Library Collections: Document: Full Text

(Because Rosewood was a Catholic Unit, and because the mentally subnormal have a special claim upon those of us who worked there for three years, we are presenting a series of articles by Gordon Zahn dealing with the problems we encountered).

PART I

Children Without Play

It is a recognized crime against morality for parents to neglect or maltreat children they have brought into the world. Yet how far greater a crime is it for Society to take these same children into its custody and then proceed to continue their neglect and, in addition, subject them to an unnatural life pattern dominated by fear and denial?

It is such a pattern we witnessed as conscientious objectors assigned to duty at the Rosewood State Training School for mentally subnormal children in Maryland. Much recent publicity has been given to the shameful conditions prevailing in many of the mental hospitals in this country; it is to be hoped that these revelations will produce a public reaction strong enough to force correction and improvements.

No Planned Recreation

It is impossible to think of Summer without visualizing children at play. Nothing could be more timely, then, than to consider the 1,200 children at Rosewood -- three-quarters of whom would be physically and mentally capable of benefiting from a planned recreational program -- for whom there is little or no opportunity for play because Rosewood provides neither the facilities nor the official interest to make play possible for them. Instead these children are doomed to days of unvarying inactivity, spending their free time sitting about in a bare "playroom" or roaming aimlessly about the immediate environs of their particular cottage. The inevitable results of this should not be too difficult to imagine.

In fact, the children, mentally sub-normal though they may be, are able to fathom this situation and have outdone the staff in that they, at least, do try to remedy it. Since baseballs or softballs are "not available," the children have developed make-shift expedients. Of course, it is not too pleasant an experience to be approached by a 13-year old active boy with the pathetic request for a ball of twine to enable him to make a baseball so the boys could play. (These "baseballs" consist of a rock with string wound around it and covered by adhesive tape or cloth straps.) After obtaining 2 softballs for a cottage of 80 adolescent boys, this same boy in thanking me hopefully pointed out, "now all we need is a bat": the broom-handle bat is standard Rosewood equipment. Nor is this all. I have seen the older boys using a rusty tin can as a football. The total athletic program at Rosewood this past winter consisted of a single basketball game with the visiting seminarians and the "team" did not even have a chance to practice for that game.

Delinquents

The full implication of this cannot adequately be put into words. Many of these children landed in Rosewood because of their trends toward juvenile delinquency. Roaming the streets at all hours, travelling with all sorts of company, they developed behavior patterns that ultimately led to their rejection by the community. Had they been given better guidance, had their free time been occupied by wholesome play activity, they might have been able -- in spite of subnormal mentality -- to find a place in Society as worth-while citizens. Rosewood, in name a "training school," takes such children and fails even more than did their parents in the task of giving them an opportunity to occupy their time to advantage.

"Lack of Funds"

The automatic excuse offered for this sad situation is a "lack of funds." As far as it goes, this excuse is valid; the budget allowance provided by the State for recreation is unforgiveably low. Members of our group, however, had great difficulty in accepting this as a complete explanation.

After all, thousands of dollars in salary savings were made possible by the existence there of our CPS unit. No satisfactory explanation was ever made to us as to what happened to that money! Then too, we could see that the State apparently had unlimited funds when it came to such relatively unimportant matters as remodeling the top floor of one of the cottages into a private apartment for one of the staff members -- because this individual would not be satisfied with the quarters previously occupied by one of the other doctors.

A lack of funds does exist -- but had it been the desire of the administration to do so this obstacle to a fuller recreational program could have been overcome. Concerted official pleas to public-minded individuals and groups would certainly bring some equipment, or funds to purchase equipment for the Rosewood children. (In fact, if one really sought for a potential source of charity, where better could it lie than in the family that includes two persons in the Rosewood payroll with staff ratings that furnish them a total income of around $9,000 plus full maintenance -- especially when the head of that family is always most voluble in his protestations of interest in the children and his sorrow over Rosewood's recreational lacks?)

No Cooperation

One of the men in our unit was experienced and trained as a recreational director. Only after many promises and long delay was he given a chance to do such work at Rosewood. Mainly through his own physical effort, devoting many of his free hours to the job, he installed volley-ball facilities, coached a basketball team, inaugurated gymnasium play periods for all the cottages, etc. Yet at no time was he favored with adequate cooperation. The gymnasium is located in the basement of one of the girls' cottages. Consequently, complaints were lodged over any noise made during evening activities. Objections were raised to having even a supervised group of boys on the girls' side of the barbed wire barrier during the day. And objection was also expressed that the use of the gym for athletic purposes interfered with its normal use -- as a place for hanging wet-wash!

To top this off, resentment was awakened in an individual holding the position of Dean of Boys, an office that would include responsibility for recreation. Although this person's time is fully occupied with his farm and chauffeuring duties (and his free time devoted to managing local outside baseball and basketball teams) he still objected to this intrusion upon his official domain and evidenced his objection by various subtle interferences. The net result of all this was that the CPS-man's earnest efforts were met with ridicule and sarcasm on all sides; only the children appreciated what he was trying to do.

A strong and capable administration sincerely interested in the welfare of the children would have had no difficulty in weighing these petty criticism, complaints, and jealousies against the benefit the children would have received have received from a real recreational program. The Rosewood administration, however, returned the CPS man to the status of cottage attendant. Peace was thus preserved; the status quo was maintained -- at the children's expense!

Professional Staff -- Board of Visitors to Blame

Of course, the immediate responsibility can be placed with the professional staff at Rosewood. Instead of crusading for badly needed reform, they have chosen to stagnate and protect a situation that places them in the rather ignoble position of waxing fat upon the neglect of their helpless and inarticulate charges. And then there is the Rosewood Board of Visitors. It will always be a somewhat bitter memory to think back on this group of prominent professional people who limited their activity to a monthly luncheon (with menus sometimes including such elaborate items as terrapin soup and roast turkey as well as champagane-sic- and scotch) followed by a meeting at which routine reports were heard and automatically approved. This Board, with every opportunity to become protector and advocate for the children instead became a means of whitewashing this unholy state of affairs through a near-criminal disinterest and inactivity.

Basic Responsibility With People

But the basic responsibility for the Rosewood situation lies with the people of Maryland. It is to curry their favor that the legislators are so eager to practice miserly economy at the expense of these unfortunate children. It lies with the social agencies of the state that with an almost inhuman detachment have developed a habit of treating these children as "case files," and never bother to take interest in their welfare after they have closed the "file" by a commitment to Rosewood. Sad as it is to say, the Catholic Charities appear to be every bit as deficient in this respect as are the secular agencies. Until the people of Maryland can be awakened to their obligations to the children they have taken into their custody, the moral crime that is Rosewood will continue to exist.

In the meantime all of us have a great opportunity to remedy these injustices by aiding the children with direct contributions. Used toys, softballs, baseball bats -- any tools of recreation that can be spared should be sent to Rosewood. Things of which your children may have tired are almost certain to be better than the best the Rosewood children have. If any sympathy has been awakened by this article, please express it with a tangible offering. By so doing you would also register your protest against the Rosewood situation. But, more important, this is a great opportunity to do true Christian charity; for whatsoever we may do, even to the least of these, we shall be doing to Him Who had so great a love for all children.

Note

Articles can be sent to Dr. George A. Johns, Rosewood, Owings Mills, Md., with instructions to put the contents to the children's use. It would be greatly appreciated if, at the same time, a card were sent to the Catholic Worker telling of the nature of the gift, etc., so that some measure may be made of the total amount contributed.