Michael DAntonio - The State Boys Rebellion

After a few months at the Walter E. Fernald State School, seven-year-old Freddie Boyce, skinny with dark eyes and brown hair, could see trouble coming from a distance. He could gauge the mood in the big open ward, and he knew when an attendant was about to lose control. Their job was impossible. No one could handle thirty-six boys, half of whom were retarded, without help. This was why, inevitably, bad things happened.

Some of the boys, the ones who were really retarded, couldnt save themselves even when they were warned. This happened one morning in the fall of 1949, in the minutes after an attendant named Lois Derosier had turned on the lights and walked up and down the rows of iron beds pulling on blankets and barking at everyone to get up. Following the routine, Freddie crawled out of bed and quietly stood in his state-issued flannel nightshirt, waiting to be called to use the bathroom. Everyone else did the same, except Howie, who for some reason felt like wiggling around and chanting, Whee, whee, whee, over and over.

Howie was mildly retardeda Dope, in the words of the brighter boysbut he liked Freddie and would listen to himusually. This time, Freddie began with a quiet Shhh! When that didnt work, he tried bribery. Howie, he whispered under his breath. If youre quiet, you can sit with me at breakfast.

Whee, whee, whee, answered Howie.

Derosier, a taut-looking woman in a white nurses uniform, shouted from across the room. They would all be punished if the noise didnt stop. Cut it out! hissed Freddie. Youll get us all in trouble. Howie just grinned, and continued, Whee, whee, whee.

All right! shouted Derosier. Red cherries for all of you.

Red cherries were the welts made when the attendants spanked the boys with wooden coat hangers, the same hangers they made in the wood shop. This time, as always, it was done with a certain ritual. The boys lined up at the foot of their beds, pulled up their nightshirts and then pushed down their underpants. Derosier began to work her way down the line. Some of the boys cried when the hanger hit their buttocks. Others took it in silence. Like men, they thought.

It may have been nervousness, or it may have been because he had been prevented from getting to the bathroom after sleeping all night. Whatever the reason, as he stood there with his backside exposed, waiting for Nurse Derosier to get to him, Howie peed. The yellow stream ran down his leg, onto his underpants, and then puddled on the floor. He started to cry even before she saw it. When she did notice it, she became very calm.

If thats the way you want it today boys, okay.

Derosier left the room. The boys struggled to pull up their underwear. When the nurse returned, she held a big metal bowl. She grabbed Howie and pushed him toward the bathroom.

You all need to pee? she yelled, turning to the others. You all need to pee?

She ordered Freddie and three others to come with her, too. When they were all in the bathroom standing near the toilets, she held the bowl low and told them to urinate into it.

By this point, Freddie was trembling with fear, anger, and a sense of foreboding. He had never been forced into this position before, where he would be helping an attendant do something awful. He strained to produce a stream. So did the others. When they finished, and the bowl was half-filled, Derosier told them to step back. She then threw the warm contents of the bowl into Howie s face.

Howies shriek echoed off the bathroom tiles and into the ward. In the bathroom, the boys stood, shocked, until Derosier shouted her four recruits back into the ward. She turned the shower on and told Howie to take his clothes off. When he was rinsed, he and the others went to their cubbies to get dressed. Half an hour later, she cheerily announced Breakfast! and led the entire ward downstairs.