Pennhurst has a long and often tragic history but the recent struggle over who will control the memory of the institution that over 10,500 people called home may be its biggest fight yet. Will the winner be the private owners of the Pennhurst campus who want to exploit the current "Urban Exploration" and ghost-hunting popularity of the site? Or will it be the preservation groups who want to make Pennhurst a "National Site of Conscience" to remind us of the battles fought by those with disabilities in the last century?

Opposition to the attraction is rising. A spokesman from Easter Seals Disability Services made Randy Bates remove the group's logo from the "Charity" page of his Web site http://www.pennhurstasylum.com.  Many other mental health professionals and disability groups have come out with statements alleging that the opening of any type of haunted amusement on the site is “offensive, demeaning, and unacceptable.” A statement on the home page of the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance puts it this way: “Once called the shame of the nation, Pennhurst was the epicenter of a civil and human rights movement that changed the way the world saw people with intellectual and developmental disabilities… Pennhurst stands as a monument not just to the despair of social apathy but more importantly to the bright triumph of an engaged citizenry--and the eternal hope that great change is possible from the cumulative efforts of caring people.  For these reasons it must be preserved.” 

Last week, a film crew directed by actor Michael Rooker shot scenes for “Pennhurst,” a horror movie starring Rooker, Haylie Duff and Beverly Mitchel, on the grounds of the former institution, cashing in on the site’s “haunted” reputation (a segment of The Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” was filmed there in 2009). The film's synopsis reads: "The crew of a reality television show visits an abandoned psychiatric hospital to capture evidences of ghosts, and encounter more than they bargained for when something--or someone--sinister starts picking them off one by one." News flash: Pennhurst was not a psychiatric hospital. It was not an insane asylum. Site owner Richard Chakejian can't understand "why Easter Seals revoked their endorsement." Can it be that these guys just don't get it??

To be clear, I am not against haunted attractions; I just believe that placing one on the grounds of such a place of historic significance is incredibly impudent and exploitive. Pennhurst was a national story many times throughout its 80-year history; it should be a national story again, if only to remind us of what we did wrong in the past to those who were "not like us" and, perhaps, to keep us from making those same mistakes again.

Be sure to check out the Sunday, August 29 edition of the Pottstown Mercury to read more.