[robertlforrest]

Hi I'm Robert and I was there for 3 years 1969 to 1972

[babbore]

Originally Posted by bourbeau01301

Hi, my Mother & Uncle were both at "Vergennes" as it was referred to in our family, in the early 60's. My Mother was Diane Webster, and my Uncle was Rupert (Punky) Webster, if anyone remembers them, please contact me. I am also interested if anyone remembers Cliff Bigelow.

I knew them.

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by babbore

I knew them.

I sent bourbeau01301 a direct message to see if they're still here.

[Gery brother of Bill]

My brother Bill was incarcerated at Weeks School up to its end in 1979. He corroborates much of the abuse stories above and has said he was one of the principals involved in its exposure and closure. I too have searched the Internet for what really happened with no success. Does anyone recall what happened that got it closed or perhaps changed to something else?

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Gery brother of Bill

My brother Bill was incarcerated at Weeks School up to its end in 1979. He corroborates much of the abuse stories above and has said he was one of the principals involved in its exposure and closure. I too have searched the Internet for what really happened with no success. Does anyone recall what happened that got it closed or perhaps changed to something else?

Demolished


Vermont Industrial School - Asylum Projects

[vter]

The campus still exists...maybe some buildings have been torn down but the vast majority of it still stands. It is now part of the Job Corp program.
https://northlands.jobcorps.gov/
https://www.google.com/maps/search/n.../data=!3m1!1e3

[harry chickpea]

I knew a girl who had been at Weeks School because of a measurably low IQ. She was more capable than she was given credit for, and married the brother of one of my employees. Her wedding reception was the most delightful one I ever attended, very down to earth and fun. She and her husband were poor as church mice, but somehow made a go of it.

FWIW, the original Vermont Reform School was not in Vergennes but in Waterbury near the site of the ball field and swimming pool. Three story structure and there was a farm as well, IIRC. When it burned, the reform school got moved to Vergennes, and the State Hospital started. (I'd have to check the dates for the exact sequence.)

I never knew much about Weeks, other than it was there and I think there were some transfers between Weeks and VSH.
VSH had a locked ward for kids, but it wasn't on the side of the hospital where I worked.

[Gery brother of Bill]

Thanks for the comments. Looks like no one knows why it was closed. I've read the Feds came up with new programs with the kids moved to other institutions (the official reason) and I heard that its abuse of the "inmates" was the cause coupled with the abusive nature's disclosure (the truth?).

[harry chickpea]

Both it and VSH had short funding. One of the other issues was that residents/inmates/patients had to be paid at least minimum wage for work after a mid-century court ruling. That meant there was no way for costs to be kept down. In the early days, those people able to function at all were conscripted to farm work, maintenance, food service, laundry without pay, under the heading of "therapy." What the courts recognized (on a national basis) was that otherwise healthy and productive and "cured" people were not being released from institutions, but kept as a type of slave labor. That is a "right" only enjoyed by prisons. (Yes, slavery to the government is very much alive and legal in the penal system.)

The mental health and indigent issues have always been more than the state could handle financially. The institutions were created in part because of the even more wretched conditions at the community supported "poor farms." Towns were starting to go bankrupt trying to improve those.

[amarynow]

Hi Shirley, I was there