On March 14, 1958, Rhode Island Governor Dennis J. Roberts signed the bill officially naming the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School in honor of its founder, and then recently retired superintendent, Dr. Joseph Ladd.
Fifty-six years later, and some two decades since the institution was abandoned, Rhode Islanders still call it The Ladd School, even though it was renamed, in 1978, the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center. Little is it known, however, that even before it was called The Ladd School, Rhode Island's only public residential institution for people with developmental disabilities was called The Exeter School, with reference to its location in the rural farming town of Exeter, Rhode Island.
Rarer yet is the knowledge that before it was known as The Exeter School, the institution was originally called the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded.
That was in the year 1908, more than a hundred years ago, now. And as the term Feeble-Minded might suggest, times were much different then. In fact, so was the institution. In my book, Idiots, Imbecile and Morons, I go to some length to describe the meaning of the word feeble-minded. The discussion is much deeper than can be satisfied by a cursory explanation so here it must suffice to say that it roughly translates to what some people might still refer to as "mentally retarded," or, in modern parlance, "developmentally disabled." It's a bit more complicated than that, as the definition of disability has continued to evolve since then, but for all intents and purposes it is a fair comparison.
The naming, and renaming, of the institution, however, is actually grounded in more than just the evolution of our language. For instance, when an act of state congress changed the facilities name to The Exeter School in 1917, feeble-mindedness was still the de-facto diagnosis of its resident; its resident, in fact, were still then referred to as "inmates;" and, if anything, the definition of feeble-mindedness was broadened. The institution's moniker was changed, at Dr. Ladd's urging, purely for the purpose of lessening the stigma already associated with his School. This theme of assuaging stigma would be repeated twice more in the institution's history.
In 1958, when its name was changed to the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School, the institution's reputation was only beginning to recover from a scandal that, in today's political climate, would have made national headlines. A young child with severe developmental disabilities had died from an act of abject negligence, after which a murder trial ensued, and Dr. Ladd's resignation resulted. A new superintendent, Dr. John G. Smith, had been named to take his place, and Rhode Island legislators were only then eager to appropriate enough funding to modernize the institution.
Scandal, again, was culprit when, in 1978, the institution was renamed the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center after a litany of investigative reports in the Providence Journal uncovered a legacy of human rights violations resulting from medical malpractice and the deaths of several Ladd School residents. That same year, Dr. Smith was fired from his position by RI Governor J. Joseph Garrahy, and a class action lawsuit was filed against the state, ultimately resulting in the Ladd Center's closure in 1994.
Today, the Ladd School, as it may forever be known, is a boogeyman. The last of its buildings left standing, now slated for demolition, have for decades been the subject of urban legend. Its former residents now live in our communities. Its name is spoken softly in certain circles. But its legacy lives on.
How the landscape of services for people with developmental disabilities might evolve as we, as a society, move further into the future, is difficult to predict. Certainly, our cultural attitude toward people with developmental disabilities has improved quite a bit since the days when they were called feeble-minded. And anyone with their finger on the pulse of the nation should be familiar with the "Spread the Word to End the Word" movement, to abolish the usage of "retardation" from our language.
But this crisis - if there is a crisis - of how to treat our citizens with developmental disabilities, is, as we have seen, one that concerns more than just the language we use. It is a crisis of action, inasmuch as it is one of inaction. It will not be resolved by erasing the past, by razing a building, or changing a name. To do so will only serve to blind us of the path behind us, and deprive us of the knowledge to change the one before us.
Therefore, let it be known what The Ladd School is, and what it was, forever more. And let us liberate its history so that its name lives on; so that we may understand it, and use this understanding to emerge from the shadows of our past, to illuminate the destiny of our future, and to become a better and more compassionate society now.
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