A man named Roland Johnson was sent to Pennhurst, and he faced many troubles there. One major issue that he faced was abuse. The other patients would abuse him, and unfortunately the workers, only three for his ward of 122 patients, were a bit too busy to stop the abuse. His clothes were marked with his name, and his shoes were from a prison. Can you imagine living your life in a place where you felt minimal love and little to no support? Where you were just another face in the crowd? It would be tough. Gathered from the book "Lost in a Desert World", it appears as though in the low grade ward at Pennhurst, it was dirty, the walls and floors had holes in them, the walls cracked open, and patients would often eat paste, chalk, and tile off of the walls. The place smelled like feces and there were rats and roaches. Feces and urine littered the ground and flies swarmed around.
"Equal rights, that went out the window if you were in an institution. They didn't care, to them, if it was fair or wrong. They figured they had a right to do whatever they wanted to you. When I was up there, I prayed out my heart, I stood out on the ball field and said, 'Father forgive them, because they have not knows what they have done.' ~Gerald Wheaton
Gerald was sent to Pennhurst when he was three, due to conflict amongst his parents. He spend 24 years of his life there.
Pennhurst impacted his life, among many others.
Another former resident at Pennhurst goes by the name of Robert. Robert was born in the year of 1961, and weighed a little over three pounds, as he was born at only 6.5 months. He lived in an incubator for two months, and by the time he was six months old he was blind due to retrolental fibroplasia. He was developmentally delayed and had seizures. At the age of five he was toilet trained, and he went to a school specifically for blind people. He was, however, asked to leave the school as he began to lose control of bowel movement. He spent three years at a different school and learned to get dressed and undressed, as well as use basic sentences and use the restroom. But then his parents were having issues, and got a divorce. Where did that leave Robert? That's right, Pennhurst. Not long after he went to Pennhurst he became unable to talk, and had accidents, as well as began to physically harm others and himself when he was upset. He moved out of Pennhurst in 1982, as he was under the age of 21 and a court order was established stating that all residents under the age of 21 be relocated. His parents visited him twelve times, and he never once smiled during those visits at Pennhurst. After he moved, his behavior improved again.
"Equal rights, that went out the window if you were in an institution. They didn't care, to them, if it was fair or wrong. They figured they had a right to do whatever they wanted to you. When I was up there, I prayed out my heart, I stood out on the ball field and said, 'Father forgive them, because they have not knows what they have done.' ~Gerald Wheaton
Gerald was sent to Pennhurst when he was three, due to conflict amongst his parents. He spend 24 years of his life there.
Pennhurst impacted his life, among many others.
Another former resident at Pennhurst goes by the name of Robert. Robert was born in the year of 1961, and weighed a little over three pounds, as he was born at only 6.5 months. He lived in an incubator for two months, and by the time he was six months old he was blind due to retrolental fibroplasia. He was developmentally delayed and had seizures. At the age of five he was toilet trained, and he went to a school specifically for blind people. He was, however, asked to leave the school as he began to lose control of bowel movement. He spent three years at a different school and learned to get dressed and undressed, as well as use basic sentences and use the restroom. But then his parents were having issues, and got a divorce. Where did that leave Robert? That's right, Pennhurst. Not long after he went to Pennhurst he became unable to talk, and had accidents, as well as began to physically harm others and himself when he was upset. He moved out of Pennhurst in 1982, as he was under the age of 21 and a court order was established stating that all residents under the age of 21 be relocated. His parents visited him twelve times, and he never once smiled during those visits at Pennhurst. After he moved, his behavior improved again.