Creepiest Field Trip Ever

By Ilana Newman

So I've been doing a social work internship at the Walnut Street Center for developmentally disabled adults. At the center the other interns and I learn about mental health issues, teach life lessons in creative group settings, and have dance parties, among other things. The mission of the center, to give you the gist of it, is to "empower adults who have developmental disabilities to make meaningful life choices". The philosophy for treating and empowering individuals with these types of disabilities, however, was not always so positive. Today I got to see the remnants of the past mistreatment for myself.

I had been overhearing my mentor and other staff members in the office speak of"Fernald", which was to me only a mysterious name often followed by a shudder or a sigh. I soon learned that the Fernald Center was originally the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children, a mental institution built in 1848. Upon arriving at the "campus", which encompasses hundreds of acres once landscaped with trees and grassy fields, I immediately understood the eerie connotation that the mention of Fernald has so rightfully earned.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/fernald/shfefernald1.jpg

The abandoned Victorian-style buildings covered with overgrown brush and filled with empty cots and psychiatric-testing equipment caused me to imagine the rudimentary treatments as well as the controversial medical-experimentation that gave Fernald its reputation. Between the underground tunnels and the rusty,twisted swing sets, I felt like I was on the set of a horror movie or on one of those haunted-building exploration shows. This was one scary field trip that definitely opened my eyes to the necessity of internships like mine and places like the Walnut Street Center, where all people are treated as people.

For more information on the Fernald Center, visit: http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/mental/articles/2004/05/01/new_book_delves_into_fernalds_cruel_past/ http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/65131_20070308.asp