Belchertown State School

About this property

The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. The building complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Located at 30 State Street, the 876-acre (3.55 km2) campus contains 10 major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. State schools of Massachusetts were institutions for people with intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities, though at the time different terms were used. His method of evaluating me consisted of looking me over during the physical exam and deciding that since I couldn't talk and apparently couldn't understand what he was saying, I must be an imbecile. [...] Since I couldn't ask him to speak up or repeat what he said, he assumed I was a moron. Attendants on the wards were overworked, with dozens of patients in each ward. Because there was not enough time for proper toilet care, residents were left "half-naked rolling in their own excrement." Those who were severely physically disabled were left in their beds the entire day, without any form of entertainment. Patients unable to feed themselves were force-fed by the attendants; when it was necessary to move a patient, the attendants did so roughly, sometimes causing injuries. As a result of this gross mistreatment, some patients were prone to "moaning in the hallways," "reaching into [their] diapers and spreading whatever [they] found all over, [...] repeatedly banging their heads against the walls," or any of a number of other responses. The horrendous conditions at Belchertown were revealed in 1970 in a newspaper article entitled "The Tragedy of Belchertown". Reporter Jeremy Shanks wrote about the conditions at the state school. In 1972, Ben Ricci, parent of Belchertown resident Robert Simpson Ricci, began a class-action lawsuit against the school based on the horrific living conditions. The judge assigned to the case visited the institution without prior warning, witnessing "clogged plumbing, unattended residents drinking out of commodes, and an overwhelming stench of urine and feces. And there was incessant screaming … a soundtrack of horrible screaming.” Ricci v. Greenblatt was the first lawsuit against a state school, and others followed in Massachusetts for the next few years. The lawsuit was settled by the judge's requirement of the Commonwealth to provide services and supports to the plaintiff class throughout their lives.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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