Pennhurst - Shame of the Nation

We will introduce Pennhurst State School and Hospital with a single quotation from the 1968 documentary “Suffer the Little Children“, an exposé by Bill Baldini, about the deplorable conditions at the facility. When one patient was asked by the interviewer what he would like most in the world, if he could have anything he could imagine, the sad and withdrawn reply was simply, “To get out of Pennhurst.“ This state-funded school and hospital center was at the heart of the human rights movement that revo