Behind Dark Forgotten Doors And Walls.

This article is a first hand account of abuse used as a method to control behavior of student at a private school for emotionally disturbed and mentally handicapped

It is Halloween time,time to visit a haunted house and get the Bejesus scare out of you.

One of the popular places of Hallween attractions around where I live  is   to go  to PennHurst Asylum , an abandoned school /Hospital for the mentally challenged.  

Which has been bought by a man who turns it into a haunted house every year around Halloween.

Now this article I am writing is not to promote this Halloween attraction ,but to shed some light on the real live horror of abuse that I personally experience while attending a private boarding school for the emotionally disturbed and the mentally handicapped.

 I would like to point out that PennHurst was ten times worse with it's abuse to patients then I experienced, But because I was a ward of the state with behavior problems, I could have been placed into PenHurst.   I thank God that He protected me and did not let me end up in Penhurst or WillowBrook state school.

 I became a ward of the state because I was hyperactive and unruly and was kick  out of the public school system ,and I was kicked out of schools that dealt with children that were slow learners or had behavior problems.       

 I was also taken from my parent for suspected Child abuse.

I was enrolled in The Pathway School in Audubon Pa in the year 1972. and would live there for nine years.

Here is a list of abusive treatment that I experienced,that was used to control my behavior by the hands of school staff.

When I ran away from school :   I would be put on restriction which means placed in  isolation,put in an empty room,fore weeks at a time.

Run aways only got feed once a day,they would be forced to drink brewers yeast for the other two meals. horrible tasting stuff.

I spent most of six years standing facing a wall or sitting in a chair in a hallway, from 6.oo am to 12.00am only breaking this cycle to goto school.  If you talk to any other student while on hallway restriction your punishment was standing for hours on your feet.

One of the physical abuses which was used on me on a daily bases was bending my arm in the back of me while bending my wrist to wrestle me to the ground to sit on me.

this maneuver was used every time I disobeyed a staff member.

I had a cottage leader get so mad at me for misbehaving that he picked  me up by my throat and was backing my head on the ceiling and wall. 

Another way I felt abused was by having been forced to take a handful of assortment  of behavior controlling drugs, three times a day .

 I believe they were an assortment of uppers and downer to control me throughout each day.

Now I Think positive attention would have got me to bend my will not medicating me so much that  I started to looking around for a guitar and a rhinestone studded jumpsuit." A THANK YOU VERY MUCH. "

I think it was abuse that I spent my childhood standing in a hall facing a wall or confined to a chair in a hall.,or confined to empty room.

I would like to say that my last three year at the school did change when a teachers aid tutor me in math and reading,and bent my will through showing kindness and a true interest in helping trouble student get there act together.

I will say that at this school few and far between were the staff that helped me straight out my conduct. So that I was equipt to leave Pathway school and re enter public society and attend and graduate from public high school.

 My mother told me That The Pathway School thought at one time that I would have to be institutionalized for my entire life.      Boy did those expert psychiatrists mis classify this bird. They classify  me as being a wadling Gooney bird, when I turned out to be a soaring Eagle,by the grace,mercy, love of God .

I went on to serve in the U.S Army for four years,and the national guard for five years. 

With the military I have attend Combat Engineering school,I attended emergency medical school.

I attend 1 year of Bible college.

I am a accomplished Artist,Poet,Writer,Comedian,and accomplish all this without   take one behavior controlling pill.

So the conclusion is by the hand of providence I did not end up in Penhurst or WillowBrook because if I did I wouldn't be alive to  day to write this article.   

Remember as you go thill seeking to have the s**t scared out of you by attending a haunted house attraction,there is nothing  more scarier than the evil deeds that have been done behind dark forgotten doors and wall.

To give this article of mine some dimension for you,Go to YouTube and watch the short documentaries on the abuse at Penshurst and   WillowBrook.

Written Stephen J.Vattimo

October 10,2014