Willowbrook State School

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Willowbrook State School was a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City, which operated from 1947 until 1987. The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965, it had a population of 6,000. At the time, it was the biggest state-run institution for people with mental disabilities in the United States. Living conditions at the school were crowded and filthy, and during its first decade of operation, outbreaks of hepatitis, primarily hepatitis A, were common. Medical researchers initially carried out research on the disease and its effects at the school, which was discontinued after public outcry. The conditions and questionable medical practices and experiments prompted US Senator Robert F. Kennedy to call it a "snake pit". The institution gained national infamy in 1972, when Geraldo Rivera did an exposé on the conditions there. Public opposition led to its closure in 1987, and to federal civil rights legislation protecting people with disabilities. A February 2020 New York Times investigation found that the survivors of Willowbrook continued to be abused in smaller group homes. A portion of the grounds and some of the buildings were incorporated into the campus of the College of Staten Island, which moved to Willowbrook in the early 1990s. Records and documentation relating to the experiences of the school residents and staff, and the activities of parents and caregivers who brought about the closure of the school, are held by the College of Staten Island Library Archives.