E63: A Potpie of Ailments

Welcome to Part 2 of our 3 part series on the history of Pennhurst State School. Last week we covered the history through Mr. Bill Baldini's expose that showed just how extreme the abuse of children and handicapped people was at the Pennhurst institution. From deliberately degrading patients, causing intense physical pain to exert authority and control, to the legislature denying the medical need for female patients to have bras, the abuse was infected into every ounce of this place. This week, though, Katie tells us the history of all the lawsuits and the federal criminal indictments against Pennhurst workers that finally caused the closure of the school on December 9, 1987, one day before Katie made her grand entrance earthside and really started to wreck havoc. 

 

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Sources:

https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/pennhurst-state-school-and-hospital/#:~:text=During%20eight%20decades%20of%20continuous,the%20remaining%20residents%20moved%20elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennhurst_State_School_and_Hospital

http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=26

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/04/us/workers-indicted-in-patient-abuse.html

https://thesnapper.millersville.edu/index.php/2020/11/06/behind-the-walls-of-terror/

http://preservepennhurst.com/default.aspx?pg=93

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution

https://disabilityjustice.org/halderman-v-pennhurst-state-school-hospital/