Laconia State School opened in 1903 and housed 82 residents between three buildings. The Stafford County Farm fire of 1895 revealed an unexpected truth. A great many children lived in workhouses. they were poor They had no family support. They were left to their own devices. These houses, colloquially called poor houses, were intended as shelters for criminals and people with mental or physical disabilities. was expressed in
Laconia State Schools started as a segregation program based on the idea that “weak” people are more likely to influence others and lead to lower morals. At the time, having a developmental disability was considered a character flaw. The school was intended to be available to people between the ages of 3 and her 21, except for women over the age of 21. By 1916, despite the addition of some facilities, the school was overcrowded. In 13 years she enrolled 218 new students.
The underlying principle of this school was eugenics, the belief that people who exhibit superior function have superior DNA. The goal of the Laconia State School was to isolate the “weak of heart” from society so that they could not have children. It was thought that this would pass on unwanted genetic traits. In 1917, compulsory sterilization was authorized for those who exhibited undesirable characteristics.
School overcrowding increased during the Great Depression. Parents sent their children to school. The state legislature has repeatedly denied requests for additional funding for renovations, repairs, and expansions. There were no bedrooms. There was no room for personal items.
New Hampshire’s “brainless” people were segregated from the rest of society and largely ignored. As long as the rest of the state could pretend that such people didn’t exist, all was well.
Then, after its closure in 1991, Laconia State School became a state prison called the Lakes Area Facility.
A similar approach is used today in all four of Manchester’s public high schools. Instead of integrating people with disabilities into the classroom, they are pushed to one side to do their best in ways they can manage. There seems to be a persistent general assumption that people who have trouble speaking also have trouble thinking. But medicine does not support this.
Students with disabilities are offered an Individualized Education Program (IEP) even if they do not have a mental disability and require only physical accommodations. On paper, this may appear to give each student what they need, but in practice such a plan creates negative consequences for those it is intended to benefit. bring educational results.
In 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court famously declared that the “separate but equal” doctrine violates the first paragraph of the Fourteenth Amendment.
“All persons born in, or naturalized in, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are citizens of the United States and the state in which they reside. Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law Deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. there is no.”
The same arguments that desegregated schools based on race can also be used to desegregate schools based on disability. Individual accommodation has long been established, but it is not the equivalent of accommodation.
All research on this topic over the last 40 years has found that integrated classrooms yield better outcomes for all involved. Integration assumes that each student has the ability to keep up with the demands of the course. Isolation assumes, by default, that students with disabilities are as incapable of learning as students without disabilities. The result is an unfair and unfair situation in which disability itself is not accepted as a mere part of life and is stigmatized.
For comparison, separating students with disabilities from all other students makes as much sense as separating left-handed students from right-handed ones. One might assume that all left-handed students cannot write as well as others, but no one can know for sure unless they are given a chance to show their skills.
After graduating from high school, young people should know how to become independent in society. They are intended to work in entry-level jobs, perform mathematics, read and write, and have some knowledge of history and politics. It is also the ability to work with others to achieve goals. Isolating students with disabilities robs them of the opportunity that all other students have to learn how to work with other students. They are never given an opportunity to challenge themselves for self-improvement.
After all, people rarely pace themselves outside of high school. Nor are there many places where people with disabilities can continue to experience life at their own pace. Educational segregation thus prepares students with disabilities for a world that does not exist.
This is where an organization called Able NH stepped in. Their goal is a simple one. Parents need to be educated about their children’s rights, many of which are abolished during the education process. Working parents often don’t have the time or energy to research what they need to know in order to consult with the school board or government to resolve the issue.
This is even more so for parents of children with disabilities. Disabilities such as autism are not planned. Many of these disorders cannot be detected during pregnancy. The disorder may not present or be evident even when the child is very young. When they make themselves known, parents have to deal with a whole new set of challenges in addition to raising and providing for their children – a daunting enough task in itself.
As a result, parents are more likely to trust educators, whether teachers or administrators, when they claim that children with disabilities need individualized education. After all, that’s their job. Separation relies heavily on educators to capitalize on their lack of knowledge about what best practices are, what research indicates, and how to achieve the best educational outcomes.
Worse, parents, teachers, and adjunct professionals are reluctant to advocate for their children. They fear retribution for speaking up. Children have been known to retaliate after parents raise concerns. This is often done in subtle but deliberate ways.
To rectify this trend, leadership at all levels needs to make a concerted effort towards consolidation. These include, but are not limited to, teachers’ unions, principals’ unions, superintendents, school boards, mayor’s offices, and local employers. They are not inherently less valuable as individuals than people. Each student should ideally be guided to become the best version of themselves.
Pushing a disabled student into a room by himself is the equivalent of the Laconian state school practice of the last century. It is a way of categorizing students with disabilities based on the conditions they never wanted, rather than looking at the humanity of individual students with disabilities. It’s a way of doing things.
So far the problem is not so easy to solve. Until integration in high schools across New Hampshire becomes a reality, Able NH will continue to advocate on behalf of students with disabilities who are segregated, marginalized and subject to retaliation. The good news is that things can only get better from here.
The Manchester chapter of Able NH meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm at the Manchester Public Library.
