Willowbrook State School & An Introduction to Cropsey

It's the first episode everyone!! 

On this day, March 17, in New York State History, a physician and a group of parents would file a class action lawsuit against the Willowbrook State School. The details of which are detailed in the episode. 

Today's episode takes us down to Staten Island, one of the five borough's of New York City. Staten Island has a reputation for being a 'dumping ground' due to it's history of having been the site for NYC to dump it's garbage at Freshkills Landfill, as well as having places such as Willowbrook- a facility for mentally and physically disabled adults and children; Farm Colony- a poor house; and Seaview Hospital- the largest tuberculosis hospital in the nation; as well as a place where the mob dumps their kills.

Sources Used for Staten Island History:

 

https://www.statenislandhistorian.com/history.html

 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fresh-kills-landfill

Halloran General Hospital

After construction of Willowbrook was completed, the site was turned over by the state to the military for use as a hospital and prisoner of war camp in 1942. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=207467

Willowbrook State School:

By Scan by NYPL - https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-ca69-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56198880

https://timeline.com/willowbrook-the-institution-that-shocked-a-nation-into-changing-its-laws-c847acb44e0d

 

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

 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=207467

 

https://www.nyc.gov/site/mopd/events/our-history.page?slide=10

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/06/12/willowbrook-scandal-hepatitis-experiments-hideous-truths-of-testing-vaccines-on-humans/?sh=2ed30907279c

 

https://www.aclu.org/issues/disability-rights/cleaning-snake-pit

 

https://www.npr.org/2008/03/07/87975196/remembering-an-infamous-new-york-institution

 

https://youtu.be/xPvQpWEdxoY

https://youtu.be/9_4nYMu1lE0

Legislation that came from the Class Action Lawsuit:

The Protection and Advocacy (P&A) System in the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (1975)

https://www.drny.org/page/our-history-8.html

The Education For All Handicapped Children Act, P.L. 94-142 (1975); 

https://sites.ed.gov/idea/IDEA-History

The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA)(1980).  

https://www.justice.gov/crt/civil-rights-institutionalized-persons

I hope you enjoyed the first episode! Please don't forget to connect with our Podcast on social media and you can also connect with me via email at nydarksidepodcast@gmail.com! I'd love to hear from you!

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Tune in for the next episode where we dive into Cropsey and the tale of the Pied Piper of Staten Island- Andre Rand