David Rothman. Beyond the Willow Book
4:55
Speaker 1: was The Courts and Institutional Reform by Joe B. Grossman, Beatings,
5:01
Speaker 1: Burns and Betrayal, The Willowbrook Scandal's Legacy by Benjamin Wiser,
5:08
Speaker 1: The Occasional Human Sacrifice.
5:10
Speaker 2: By Carl Elliott.
5:13
Speaker 1: Willowbrook, The Last Great Disgrace by Rado RIVERA vaccinated one
5:19
Speaker 1: man's quest to defeat the world's deadliest diseases, by Paul
5:23
Speaker 1: Offitt and The Horrors of Willowbrook State School by Kristin Dalton.
5:30
Speaker 1: Isosidine comfortably good, then let's begin. There are few things
5:36
Speaker 1: as terrible and terrifying as state sanctioned systematic abuse under
5:43
Speaker 1: the guise of help and care all for the betterment
5:48
Speaker 1: of society. Residential schools, the Magdalen Laundries, homes for wayward youths, bedlam,
5:56
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. But to day I am
5:59
Speaker 1: going to be telling you all about the disturbing history
6:03
Speaker 1: of Willowbrook State School. Built on three hundred and eighty
6:08
Speaker 1: acres in the heart of Staten Island, New York, Willowbrook
6:13
Speaker 1: State School was a state run institution, and it was
6:17
Speaker 1: originally conceived as a care facility where they would be
6:23
Speaker 1: support and education and proper care for children with intellectual disabilities.
6:31
Speaker 1: Its purpose was to provide assistance in support to children
6:35
Speaker 1: with additional needs who otherwise would not have access to this. Instead,
6:41
Speaker 1: it was a warehouse for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
6:47
Speaker 1: Committed to the institution, they would suffer neglect, abuse, and
6:53
Speaker 1: even inhumane unethical experimentation. From what it was conceived in
6:59
Speaker 1: the ninety thirties up to its eventual closure in the
7:03
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. Willowbrook exists as a reminder of the injustice
7:09
Speaker 1: faced by some of the most vulnerable people in society
7:14
Speaker 1: from way back when, all through history up until now
7:19
Speaker 1: the modern day, and the suffering of the residents of
7:22
Speaker 1: Willowbrook State School was largely ignored, avoided, or hidden from
7:29
Speaker 1: the general public. That was up until an expose by
7:34
Speaker 1: investigative journalist Heraldo Rivera that lifted the lid on exactly
7:39
Speaker 1: what was happening inside the state run institution, an expose
7:44
Speaker 1: that would go on to have a massive impact on
7:47
Speaker 1: disability rights and advocacy and even basic human rights. But
7:54
Speaker 1: even after the lid was lifted on this, it would
7:57
Speaker 1: be several years before the school would have enally be
8:00
Speaker 1: shut down. And now that you know how it ends,
8:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to take you back to the beginning. So
8:06
Speaker 1: back in the day, there wasn't really a great level
8:09
Speaker 1: of understanding when it came to disabilities, you know, either
8:13
Speaker 1: physical or intellectual.
8:15
Speaker 2: There wasn't a huge lot of knowledge on that.
8:19
Speaker 1: Generally, if someone had any sort of intellectual disability or
8:23
Speaker 1: learning difficulty, or they would have epilepsy or a physical abnormality,
8:29
Speaker 1: many times they would be shipped off to an institution,
8:34
Speaker 1: sometimes an asylum, sometimes a special hospital, and so on.
8:41
Speaker 1: And we have to consider as well that this is
8:44
Speaker 1: a period of time where eugenics is massive, like it
8:48
Speaker 1: is making waves all through Europe. I'm sure you can
8:51
Speaker 1: guess where, well, not just the bad place, not just
8:54
Speaker 1: the Nazis. It's not just the Nazis. You know, there's
8:58
Speaker 1: all this concept of purity and race and all this stuff.
9:02
Speaker 1: It's in the US, it's in Europe. You've got Winston
9:06
Speaker 1: Churchill who's like super into eugenics, but we'll discuss him
9:10
Speaker 1: another time because I don't have time for that today.
9:15
Speaker 1: So compared to all this, Willowbrook is just like a
9:21
Speaker 1: fairy tale almost. And and you know, I'm going to
9:24
Speaker 1: have to apologize for some of the language I'm going
9:27
Speaker 1: to use in this. I'm not going to say the
9:28
Speaker 1: really bad stuff because I'm just not going to do
9:30
Speaker 1: it because I don't believe in it. Because the R
9:32
Speaker 1: word shows up in here and I don't respect that.
9:36
Speaker 1: I will not use that word. I refuse. I refuse
9:39
Speaker 1: to use such a derogatory term.
9:41
Speaker 2: It's not happening.
9:43
Speaker 1: But I will have to use others which I feel
9:46
Speaker 1: are not as bad because they're mainly more of a
9:49
Speaker 1: historical reference as opposed to a modern slur. So, in
9:55
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, when the plans were drawn up for
9:57
Speaker 1: Willowbrook referred to as a school for mental defectives, I
10:04
Speaker 1: don't like that. I don't feel comfortable saying that. It
10:06
Speaker 1: makes my skin crawl. It makes me feel dirty, and
10:09
Speaker 1: not in the good way. Now, remember what I said
10:13
Speaker 1: about a lack of understanding about people with disabilities.
10:19
Speaker 2: Okay, good.
10:20
Speaker 1: So the general consensus was that it would be best
10:23
Speaker 1: for everyone, for the disabled people, for the families of
10:29
Speaker 1: the disabled people, for society in general, that it would
10:34
Speaker 1: be best to remove intellectually disabled people from general society,
10:40
Speaker 1: from their families and place them in institutions. The idea
10:46
Speaker 1: was that institutions could provide twenty four seven care, specialized
10:51
Speaker 1: care for people with intellectual disabilities, support that the families
10:58
Speaker 1: could not provide. This was just pumped out constantly. It
11:02
Speaker 1: was very much a societal norm because this was being
11:07
Speaker 1: pumped out by like every level of society. The government
11:12
Speaker 1: was saying it. You have politicians spouting it, you have
11:15
Speaker 1: doctors telling you this. Your doctor is telling you that
11:18
Speaker 1: your child would be better off in one of these places.
11:23
Speaker 1: And then if they're saying it, and all these officials
11:25
Speaker 1: are saying it, all these high ranking members of society
11:29
Speaker 1: are pushing the same narrative, then other members, your neighbors,
11:34
Speaker 1: your friends, they're all going to be churning out the
11:37
Speaker 1: same stuff. And so parents genuinely believed that their children
11:44
Speaker 1: would have a much better life in an institution than
11:47
Speaker 1: they would in their care. And everybody thinks this is
11:51
Speaker 1: a great plan, and they're like, let's just start building
11:53
Speaker 1: this special school. Absolutely, let's do this, And so the
11:58
Speaker 1: plans are drawn up in nineteen thirty eight and they
12:00
Speaker 1: start construction, so we're talking a year before the start
12:05
Speaker 1: of the Second World War, and the building is finally
12:08
Speaker 1: completed all up to cod by nineteen forty two. Instead
12:13
Speaker 1: of starting its life as a school, the building was
12:16
Speaker 1: repurposed as an army hospital and it was renamed the
12:21
Speaker 1: Hallerin General Hospital after the late Colonel Paul's Deacy Hallerin.
12:26
Speaker 1: When the Second World War ends, they're trying to figure
12:30
Speaker 1: out what to do with the building, and they go
12:32
Speaker 1: back and forth away bit and they are considering giving
12:36
Speaker 1: it to the veterans Administration, which is this branch of
12:40
Speaker 1: the US federal government which exists solely to provide lifelong
12:45
Speaker 1: healthcare for military veterans, sorry, eligible military veterans. Eventually, this
12:52
Speaker 1: idea is KiB washed, and they decide to go with
12:54
Speaker 1: their original plan and turn it back into a state school.
13:00
Speaker 1: And in October nineteen forty seven, the New York State
13:03
Speaker 1: Department of Mental Hygiene, Yes that is a real thing,
13:08
Speaker 1: finally officially opens Willow Bookstores and starts taking in residence.
13:13
Speaker 1: And people were champing at the bit to get their
13:15
Speaker 1: kids in here. Now, this wasn't like the first institution
13:19
Speaker 1: of its kind in the US, let alone anywhere else.
13:21
Speaker 1: They were like all of the shop they were all
13:23
Speaker 1: over Europe. There were some in the US, but the
13:26
Speaker 1: ones that were there already were quite small. There was
13:29
Speaker 1: nothing that had this capacity. So this was supposed to,
13:35
Speaker 1: I think, have four thousand children like that was the
13:39
Speaker 1: capacity of residents like initially, which is huge. Like nowhere
13:44
Speaker 1: else had had this. And as I said earlier, it
13:49
Speaker 1: was accepted and expected and demanded even in certain parts
13:56
Speaker 1: that parents of intellectually disabled children should send them to
14:01
Speaker 1: these institutions. And we really need to take into consideration
14:05
Speaker 1: that this is a period of time where these people
14:08
Speaker 1: would have suffered through things like the Great Depression and
14:11
Speaker 1: the Second World War, and the information and education that
14:16
Speaker 1: they had was what was being provided to them. There
14:20
Speaker 1: wasn't even a remotely accessible level of information or education
14:26
Speaker 1: that we have today, even though today we still have
14:28
Speaker 1: barriers to education. Back in the nineteen thirties nineteen forties,
14:34
Speaker 1: so much worse, just so much worse. And so these
14:38
Speaker 1: people believed that this was the best option for them,
14:42
Speaker 1: that children would get the best care possible, more than
14:46
Speaker 1: they could possibly provide, and a lot of doctors at
14:51
Speaker 1: the time, a lot of medical professionals believed that this
14:54
Speaker 1: was the right thing to do, that this was where
14:57
Speaker 1: people were supposed to be sending their children, to give
15:01
Speaker 1: them a better life, to provide them with the extra
15:06
Speaker 1: attention and support and give them the right therapies that
15:09
Speaker 1: they need in order for them to be ah be better.
15:15
Speaker 1: And it's gonna get worse. It always gets worse. So
15:20
Speaker 1: you have to remember also that this is a society
15:24
Speaker 1: which exists on the labor of women, and a culture
15:28
Speaker 1: that is trying to reinforce the concept of the nuclear
15:32
Speaker 1: family and the idea that a woman's place is in
15:36
Speaker 1: the home, taking care of her husband and taking care
15:39
Speaker 1: of her children and the house and whatever, so that
15:42
Speaker 1: he can work all day and provide financially for the
15:46
Speaker 1: entire family. Because remember, during the war, a lot of
15:50
Speaker 1: women would have taken up what would have been seen
15:53
Speaker 1: as more masculine roles because they had to. They had
15:57
Speaker 1: to pull their socks up and do their bit for
15:58
Speaker 1: the war effort, had to take over the jobs that
16:01
Speaker 1: men were not there to do because men were out
16:03
Speaker 1: there fighting a war. And so they wanted to push
16:07
Speaker 1: women back in the home. This is after women got
16:11
Speaker 1: you know, started to get education and started to get
16:13
Speaker 1: all this other stuff. They were like, no, back, you
16:16
Speaker 1: go back there. And how is a woman supposed to
16:21
Speaker 1: ensure that she has the house cleaned and a wonderful
16:25
Speaker 1: three course meal cooked for her hobby when he comes
16:27
Speaker 1: home at night, and still create more children care for
16:32
Speaker 1: them if she spends all of her time caring for
16:35
Speaker 1: a child with additional needs, that's what part of this
16:41
Speaker 1: is from. And this is seen as the right thing
16:44
Speaker 1: to do so that they can receive the right care wink,
16:49
Speaker 1: and so that she can get back to doing what
16:51
Speaker 1: she needs to do, and so many people, many parents
16:57
Speaker 1: sent their children to willow Brook because these are professionals,
17:02
Speaker 1: people who are trained to care for these children, and
17:05
Speaker 1: so off they were sent.
17:09
Speaker 2: And then you have the waiting list.
17:10
Speaker 1: Which was massive, like thousands, thousands of names on this
17:16
Speaker 1: waiting list because people were so.
17:19
Speaker 2: Desperate for this.
17:21
Speaker 1: Because of course publicity pr the way that it presented
17:25
Speaker 1: itself when it opened it was I'm gonna call it
17:28
Speaker 1: the movie magic. You know, you have like photos in
17:31
Speaker 1: the papers. It was showing it being lovely. How the
17:34
Speaker 1: staff are caring for the children. You know, you got
17:37
Speaker 1: loads of staff and they're feeding children and playing with
17:40
Speaker 1: them and teaching them stuff. They are making them functioning
17:44
Speaker 1: members of society, which is the goal.
17:48
Speaker 2: Which is the goal.
17:48
Speaker 1: It's the American dream. Anybody can be anything. They're going
17:53
Speaker 1: to take your child and they're going to turn them
17:57
Speaker 1: into a valuable men of society, valuable and productive. Now
18:04
Speaker 1: this is reminding anybody of the Outer World's video game. Anyway,
18:10
Speaker 1: The way that Willowbrook was being presented was very much
18:14
Speaker 1: a facad and not the reality.
18:16
Speaker 2: Because from the get go, they did.
18:18
Speaker 1: Not have enough bodies on the floor, they did not
18:21
Speaker 1: have enough staff to cover the amount of children that
18:24
Speaker 1: they had to care for, and it would continue to
18:27
Speaker 1: not have enough staff because it would keep accepting more
18:30
Speaker 1: and more residents without having the correct number of people
18:33
Speaker 1: to care for them. And you might be thinking to yourself,
18:36
Speaker 1: it's got residential capacity of four thousand, like, there's plenty
18:39
Speaker 1: of space.
18:40
Speaker 2: There's not going to be overcrowding.
18:42
Speaker 1: You would be wrong, because they just keep taking kids.
18:48
Speaker 1: They just keep accepting more. In nineteen fifty three, they've
18:54
Speaker 1: got three thousand residents, which is like, fine, that's good,
18:57
Speaker 1: that's under capacity. Fine, they have one thousand more by
19:02
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, just two years later, which is maximum
19:07
Speaker 1: four thousand bids done, and then a short while there
19:10
Speaker 1: were over six thousand residents and the place simply did
19:16
Speaker 1: not have the staff to keep up with this. I
19:20
Speaker 1: don't want to say growth, because they're just accepting people
19:24
Speaker 1: in and the Department of Mental Hygiene, well, it's not
19:29
Speaker 1: providing enough funding to cover the staff that it needs.
19:34
Speaker 1: You know, it is cutting the budget down and down,
19:37
Speaker 1: whittling it way. And at one point there was like
19:40
Speaker 1: one attendant, like one member of staff for every fifty children,
19:47
Speaker 1: like that's that's too many. There is too many, and
19:51
Speaker 1: it only gets worse from there because that would be
19:55
Speaker 1: hard enough. Like have you ever seen like one teacher
19:59
Speaker 1: try and look after like fifty four year olds for example,
20:03
Speaker 1: Like that's too many, Like that is too many for
20:05
Speaker 1: one person. And then add in the fact that these
20:10
Speaker 1: are children with additional needs who all need individual levels
20:14
Speaker 1: of care, Like there's no way that one staff member
20:19
Speaker 1: is going to be able to care sufficiently for all
20:23
Speaker 1: of these children who are in this institution because they're
20:28
Speaker 1: supposed to be getting this extra support and care. There
20:33
Speaker 1: would be some kids there who only need like a
20:36
Speaker 1: wee bit of taking care of, just like the basics,
20:39
Speaker 1: and then others would need just like one hundred twenty
20:43
Speaker 1: four to seven support, like they would need specialized care again,
20:50
Speaker 1: which is what this place is supposed to be providing.
20:53
Speaker 1: Like they have this report. They have this report and
20:59
Speaker 1: it uses they are works, and I'm not going to
21:00
Speaker 1: use it, So I'm just going to say intellectually disabled.
21:06
Speaker 1: So seventy percent of the children in Willow Book were
21:12
Speaker 1: severely or profoundly intellectually disabled. Sixty four percent were unable
21:19
Speaker 1: to feed themselves, sixty percent were not toilet trained or
21:24
Speaker 1: weren't able to go to the toilet unassisted. Thirty nine
21:28
Speaker 1: percent were physically disabled in a way that would prevent
21:32
Speaker 1: them from being able to walk or move anywhere unassisted.
21:36
Speaker 1: They were not ambulatory effectively, and thirty percent of the
21:42
Speaker 1: residents had seizeals convulsive seizures, so like epilepsy, things like that.
21:50
Speaker 1: There were children here that really really needed care, extra
21:55
Speaker 1: care like nowadays. Nowadays, these children who require the specialized care,
22:01
Speaker 1: this one to one care would receive one to one care.
22:05
Speaker 1: They would have a care or a nurse or someone
22:10
Speaker 1: specifically one to one looking after them, not them, and
22:14
Speaker 1: forty nine of our children now in wallow Book. For
22:19
Speaker 1: the children who could do it, who had the capabilities
22:24
Speaker 1: and who could physically attend, there were like a few
22:28
Speaker 1: training programs going on. But they remember willow Brook is
22:33
Speaker 1: a state school, so there has to be some level
22:37
Speaker 1: of education happening, and so they have to be providing
22:41
Speaker 1: some level of education or training and they do the
22:45
Speaker 1: beare fucking minimum. Like over the six thousand residents that
22:48
Speaker 1: were here that were in wallow Brook, eighty percent of
22:52
Speaker 1: them did not attend any sort of class. So for
22:56
Speaker 1: the twenty percent who could go fantastic for them I mean,
23:00
Speaker 1: not fantastic, but better than the other eighty percent who
23:05
Speaker 1: couldn't because they were just left of their own devices.
23:09
Speaker 1: A lot of the time, there wasn't anything for them.
23:12
Speaker 1: There was nothing to stimulate them. They weren't getting physical therapy,
23:15
Speaker 1: they weren't doing activities. There was nothing for them. And
23:20
Speaker 1: these kids are just sitting around like doing nothing, having
23:26
Speaker 1: nothing to stimulate them, either like physically or mentally. They've
23:29
Speaker 1: got nothing like They're basically abandoned and left to their
23:34
Speaker 1: own devices in an overcrowded, understaffed building. Even the director,
23:41
Speaker 1: the director of Willowbrook State School, doctor Jack Hammond, he
23:46
Speaker 1: said that the overcrowding made supervision, treatment, care, and possible
23:53
Speaker 1: training of the patients difficult, if not impossible. This is
23:57
Speaker 1: the guy running the joint. Have you consider not having
24:01
Speaker 1: as many kids in there?
24:03
Speaker 2: Have you? Perhaps?
24:04
Speaker 1: No? He goes on to say that when the patients are,
24:11
Speaker 1: you know, up in the day rooms, they're all like
24:13
Speaker 1: they're all stuffed in together. They are hurting each other,
24:18
Speaker 1: they are hurting themselves, they're ruining their clothing, and they
24:22
Speaker 1: are soiling themselves, so urinating, defecating that it's happening. And
24:31
Speaker 1: he says that at nighttime because the way they have
24:34
Speaker 1: to like put them in the dorms, the beds all
24:38
Speaker 1: have to be like smashed together to make like larger beds,
24:41
Speaker 1: so they cannot fit.
24:43
Speaker 2: And in order to get to some.
24:46
Speaker 1: Of the kids sometimes you would have to physically climb
24:48
Speaker 1: over the beds. And that is the director of willow
24:55
Speaker 1: Brook State School. That is the director who is providing
24:58
Speaker 1: this information. Institution was overcrowded and underfunded because they had
25:03
Speaker 1: no budget. They had nothing, and it just got worse
25:08
Speaker 1: and worse as the years went on. So not only
25:12
Speaker 1: have they got no budget, they're already struggling to afford
25:15
Speaker 1: the staff they have and the conditions are not great
25:20
Speaker 1: for the staff, so they're not exactly keeping as much
25:23
Speaker 1: as they would like.
25:25
Speaker 2: So it loses like.
25:29
Speaker 1: Six hundred employees right because they have to cut staff
25:33
Speaker 1: and they just can't replace them for several reasons. One
25:36
Speaker 1: they can't afford to. And then in the nineteen sixties
25:43
Speaker 1: there's this complete hiring phrase in New York State because you.
25:48
Speaker 2: Know, the economy not going well. Things are not.
25:51
Speaker 1: Going well in New York State, and so hiring phrase
25:55
Speaker 1: through all government programs, which this is part of because
25:58
Speaker 1: this is from the Department Mental Hygiene, and so in
26:04
Speaker 1: was it nineteen seventy one, nineteen seventy two that fiscal year,
26:10
Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty million dollars was given to the
26:13
Speaker 1: Department of Hygiene, which is cut down to like six
26:18
Speaker 1: hundred million and then five hundred and eighty million, So
26:21
Speaker 1: they're just cutting it down, right, So willow Brook is
26:23
Speaker 1: getting sweet fu call. And after this, Willowbrook loses was
26:30
Speaker 1: it two hundred more members of staff. And this is
26:35
Speaker 1: when the shit just hits the fan, because in order
26:38
Speaker 1: for it to function, you know, as what it's meant
26:41
Speaker 1: to be, they need double the amount of money per patient.
26:45
Speaker 1: And that's before things get tough. And they don't have
26:50
Speaker 1: the budget for staff, and they don't have enough of anything.
26:54
Speaker 1: And the thing about the staff, the staff at Willowbrook
26:57
Speaker 1: States School, you have many of them which are just
27:01
Speaker 1: trying to get by, and there are some who care
27:05
Speaker 1: for these kids.
27:05
Speaker 2: And a lot of them are doing their very best. Now.
27:08
Speaker 1: Of course, there's always band apples. There are reports of
27:13
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and things like that, but there's not enough
27:17
Speaker 1: evidence because a lot of the people that were assaulted
27:23
Speaker 1: and attacked and abused could not come up and name
27:28
Speaker 1: their attacker. They could not give evidence because a lot
27:33
Speaker 1: of these children or non veribal or did not have
27:37
Speaker 1: the capacity to convey those words, and so the case
27:41
Speaker 1: ends up being dropped.
27:42
Speaker 2: But that's later on.
27:45
Speaker 1: But a lot of the staff they are just doing
27:47
Speaker 1: their best. But when you've got one staff member for
27:51
Speaker 1: fifty children, and some of these children cannot physically feed themselves,
27:56
Speaker 1: Like if you're spoon feeding fifty children, like that's that's
28:04
Speaker 1: gonna take you so much time. You're not gonna be
28:06
Speaker 1: able to get through fifty children and have a meal
28:09
Speaker 1: still be warm. You'd be lucky if it was tepids. Like,
28:13
Speaker 1: it's not Baby Bill's porridge here. It's not just right.
28:16
Speaker 1: Things are gonna be tough. And so in order to
28:20
Speaker 1: ensure all the children were fed, staff had these targets
28:23
Speaker 1: to hit and they were supposed to feed each child
28:26
Speaker 1: between two and three minutes like each time. So you
28:29
Speaker 1: can just imagine it. You've got a child with additional
28:33
Speaker 1: needs and you are force feeding them, and these are
28:37
Speaker 1: kids of all ages, Like a lot of the time
28:40
Speaker 1: kids don't want to eat the stuff you're giving them,
28:43
Speaker 1: you know, and they're having to force this foot into
28:46
Speaker 1: the child and if they don't do it, if they
28:50
Speaker 1: don't feed this kid in this time period, one of
28:53
Speaker 1: the other kids is not gonna eat. Like if they
28:56
Speaker 1: don't get through this row of kids, somebody in the
28:59
Speaker 1: end is going to starve, and that is what they
29:02
Speaker 1: have in their mind. Now I'm going to point out
29:05
Speaker 1: that there were many many deaths at this school, and
29:07
Speaker 1: I will go over them later, but there are several
29:10
Speaker 1: recorded deaths, which is different, many of which are due
29:14
Speaker 1: to choking. And this can directly directly be connected with
29:20
Speaker 1: this with the force feeding, a lot of children choked
29:24
Speaker 1: because they were just being stuffed, like food was just
29:28
Speaker 1: being shoveled down their gullet and they they sometimes weren't
29:33
Speaker 1: able to deal with that, and staff might not have
29:36
Speaker 1: noticed or been able to help because they're dealing with
29:39
Speaker 1: all these other children who need them. And this caused
29:43
Speaker 1: like so many other problems because of the overcrowding, because
29:47
Speaker 1: of the manner in which they were having to be
29:49
Speaker 1: physically close, and because the way they had to get
29:52
Speaker 1: around each other, Like kids would end up with all
29:56
Speaker 1: of these diseases and you know, things would bread, They
30:01
Speaker 1: would get pneumonia, which is so common, they would have
30:04
Speaker 1: parasites and lice and everything that would go around.
30:08
Speaker 2: They'd get it.
30:10
Speaker 1: Like there were staff members who would talk about feeding
30:13
Speaker 1: time and if they wanted to give them like treats,
30:17
Speaker 1: if they gave them like sweets or candy or cookies
30:21
Speaker 1: instead of physically handing them out to the children, like
30:24
Speaker 1: in order to give it to them, they would throw
30:27
Speaker 1: it on the floor and make them scramble for it.
30:31
Speaker 1: Wll not make them, but they were, Like one staff
30:34
Speaker 1: member said, it was like feeding time at the zoo.
30:38
Speaker 1: These are fucking children, children with needs, children who deserve
30:46
Speaker 1: deserve care, and you're putting them through trauma and stress
30:50
Speaker 1: and pain. Like again, some of the staff members are
30:54
Speaker 1: doing it because they don't have any other way to
30:57
Speaker 1: do it, and otherwise it just.
30:58
Speaker 2: Seems like such a sick, fucking joke. Now think about this.
31:07
Speaker 1: You've got all these staff members who don't have time
31:10
Speaker 1: to probably feed the children like they're one to fifty.
31:15
Speaker 2: Like you think they're going to be dressing them.
31:18
Speaker 1: So a lot of the time, a lot of these kids,
31:20
Speaker 1: the kids who could not do things with themselves, they
31:24
Speaker 1: were left to stew some naked, some nappies, some in
31:30
Speaker 1: some kind of NightWare. Some in something old, dirty something.
31:37
Speaker 1: And if you thought this was bad, don't worry, it
31:40
Speaker 1: gets much worse. Because they had to move the children
31:45
Speaker 1: around the institution. They ended up using these wooden rolling carts.
31:52
Speaker 1: Like originally they were for children with physical disabilities who
31:56
Speaker 1: could not move around, and so they would be put
31:58
Speaker 1: on these rolling carts and so they sort of adjusted
32:01
Speaker 1: them and called them and I shit, you not cripple cuts.
32:08
Speaker 2: Yep. And they would just stuff kids.
32:12
Speaker 1: Into these and transport them all around the place. But
32:17
Speaker 1: because they would just shove them in, it was such
32:19
Speaker 1: a hassle getting them all in a lot of the
32:21
Speaker 1: time they would just leave them in there, just moving
32:25
Speaker 1: them around the place and putting them in one room
32:27
Speaker 1: and then leaving them in this room for hours, like
32:34
Speaker 1: just unable to move, unable to your stuffed. People are
32:41
Speaker 1: breathing on you like no wonder, kids are getting sick,
32:44
Speaker 1: kids are probably soiling themselves. So you know this is
32:48
Speaker 1: for some this is all have known and this is
32:51
Speaker 1: what they're going through day today. And again some of
32:54
Speaker 1: the staff are trying and they were afraid to leave
32:57
Speaker 1: because there's a hiring freeze. They go, who's going to
33:01
Speaker 1: look after these kids? It's going to be even harder
33:04
Speaker 1: for these kids to receive any kind of care, especially
33:07
Speaker 1: the care they need. And even if there wasn't a
33:11
Speaker 1: hiring phrase, who would walk into this establishment and want
33:16
Speaker 1: a job here?
33:17
Speaker 2: It is.
33:19
Speaker 1: Filthy, It is clearly overcrowded, like your workload is going
33:25
Speaker 1: to be massive and your pay is not going to
33:29
Speaker 1: be great. Like and many staff members, they try to
33:33
Speaker 1: get word out there, they tried to get help, they
33:35
Speaker 1: tried to you know, raise awareness, but you know, society
33:42
Speaker 1: people just weren't listening to them. Like there's this interview
33:46
Speaker 1: with Diane bugli Oke, and Diane she's like, given this
33:51
Speaker 1: massive heavy key, and she's like, okay, this is a
33:54
Speaker 1: very massive steel key. What's this all about? She's nineteen,
33:58
Speaker 1: I think. And she goes to this heavy door and
34:01
Speaker 1: she's like, wow, that's a big door. And she goes
34:04
Speaker 1: to a second metal door and she's freaking out because
34:08
Speaker 1: she's like, what the hell is behind two heavy metal doors.
34:12
Speaker 1: That's so scary that you need two metal doors to
34:16
Speaker 1: contain it. And then she goes through a third heavy
34:20
Speaker 1: metal door and she goes into this room and she
34:24
Speaker 1: is ready to freak out at this point because what
34:27
Speaker 1: is so scary and terrifying that it has to be
34:30
Speaker 1: held back by these three heavy doors, like what's in here?
34:37
Speaker 1: What is so bad? And she gets into the room
34:42
Speaker 1: and instead of a big scary monster, it's toddlers. Forty toddlers.
34:52
Speaker 1: Some are sitting down, some are toddling over to her,
34:57
Speaker 1: some ask her her name, toddler, Like that's what's hidden
35:01
Speaker 1: behind this door, like these small children. And this is
35:05
Speaker 1: how you know that they just keep accepting kids in
35:08
Speaker 1: because there's no way that they're accepting a baby, you know.
35:12
Speaker 1: And it just gets me thinking, like how could a toddler?
35:15
Speaker 1: How can someone so small and so young end up
35:17
Speaker 1: in an institution like this? In order for them to
35:20
Speaker 1: be there, there has to be at least some perceived
35:24
Speaker 1: idea of an intellectual disability. So think about it. Think
35:29
Speaker 1: about how a toddler ends up in a place like this.
35:33
Speaker 1: You'd have to have kids with cerebral palsy or down syndrome,
35:39
Speaker 1: you know, something physical that people can see, or children
35:45
Speaker 1: who develop differently like you're divergent kids, so like autistic kids,
35:51
Speaker 1: or like somebody congenitally deaf, like somebody born with hearing difficulties,
35:57
Speaker 1: like all of this, all of this will play into that,
36:01
Speaker 1: and they're being put in this room, locked behind three
36:06
Speaker 1: steel doors, monsters as far as society is concerned, because
36:12
Speaker 1: they have to be locked away. So this feels like
36:14
Speaker 1: a really good time to hear word from our sponsors,
36:17
Speaker 1: unless you're listening ad free somewhere, in which case, enjoy
36:20
Speaker 1: a moment of silence. Mints in American history. So remember,
36:28
Speaker 1: this is an institution specifically designed for children with intellectual disabilities.
36:35
Speaker 1: It is overcrowded, There were a lack of facilities, there
36:38
Speaker 1: were a lack of hygiene facilities, toilets. There just isn't
36:42
Speaker 1: enough for everyone, and so disease and illness spreads pretty
36:47
Speaker 1: quickly throughout this place. And so children are spending a
36:53
Speaker 1: lot of the time covered in their own excrement, which
36:57
Speaker 1: makes the spread of disease very pretty rife.
37:01
Speaker 2: Like if you are a.
37:04
Speaker 1: Parent, or if you know somebody who has small children,
37:08
Speaker 1: like when kids start school, everybody gets sick. We call
37:12
Speaker 1: it the back to school lurgay. Now, that is with
37:15
Speaker 1: the kids who spend a fair amount of time with
37:18
Speaker 1: each other but are not smothered in their own facal
37:21
Speaker 1: matter and having to go top to toe sardines in
37:24
Speaker 1: a dormitory or in a cart. So, yes, disease is
37:28
Speaker 1: pretty rife. You've got parasites, you've got pneumonia, and most importantly,
37:33
Speaker 1: you have hepatitis. So nowadays we know that there are
37:37
Speaker 1: many strains of hepatitis and they all do sort of
37:40
Speaker 1: similar stuff. Like you can get hepatitis if you have
37:43
Speaker 1: a kidney infection that is untreated, like you can get
37:47
Speaker 1: hepatitis from that. You can get it from blood, you
37:50
Speaker 1: can get it from bad water sources and sexually transmitted infections,
37:55
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. So hepatitis, like most strain,
38:00
Speaker 1: they affect you know, the liver, and the symptoms are
38:05
Speaker 1: all quite unpleasant. You've got a high temperature, you've got
38:10
Speaker 1: like sickness, fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach pain, itchy skin,
38:17
Speaker 1: your urine is dark, you've got joint pain, muscle pain,
38:22
Speaker 1: and your eyes yellow, so like the white of the
38:26
Speaker 1: eye becomes yellow. And so post World War Two it
38:32
Speaker 1: was discovered that around fifty thousand US soldiers had contracted
38:36
Speaker 1: the disease during the war, and so there was a
38:40
Speaker 1: great interest in finding a cure. Now, this being the past,
38:45
Speaker 1: they didn't really know that much.
38:46
Speaker 2: About the disease.
38:47
Speaker 1: One thing they did know is that it was rampant
38:50
Speaker 1: in Willowbrook State School. And so doctor Saul Quigman, who
38:55
Speaker 1: was a pediatrician, a doctor for children in him and
39:01
Speaker 1: his partner, doctor Jan Giles, they contacted Willowbrook. They're like, hey,
39:07
Speaker 1: can we come in and like maybe do some experiments
39:10
Speaker 1: on the intellectually disabled children?
39:13
Speaker 2: Great?
39:14
Speaker 1: Thanks, and the Department of Mental Hygiene signs off on it.
39:17
Speaker 1: They're like, yes, you are more than welcome to conduct
39:20
Speaker 1: this experiment on these vulnerable children who cannot consent. Because
39:26
Speaker 1: Krugman had been working on this vaccine, this hepatitis vaccine,
39:30
Speaker 1: and he had been looking at willow Brook and he
39:33
Speaker 1: knew that within six months most new children, new residents,
39:38
Speaker 1: had contracted hepatitis. And so his plan was to get
39:42
Speaker 1: a bunch of new residents in use his vaccine prototype
39:47
Speaker 1: on these children and then see if they contracted hepatitis
39:51
Speaker 1: within those six months. And Krugman did not lack for
39:56
Speaker 1: test subjects because Willowbrook, even though an underfunded, overcrowded state institution,
40:05
Speaker 1: it had a massive, massive waiting list, and Krugman would
40:10
Speaker 1: show up and would tell parents, you know, if you
40:12
Speaker 1: allow me to test this vaccine on your kid, you'll
40:15
Speaker 1: be bumped to the top of the list. And like
40:18
Speaker 1: his test subjects would have like a slightly nicer area
40:22
Speaker 1: to live in, so like he saw that things were
40:26
Speaker 1: not great there, and he's like, Wow, what a great
40:28
Speaker 1: place to have this experiment as opposed to let's fix
40:32
Speaker 1: the problem. So one mother actually talked about this because
40:37
Speaker 1: you had to get the parents consent to perform experiments
40:41
Speaker 1: on their children, which is why so many experiments happen
40:44
Speaker 1: on orphans. More on that another day, and there's this
40:48
Speaker 1: one mother who's like desperate to get her daughter onto
40:50
Speaker 1: Willow Book. She's been looking for help. She's been applying everyone,
40:53
Speaker 1: and she's been denied, denied, denied, although while doctors are
40:57
Speaker 1: telling her that Willow Book is the only place it's
41:00
Speaker 1: going to provide the specialized care that her daughter needs.
41:04
Speaker 1: And so she applies for Willowbrook and she's trying to
41:07
Speaker 1: get her in and she's told that if she allows
41:10
Speaker 1: her daughter to participate in this study that you know,
41:14
Speaker 1: everything's going to be fine. She's going to get the antidote.
41:18
Speaker 1: And like the mom actually asks, why are you testing
41:21
Speaker 1: this on children? Why aren't you testing her on monkeys,
41:25
Speaker 1: and she's told that it was too expensive to test
41:29
Speaker 1: on monkeys, and so eventually she's just kind of bullied
41:34
Speaker 1: and coerced into signing the consent form because she has
41:41
Speaker 1: no other option, Like she's told this is the only
41:44
Speaker 1: choice for her, and this is the way.
41:46
Speaker 2: To do it.
41:48
Speaker 1: But let's take a moment to consider that they conducted
41:51
Speaker 1: an experiment on children with disabilities because conducting an experiment
41:58
Speaker 1: on primates was too expensive. Now, whatever you feel about
42:03
Speaker 1: animal testing, this cannot be the better option nowadays. In
42:08
Speaker 1: order for any medicine, for any vaccine to be created,
42:12
Speaker 1: it has to go through massive testing, like there are
42:15
Speaker 1: very stringent approvals. It has to go through and it's
42:21
Speaker 1: supposed to go through a bunch of stuff before it
42:22
Speaker 1: gets to humans, like you're supposed to test it on
42:24
Speaker 1: other things before you put it on them, Like it's
42:26
Speaker 1: a whole whole thing. But this is the fifties and
42:31
Speaker 1: the Department of Mental Hygiene says yes, and the parents
42:34
Speaker 1: are basically being forced to SIGND consent forms to allow
42:39
Speaker 1: this to happen.
42:40
Speaker 2: And Kuigman like.
42:41
Speaker 1: His justification is like, oh that the hepatitis in Willowbrook
42:45
Speaker 1: wasn't that bad, Like it wasn't severe, so it was
42:47
Speaker 1: fine to test the children, and like if we didn't
42:52
Speaker 1: vaccinate them, they were going to get infected anyway, so
42:54
Speaker 1: like why not why not perform this experiment on children?
43:00
Speaker 1: And like through his life, throughout his life, he's like,
43:03
Speaker 1: this was the right.
43:03
Speaker 2: Thing to do.
43:04
Speaker 1: I absolutely should have tested.
43:06
Speaker 2: It on these kids.
43:08
Speaker 1: Like he argues that it wasn't unethical because the kids
43:10
Speaker 1: were gonna get hepatitis anyway, and so like that's his
43:14
Speaker 1: first point. And then he says that hepatitis was like
43:18
Speaker 1: mild and kids between the ages of three and ten,
43:22
Speaker 1: so like it wasn't that bad, so it'd be easier
43:25
Speaker 1: to deal with and marriage. As far as he was concerned,
43:29
Speaker 1: the vaccine was going to make the children immune, so
43:32
Speaker 1: like that's good, and they would be moved into specialist
43:37
Speaker 1: units so they would be isolated from the other infection
43:41
Speaker 1: so they wouldn't get pneumonia or get the parasites or
43:44
Speaker 1: get all the other stuff. Like, dude, you're just pointing
43:48
Speaker 1: out that all the other bad stuff is happening. You
43:51
Speaker 1: could have been fixing this or calling attention to it,
43:54
Speaker 1: but no, no, just keep just keep doing studies on kids.
43:59
Speaker 2: That's hmmm. And like.
44:04
Speaker 1: He tries to argue that parents gave consent and that
44:06
Speaker 1: you know, they could tour the facility and they could
44:08
Speaker 1: ask questions, but like could they though, m and Krugman
44:15
Speaker 1: and Giles, they're conducting a ton of experiments on these
44:20
Speaker 1: kids in order to create a vaccine. So they would
44:26
Speaker 1: give them gamma globulin injections. So gamma globulin, by the way,
44:31
Speaker 1: is this blood plasma which has like antibodies in it,
44:35
Speaker 1: and it is taken from children who have already recovered
44:41
Speaker 1: from hepatitis. And so they would take this and they
44:45
Speaker 1: would inject it into children who had not yet been
44:50
Speaker 1: infected with hepatitis. The idea would be that it would
44:54
Speaker 1: induce immunity, right, And like they tried to do a
44:58
Speaker 1: control so they would have some kids who were just
45:01
Speaker 1: exposed to hepatitis without the gamma globulin, and then other
45:05
Speaker 1: children would have the gamma globulin and then be exposed.
45:09
Speaker 1: You might be wondering just how they exposed children to hepatitis,
45:15
Speaker 1: and it is worse than you could possibly imagine if
45:19
Speaker 1: you have a sensitive stomach. Now is the time to.
45:21
Speaker 2: Skip forward a minute. Quigman's team would.
45:25
Speaker 1: Take the faces of children infected with hepatitis. They would
45:30
Speaker 1: mix it with chocolate milk and then fed it to
45:34
Speaker 1: the uninfected children. They made children consume fecal matter. They
45:42
Speaker 1: chose to feed children faces that they knew was infected
45:47
Speaker 1: with disease, which is bad in itself, but also remember
45:52
Speaker 1: there were so many other illnesses and conditions which are
45:55
Speaker 1: just swarming around this institution, like you can't eat. Call
46:00
Speaker 1: that a controlled experiment because there were so many other
46:03
Speaker 1: things they could be contracting from this, Like who knows
46:07
Speaker 1: what parasites they're consuming. And also, this is the stuff
46:12
Speaker 1: we know about, Like if anything went wrong and they
46:16
Speaker 1: didn't get the results that they wanted, were the chances
46:19
Speaker 1: that we find the information? Like this is the stuff
46:23
Speaker 1: they're telling us about, And this is awful. This is
46:25
Speaker 1: making children consume other children's puh, like other sick children's puh.
46:35
Speaker 1: Like if this is what they're telling us, imagine what
46:37
Speaker 1: they're not. Like this whole experiment seems cruel, like beyond
46:43
Speaker 1: even regular cruelty, Like it feels unnecessarily cruel because they
46:48
Speaker 1: would get these children and they would infect them with disease.
46:51
Speaker 1: They would allow them to recover from the disease, and
46:54
Speaker 1: then they would reinfect them, like they wanted to see
46:59
Speaker 1: if any body who'd recover would remain immune or if
47:03
Speaker 1: they would be reinfected. And they were doing this to children,
47:10
Speaker 1: children between the ages of three and ten, children who
47:16
Speaker 1: had intellectual disabilities. Like you can argue that all he
47:21
Speaker 1: got really good results. He found vaccines, he was able
47:24
Speaker 1: to discover the differences between hepatitis A and hepatitis B,
47:29
Speaker 1: Like you can argue that the ends justifies the means,
47:34
Speaker 1: But there is every possibility that this was quack, you know,
47:38
Speaker 1: and that this man was just taking advantage of vulnerable children,
47:43
Speaker 1: which regardless is what he did because these children could
47:46
Speaker 1: not consent. These children were not willing participants. And up
47:53
Speaker 1: until the day he died, doctor Kuigman was like, I
47:56
Speaker 1: gave these kids a better life. You gave them hepatitis,
48:01
Speaker 1: and then sometimes you gave it to them again, and
48:05
Speaker 1: then you made them each shit motherfucker. And when you
48:09
Speaker 1: take into consideration the rest of his argument, like I
48:11
Speaker 1: gave them like a better standard of living. So the
48:14
Speaker 1: kids who were not involved in your experiment, you're like, fine,
48:18
Speaker 1: go wallow in your own faces or in a cripple
48:22
Speaker 1: Kurt at the other side of the hospital. That does
48:26
Speaker 1: not make you the good guy. All these other kids
48:28
Speaker 1: can suffer, but instead of helping them, I'm going to
48:31
Speaker 1: do this. And the fact of the matter is he's
48:34
Speaker 1: a pediatrician, he's a doctor, and the hippocratic oath do
48:41
Speaker 1: no harm. As if he wasn't doing harm. He failed
48:46
Speaker 1: in other doctors. They think he's amazing, he's brilliant, Like
48:50
Speaker 1: he's a genius. Like there's no denying he got results,
48:55
Speaker 1: there's no denying his contribution to medicine, how he worked
48:59
Speaker 1: on mesoes, rebela, hepatitis and all of this at Willow Book,
49:04
Speaker 1: Like he did that, and it's great that we have
49:07
Speaker 1: those advancements. But don't we think that there are ways
49:12
Speaker 1: he could have done this without experimenting on vulnerable children.
49:17
Speaker 1: And if you think the ends justify the means on there,
49:21
Speaker 1: do you have any idea what mases does to a
49:23
Speaker 1: child and is horrific? And like, I'm pro vaccine. I'm
49:27
Speaker 1: pro vaccine. I look at the evidence, I look at
49:30
Speaker 1: the science. I am pro vaccine. It makes sense. Okay,
49:34
Speaker 1: I'm going to get the flu vaccine this year and
49:37
Speaker 1: the pneumonia vaccine because I like being alive and I
49:40
Speaker 1: like my family members being alive, and so I'm going
49:43
Speaker 1: to take one for the team. Okay, Well, I have
49:47
Speaker 1: some oval side effects. Always, always, I always have a
49:49
Speaker 1: bad time because you have an immune response. And fine,
49:54
Speaker 1: I'll deal with that. I'll suffer through it. But I
49:56
Speaker 1: am an adult who can give informed consent. I am,
50:02
Speaker 1: so I will do it, and that my kids have
50:04
Speaker 1: the MMR. My kids have had every vaccine going because
50:08
Speaker 1: I like my children to stay alive. I really enjoy
50:11
Speaker 1: the fact that I don't have to worry about polio,
50:14
Speaker 1: Like polio should not be back, Like that's too much.
50:17
Speaker 1: But inoculating children with a disease which you know might
50:22
Speaker 1: actually kill them instead of helping them, because it's a prototype,
50:27
Speaker 1: that's unethical and can't be justified. Now, the hepatitis experiment
50:33
Speaker 1: was not the only one to happen at Willowbrook. They
50:36
Speaker 1: were testing out different drugs. They were testing genetic diseases.
50:41
Speaker 1: They were testing out rebella and measles and endochronological diseases.
50:46
Speaker 1: I cannot say that word properly. They were checking out
50:50
Speaker 1: electroshock treatment on intellectually disabled children, and like the place
50:56
Speaker 1: is so awful that when Bobby Kennedy Senator Robert F.
51:01
Speaker 1: Kennedy visits Willow Book in nineteen sixty five, he is shocked.
51:07
Speaker 1: Like he comes out and tells, like the media and
51:09
Speaker 1: the press that are waiting, that it is a snake pit,
51:13
Speaker 1: that there was a lack of adequate manpower, and that
51:16
Speaker 1: there is little or no future for the children in
51:19
Speaker 1: these institutions, and like he makes a point that it's
51:24
Speaker 1: not the people who work there, it's not the staff's fault.
51:27
Speaker 1: It's the people who run the institution. It's their fault
51:30
Speaker 1: for not providing an appropriate level of care to these children.
51:34
Speaker 1: And he comes out and he makes like a big
51:37
Speaker 1: statement about it, but nothing happens, like it just kind
51:40
Speaker 1: of blows over, and it's like an ostrich with its
51:44
Speaker 1: head in the sand, Like it's it's like that. I
51:46
Speaker 1: don't think ostrists actually do that, but anyway, it's like
51:49
Speaker 1: that idea of burying your head in the sand, like
51:52
Speaker 1: I see you no evil here, and I didn't see
51:55
Speaker 1: it. It didn't happen, you know. And some parents when they
51:59
Speaker 1: had given their children to the institution, for some they
52:02
Speaker 1: were washing their hands of their kids, like this was
52:05
Speaker 1: the best place for them, and they weren't. They weren't
52:08
Speaker 1: looking at it. They're like, no, this is the best thing,
52:10
Speaker 1: this is the right thing to do. Others were relieved
52:14
Speaker 1: to be free of quote unquote burden. Fucking hate that.
52:19
Speaker 1: And some parents though, some parents who even though they
52:25
Speaker 1: were hoping this was the best place for their children,
52:28
Speaker 1: they were angry. They were saying, fuck this for a
52:33
Speaker 1: game of soldiers. And they decide that they want change,
52:36
Speaker 1: and so they're trying to make change happen in these institutions,
52:42
Speaker 1: and they're trying to get stuff done, but there isn't
52:44
Speaker 1: any money, Like without funding, you can't do anything. And
52:50
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy one, Jane Curtain, she's this reporter. She
52:55
Speaker 1: goes in with this journalist, Eric Ertz, and they go
52:59
Speaker 1: into together and they sort of look around, they take photos,
53:03
Speaker 1: they investigate, and they publish a number of articles about
53:09
Speaker 1: what's happening in Willowbrook. And they are putting like physical
53:13
Speaker 1: evidence out there for the general public. And so they'd
53:18
Speaker 1: gone in and they were let in by two doctors
53:21
Speaker 1: at Willowbrook, Michael Wilkins and Bill Bronston. Like they'd been
53:26
Speaker 1: trying to get like stuff going on they were working
53:29
Speaker 1: and building six with children who really needed the most
53:34
Speaker 1: care in conditions that were fit for human habitation, and
53:39
Speaker 1: they knew it was tough. They knew it was bad,
53:41
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to leave because if they left,
53:43
Speaker 1: who would care for these kids? Like, if somebody did
53:46
Speaker 1: come in, it could be.
53:48
Speaker 2: Worse for them.
53:49
Speaker 1: And so they wanted to try and make as much
53:51
Speaker 1: noise and bring as much attention to these kids as possible.
53:56
Speaker 1: And so they contact Jane and they let her and
54:00
Speaker 1: Eric like into the building and like, come on, have
54:03
Speaker 1: a look, and they think, great, this is going to
54:07
Speaker 1: be the big thing. They publish the articles and they
54:10
Speaker 1: think this is going to make a change. Spoiler alert,
54:14
Speaker 1: it does not because people didn't want to believe it.
54:19
Speaker 1: They didn't want to believe that this was happening. It's
54:21
Speaker 1: cognitive dissonance, right. They were digging their heels in the sand,
54:25
Speaker 1: regardless how much evidence is presented to them. Because to
54:28
Speaker 1: people out with Willow Brick like, this was a wonderful place.
54:32
Speaker 1: It was providing you know, help and hope and support
54:37
Speaker 1: to you know, parents and the disabled children and all
54:42
Speaker 1: that jazz. Nothing bad could be happening there at all,
54:45
Speaker 1: And obviously Jane and Eric.
54:48
Speaker 2: They were just branded as sort.
54:50
Speaker 1: Of extremists, like goddamn hippies out here causing commotions. But
54:56
Speaker 1: you know who did believe them, parents, parents of these
55:01
Speaker 1: kids who very much cared for them, who would try
55:04
Speaker 1: and go visit, and they were told, you know, you
55:07
Speaker 1: can visit, but like you can't ask any questions about
55:10
Speaker 1: how everything's going, how they live, Like you weren't allowed
55:15
Speaker 1: to go visit the dorms or any of the sort
55:18
Speaker 1: of the day areas or all any of the places
55:21
Speaker 1: that the children were actually living in. They weren't allowed
55:24
Speaker 1: to see, and so they didn't get to see that,
55:29
Speaker 1: like it was kind of hidden, you know, it was
55:33
Speaker 1: deliberately hidden from them.
55:36
Speaker 2: Now, you can hit a lot of things.
55:37
Speaker 1: You can wash the kids' faces and put on a
55:40
Speaker 1: fresh change of clothes, but what you cannot get rid
55:44
Speaker 1: of is an entire building that has been wallowing in
55:48
Speaker 1: its filth for thirty years. Like you can't hide that,
55:54
Speaker 1: and so when you arrive in this place, you are
55:56
Speaker 1: going to be hit with a smell. Now, these parents,
55:58
Speaker 1: they started to organize, the unionize and get into groups
56:01
Speaker 1: because this was the only way they were going to
56:04
Speaker 1: combat what was happening. This was the only way they
56:06
Speaker 1: were going to get change. So doctor Jack Hammond, who
56:10
Speaker 1: was again mentioned earlier, the director of Wrot the book,
56:14
Speaker 1: so he hears about this and he bans staff from
56:18
Speaker 1: like communicating with parents. He's like, you're not allowed to
56:21
Speaker 1: do it. You're not allowed to go to these meetings.
56:24
Speaker 1: Like he was invited by the parents to come and
56:26
Speaker 1: like explain himself and do a public you know speech.
56:29
Speaker 2: Whatever.
56:30
Speaker 1: He refuses, obviously because he's already told his staff, like,
56:33
Speaker 1: do not communicate with these people. If you do, you're
56:37
Speaker 1: going to be fired.
56:40
Speaker 2: Now.
56:40
Speaker 1: Michael and Bill, the doctors from before who let in
56:43
Speaker 1: the fucking journalists, they're like, hmm, now we're still going
56:48
Speaker 1: to do it again.
56:50
Speaker 2: Fuck this for Game of Soldiers.
56:52
Speaker 1: And anyway, they get fired, which is bad obviously because
56:57
Speaker 1: they're you know, some of the few people actually try
57:00
Speaker 1: to care for these kids. But when they fire the
57:04
Speaker 1: two doctors, they forget to get them to return their keys,
57:10
Speaker 1: and so they still have them. And this is a
57:12
Speaker 1: building with no funding, you really think they're going to
57:15
Speaker 1: be you know, replacing the locks.
57:19
Speaker 2: The locks costs money. They're not going to do that.
57:23
Speaker 1: And so the very next day that they are like fired.
57:32
Speaker 1: Michael Wilkins. He happens to call a friend, a friend
57:36
Speaker 1: who happens to be an investigative journalist for Eyewitness News,
57:42
Speaker 1: Haraldo Rivira, and he's like, mat, things are bad, things
57:48
Speaker 1: are awful, and you have to like do something, and
57:52
Speaker 1: Heraldo's like, yeah, I can do something. I will. I
57:55
Speaker 1: will come film and expose a. And so they have
58:01
Speaker 1: a key and they just show up in Building six
58:05
Speaker 1: completely unannounced, like they come in and they just let
58:08
Speaker 1: themselves in. So film crew, graldo, the doctors, they just
58:13
Speaker 1: get them in. And so he films around and he
58:16
Speaker 1: films the condition. And he is so affected by this
58:20
Speaker 1: because there are children on the floor, covered in their
58:28
Speaker 1: own faces, naked on these unwashed wooden floors, and the smell,
58:37
Speaker 1: the smell is permeating, It burns the nostrils. Like he
58:43
Speaker 1: is deeply emotional and upset by this. They are children
58:47
Speaker 1: in these horrible, dirty conditions, uncared for not getting any treatments.
58:54
Speaker 1: They're fighting over scraps of paper like trying to communicate, try,
59:01
Speaker 1: and they're fucking suffering. These are children dealing with trauma.
59:07
Speaker 1: They're living a traumatic experience, whether they can or cannot
59:10
Speaker 1: convey that it doesn't change, that's what's happening to them.
59:14
Speaker 1: And so he takes this and the willow Brook like
59:21
Speaker 1: upper management, the guy's in charge, they are peste off.
59:26
Speaker 1: They are freaking out that a journalist was there, that
59:29
Speaker 1: they had a film careen and they are they're just mad,
59:35
Speaker 1: and so they think, you know what, we need to
59:37
Speaker 1: turn this on our head. And so they're like, you
59:40
Speaker 1: need to come back another day, like two days later.
59:42
Speaker 1: They're like, come back again and totally come see us.
59:46
Speaker 1: And when he comes back, the kids are, you know,
59:50
Speaker 1: they're well dressed, they're clean, there's staff members caring for them,
59:55
Speaker 1: they're getting attention, you know, like things are good.
59:59
Speaker 2: They're being properly attended to. And well that great.
1:00:04
Speaker 1: Like the place still smells and it's not wonderful, but
1:00:07
Speaker 1: it's better, you know, and there's like, okay, thanks, wonderful visitation.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: But obviously Heraldo's not done, is it. And so he
1:00:19
Speaker 1: shows up again unannounced for the second time, and the
1:00:25
Speaker 1: place is just as bad as it was the first time.
1:00:28
Speaker 1: It's filthy, the children are being left to their own devices,
1:00:33
Speaker 1: and it just reinforces the fact that these children are
1:00:36
Speaker 1: not getting the proper care that they need, and he
1:00:40
Speaker 1: films it again, and the officials are pissed, not only
1:00:48
Speaker 1: because he's come in and filmed all this, not just
1:00:51
Speaker 1: because it's wallow Book State School, but because wallow Book
1:00:55
Speaker 1: State School is run by the Department of Mental Hygiene,
1:00:59
Speaker 1: which is part of the New York State sort of government.
1:01:05
Speaker 1: Really like it's run by the state's government, you know,
1:01:10
Speaker 1: And so high end New York officials are mad. They
1:01:14
Speaker 1: are calling, they're calling the news station, they're complaining, they're
1:01:22
Speaker 1: like threatening, they're accusing him of trespassing. They're going to
1:01:26
Speaker 1: give him lawsuits for violating the privacy of the residents
1:01:30
Speaker 1: of Willowbrook State School, even though there's no such thing
1:01:33
Speaker 1: as privacy there. Like there was one former resident who
1:01:37
Speaker 1: had cerebral palsy, and he was saying that people assumed
1:01:41
Speaker 1: he had an intellectual disability because he had cerebral palsy
1:01:44
Speaker 1: and that there was no privacy there. There was no
1:01:48
Speaker 1: privacy there, So the film grew showing up didn't really
1:01:50
Speaker 1: make a difference to him because it wasn't as if
1:01:54
Speaker 1: he had any privacy anyway. But yes, the eyewitnessed newsroom,
1:01:58
Speaker 1: they're just like New York State officials are just a
1:02:02
Speaker 1: bradh of abuse. They're threatening and threatening and threatening, and
1:02:09
Speaker 1: the director of Eyewitness News was like, oh, sorry, you
1:02:14
Speaker 1: know what a supended in judgment. Sorry, but that, don't
1:02:17
Speaker 1: worry about it. Don't worry about it. It's fine, we'll
1:02:20
Speaker 1: take care of it. And then the film gets developed
1:02:25
Speaker 1: and they see the footage, and everything changes from that
1:02:30
Speaker 1: point when they saw what was happening in this institution,
1:02:36
Speaker 1: even though they were getting threats from officials, because remember
1:02:39
Speaker 1: this is run and funded by New York State. Even
1:02:44
Speaker 1: though this is happening, Eyewitness News decided to go ahead
1:02:48
Speaker 1: and run the story anyway, and they aired it, and
1:02:55
Speaker 1: because they aired it, there was no way that people
1:02:58
Speaker 1: could not pay attention. Nineteen seventy two, finally people couldn't
1:03:05
Speaker 1: deny what was happening. They had video footage and prodo
1:03:10
Speaker 1: this investigative journalist his reaction to this, like he's clearly
1:03:16
Speaker 1: affected by it. And this culminates and it really sort
1:03:21
Speaker 1: of starts a demand for change because it finally became
1:03:26
Speaker 1: apparent to people that even this was supposed to be
1:03:29
Speaker 1: a state school, it was supposed to be a specialized
1:03:33
Speaker 1: care facility, what it was was a prison for intellectually
1:03:39
Speaker 1: and physically disabled children and adults. And at this point
1:03:43
Speaker 1: funding wasn't the answer, Like not enough money was going
1:03:48
Speaker 1: to change this was going to turn this around. The
1:03:51
Speaker 1: system needed an overhaul and an actual way to care
1:03:56
Speaker 1: for people with disabilities. So the expose Willowbrook the last disgrace.
1:04:03
Speaker 1: The parents of five thousand willow Brook residents. They end
1:04:09
Speaker 1: up filing a class action lawsuit to try and improve
1:04:12
Speaker 1: the conditions. So it's them against the New York State,
1:04:17
Speaker 1: like that's what it is. And so they're trying to
1:04:21
Speaker 1: get like emergency intervention. They're bringing in like top leaders
1:04:25
Speaker 1: in the field of intellectual disability to try and like
1:04:28
Speaker 1: explain what care and support and specialized care these individuals need.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: And the judge was like, you know what, I need
1:04:40
Speaker 1: to actually see this place before I make any decisions,
1:04:42
Speaker 1: Like all I'm getting is like second hand, third hand whatever.
1:04:47
Speaker 1: And the judge visits willow Brook and after he sees it,
1:04:51
Speaker 1: he's so shocked, like and like they had tried to
1:04:54
Speaker 1: clean it up, they had like done some work on it,
1:04:57
Speaker 1: they'd made it less awful, but there was no hiding
1:05:01
Speaker 1: just how bad it was. And after the judge's visit,
1:05:06
Speaker 1: a consent decree was signed which committed New York State
1:05:10
Speaker 1: to improve conditions. Although at this point they'd actually changed
1:05:16
Speaker 1: the name from Willowbrook because they were trying to do
1:05:19
Speaker 1: like this public relations, like pr sort of flip. They
1:05:23
Speaker 1: were trying to they were trying to get ahead of
1:05:25
Speaker 1: the game, and so they had changed it to the
1:05:27
Speaker 1: Staten Island Developmental Center, but people were not calling that
1:05:32
Speaker 1: because they were like, no, that's Willowbrook. As a result
1:05:35
Speaker 1: of this, like these laws are enacted in nineteen seventy five,
1:05:40
Speaker 1: which then laid on to which leads to the Civil
1:05:44
Speaker 1: Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of nineteen eighty. Basically, this
1:05:50
Speaker 1: protects the rights of people in facilities with disabilities, and
1:05:56
Speaker 1: like this is the very first law of its king.
1:06:00
Speaker 1: There like before this law, there is like no form
1:06:05
Speaker 1: of protection for disabled people and institutions, and now there
1:06:10
Speaker 1: is nineteen seventy five. I mean, while the law be broken, yes,
1:06:14
Speaker 1: but it's it's there. It's it's a line in the sand,
1:06:18
Speaker 1: and like the place is still running, Willowbrook keeps running.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: So nineteen seventy two, there's an exposa. This law comes
1:06:27
Speaker 1: in in seventy five and then nineteen eighty and in
1:06:33
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, finally the state of New York announces
1:06:36
Speaker 1: that they have plans to close willow Brook plans. However,
1:06:43
Speaker 1: it doesn't close down until September nineteen eighty seven, because
1:06:49
Speaker 1: this is an institution. It's full of children and adults
1:06:52
Speaker 1: with physical and learning disabilities. Because for like kids we
1:06:56
Speaker 1: had things like cerebral palsy or epilepsy. They're like, mmmm,
1:07:00
Speaker 1: we put them in here, even though the type of
1:07:03
Speaker 1: care they need is different to the type of care
1:07:06
Speaker 1: a child with intellectual disabilities would need. But yes, the
1:07:09
Speaker 1: residents would need somewhere else to go. They needed a
1:07:12
Speaker 1: new placement. And so by nineteen eighty six there was
1:07:17
Speaker 1: only two hundred and fifty people left, only two hundred
1:07:21
Speaker 1: and fifty out of over six thousand, and then the
1:07:25
Speaker 1: very last kids they left in September eighty seven, and
1:07:31
Speaker 1: so after fifty years, finally Willowbrook was done. But the
1:07:38
Speaker 1: effects and trauma this school had on children, like they're
1:07:43
Speaker 1: adults now if they're still alive and they suffered, and
1:07:48
Speaker 1: if they're still alive, they're probably still dealing with the
1:07:50
Speaker 1: trauma of this. And just when you thought it couldn't
1:07:53
Speaker 1: get worse.
1:07:56
Speaker 2: Willowbrook.
1:07:57
Speaker 1: Between nineteen fifty nineteen eighty, twelve thousand residents died in
1:08:04
Speaker 1: thirty years. Twelve thousand. Now the majority of those are children.
1:08:11
Speaker 1: Twelve thousand.
1:08:13
Speaker 2: That is four hundred.
1:08:15
Speaker 1: Deaths per year. That is more than one death per day.
1:08:21
Speaker 2: Every day.
1:08:22
Speaker 1: A child would have to die every single day, more
1:08:26
Speaker 1: than one child every single day to hit those numbers.
1:08:30
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy one, there were one hundred and twenty
1:08:33
Speaker 1: nine deaths registered. Eleven of them were from choking in
1:08:39
Speaker 1: one year, but that wasn't the only cause of death recorded.
1:08:43
Speaker 2: There was lack of.
1:08:45
Speaker 1: Nutrition, medical management, experimentation. Now, they didn't technically put down
1:08:54
Speaker 1: violence or neglect, but if you read the records, that's
1:09:00
Speaker 1: basically what's there. Along with disease, pneumonia, parasites, measles, mumps, rebella, hepatitis,
1:09:11
Speaker 1: consuming fecal matter, thousands of children lost their lives, thousands
1:09:17
Speaker 1: of children suffered trauma and abuse and neglect. Willowbrook State School,
1:09:24
Speaker 1: like many institutions, is not what it was presented to be,
1:09:29
Speaker 1: and children suffered for it. People say the past is
1:09:34
Speaker 1: the past and we should forget it, but we should
1:09:37
Speaker 1: always stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.
1:09:40
Speaker 1: We should stand up for those who do not get
1:09:42
Speaker 1: their stories told, who cannot share this, for those who
1:09:46
Speaker 1: suffered and cannot tell their stories. Like with the magazine laundries,
1:09:50
Speaker 1: people take their secrets and their history and their lives
1:09:55
Speaker 1: to their graves. We shouldn't forget what happened to them.
1:10:01
Speaker 1: We should remember them, and we should work to make
1:10:04
Speaker 1: sure things like this don't happen again. And so ends
1:10:10
Speaker 1: our tale of the willow.
1:10:11
Speaker 2: Brook State School.
1:10:14
Speaker 1: If you liked my retelling of this terrible tale, please
1:10:16
Speaker 1: feel free to rate and review five stars.
1:10:19
Speaker 2: If you didn't like it, go to sleep. Everything's fine and.
1:10:23
Speaker 1: You can follow me on the socials. As you know,
1:10:26
Speaker 1: I'm on Instagram, TikTok, threads, other stuff. Probably if you
1:10:32
Speaker 1: want to see me live, there's links in the description
1:10:35
Speaker 1: down below and where I'm in. A recommendation time, I
1:10:39
Speaker 1: think for listening, I think you should listen to the
1:10:43
Speaker 1: fine print by Stupendium feels appropriate for reading. Ooh, I'm
1:10:50
Speaker 1: going to recommend one of my favorite things ever.
1:10:52
Speaker 2: Who done it?
1:10:53
Speaker 1: So? I'm going to go for murder on the Lusitania
1:10:56
Speaker 1: because why wouldn't you want an Edwardian who done it?
1:11:00
Speaker 2: Love your best life.
1:11:01
Speaker 1: And for watching you know what, the moonflower merdles again.
1:11:07
Speaker 1: I'm on a who done a thing. Just go enjoy it,
1:11:10
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's fun. And with that I shall bid
1:11:12
Speaker 1: you good night. Adios au Revoirs
1:11:15
Speaker 2: Of What Is in My Friends by by