Why we all need to remember Willowbrook State School.

We need to remember Willowbrook State School. Because Willowbrook State School was a breeding ground for all sorts of human rights violations due to its inhuman conditions. Many residents were mentally, emotionally, and physically abused during their stay there. Many residents were neglected and mistreated by direct care staff and head doctors. Residents were left to fend for themselves. Willowbrook State School was place where retarded people are sent to wait around until they die.


Willowbrook State School opened in 1947 as a state school operating as a state-supported institution for mentally disabled citizens in New York City, New York on Staten Island. In its first years of operation, the quality care began to slowly decline. Disease was spread rampantly. Hepatitis was common amongst state school residents. Residents were denied access to appropriate education and civil liberties.

In 1955, Willowbrook had a resident population of 4,000. By 1963, the institution was overpopulated at 6,000 clients over its original capacity of 4,000. At the end of 1963, population for the institution was over 6,400.

The nurses would administer sedatives three times a day. In extreme cases, the attendants would not hesitate to tie a resident to a chair with shoelaces or bedsheets. The attendants administered beatings whenever a resident got up to walk around or run throughout wards of whatever building.

Residents were injected with Hepatitis A for science experiments by researchers and doctors often without parental consent. Researchers deliberately infected children with hepatitis. This led to frequent outbreaks of hepatitis. At one point the school for Willowbrook State School was closed to new admissions, except for the Hepatitis program. This led to parents agreeing to allow their children to be the subjects of experiments. Overall parents and residents were given very little choice whether or not to participate in the program.

By 1965, Senator Robert F. Kennedy left touring the facility and called it a "snakepit". “The children living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo.”

Then news reporter Geraldo Rivera exposed Willowbrook State School in 1972 on a news broadcast called “Willowbrook : The Last Great Disgrace”. Geraldo Rivera’s expose prompted the State of New York to launch several investigations of their state schools, state hospitals, sanitariums, and other institutions.

Carey vs. NYARC lawsuit is what led to many state institution such as Willowbrook State School to close down and receive the community based services we have today. But luckily the institution was shut down for good and put out of its misery for good by September 1987. Today the campus now houses College of Staten Island - New York. College of Staten Island - New York is located in the largest city in the United States called New York City and its nation’s capital for education. 


Willowbrook State School was located at 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York, US 10314.