Willowbrook The Last Great Disgrace
Investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera’s exposé documentary of the Willowbrook State School. The exposé revealed gruesome conditions and neglected mentally disabled children. Rivera won a Peabody Award for this documentary and has done several exposing follow-ups, including a book; Willowbrook: A Report On How It Is And Why It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way. The grounds of what was once the Willowbrook State School have now become part of The College of Staten Island.
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Partial Transcript
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Robert Kennedy: “I think that if the State institutions for the mentally retarded and I think particularly at Willowbrook that we have a situation that borders on a uh…snakepit. The children live in filth that many of our fellow citizens are suffering tremendously because of lack of attention out of lack of imagination out of lack of manpower. There’s very little future for the children or for those who are … and who are in these institutions. Both need a tremendous amount of overhauling. I’m not saying that those who are the attendants there or the ones that run the institution are at fault I think all of us are at fault. I think just long overdue that something be done about it.”
GR: “It’s been more than six years since Robert Kennedy walked out of the wards here at Willowbrook and told me of the horror he’d seen inside. He pleaded then for an overhaul of the system that allowed retarded children to live in a snakepit. But that was way back in 1965 and somehow we’ve all forgotten. I first heard of this big place with the pretty sounding name because of a call I received from a member of the Willowbrook staff Dr. Michael Wilkins.”
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