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The Walter E. Fernald State School, now the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center (''aka'' Fernald Developmental Center or simply Fernald), is the Western hemisphere's oldest publicly funded institution serving people with developmental disabilities.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://fernaldassociation.com/fernaldCenter.htm )〕〔 Originally a Victorian sanatorium, it became a "poster child" for the American eugenics movement during the 1920s. It later was the scene of medical experiments in the 20th century. Investigations into this research led to new regulations regarding human research in children. The school occupies a property off Trapelo Road in Waltham, Massachusetts. ==History== The Fernald Center, originally called the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded, was founded by reformer Samuel Gridley Howe in 1848 with a $2,500 appropriation from the Massachusetts State Legislature. The school eventually comprised 72 buildings total, located on . At its peak, some 2,500 people were confined there, most of them "feeble-minded" boys. Under its third superintendent, Walter E. Fernald (1859–1924), an advocate of eugenics, the school was viewed as a model educational facility in the field of mental retardation. It was renamed in his honor in 1925, following his death the previous year. The institution was involved in several different procedures that used the residents as test subjects some of which include sterilization and radiation experimentation. The institution did serve a large population of mentally retarded children, but ''The Boston Globe'' estimates that upwards of half of the inmates tested with IQs in the normal range. In the 20th century, living conditions were spartan or worse; approximately 36 children slept in each dormitory room. There were also reports of physical and sexual abuse. This situation changed in the 1970s, when a class action suit, ''Ricci v. Okin'', was filed to upgrade conditions at Fernald and several other state institutions for persons with mental retardation in Massachusetts. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Louis Tauro, who assumed oversight of the case in 1972, formally disengaged from the case in 1993, declaring that improvements in the care and conditions at the facilities had made them "second to none anywhere in the world." A result for Fernald residents of the class action suit which took effect in 1993 was the provision of "a guaranteed level of care, regardless of cost, to compensate for decades of neglect and abuse."〔 The Fernald Center's last resident was discharged on Thursday, November 13, 2014, after a protracted legal and political battle which cost the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over $40 million in additional costs over the projected closure date of 2010. Remaining residents were successfully integrated into community services or other state operated programs.〔http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Fernald-Finally-Closes.html?soid=1101398806423&aid=MDurx4OJtWw〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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