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Moving residents
out of Fernald still an issue
of dispute
(May
2008 Issue)
By Elinor Nelson
The battle continues. On one side, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
wants to move the remaining residents out of the Fernald Developmental
Center in Waltham and into group homes. It would like to be free
to sell most or all of Fernald's 180 acres of prime land. However,
the Fernald League for the Retarded, representing about 1,000 family
members, friends, and guardians of the residents is opposed to Fernald's
closure. The state, they say, should not be trying to balance a
budget on the backs of its most vulnerable citizens. The state insists
that Fernald residents could do well in other settings, while the
League says many of those left at Fernald are too fragile to move.
U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro has been presiding over decades
of Fernald litigation and in August ruled that residents may only
be transferred to group homes if they and their guardians agree.
The state has appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals,
which has not yet heard arguments.
Marilyn Meagher, president of the Fernald League, states that there
are about 167 residents left at Fernald, down from a recent high
in 2002 of more than 300. The average resident, she says, is in
his or her 50's and has lived there for more than 40 years. Some
are as old as 93.
The latest dispute concerns a 91-year-old Fernald resident who
was recently moved to a group home in Burlington. She is blind,
hard of hearing, mentally disabled and has a heart condition. But
she is verbal and Meagher, among others, claim to have been told
by the woman that she did not want to move from Fernald.
The woman's guardian is Arc of Massachusetts - described by its
Executive Director Leo Sarkissian, M.A. as a nonprofit "advocate
for community supports for people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities." Arc has a contract with the state and is firmly in
favor of closing state institutions and moving the residents into
group homes. "A lot of families are understandably nervous about
change," Sarkissian says, "but we do know that many of the residents
make successful moves. If we plan well, they can do well."
Witnesses were divided on whether the woman had been deceived into
moving to the Bedford home against her will. Judge Tauro has ordered
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan to investigate the elderly woman's
removal from Fernald to determine whether the earlier ruling was
violated.
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