Mom is worthy opponent for state
by Lawrie Mifflin
Being the parent of a retarded child is difficult in any case, but for Miss Willie Mae Goodman, the difficulties are compounded, Miss Goodman a divorcee who lives alone in an East Harlem housing project has one child—a severely, retarded eighteen-year-old book old girl—and she fears that the state wants to move her daughter to an inferior institution.
Her daughter, Margaret and 174 others are patients at Gouverneur State School at 621 Water Street in lower Manhattan. They were moved from Willowbrook State School twelve years ago, and since then miss Goodman has been leaving a parent and community crusade to keep the children from being moved again.
Positive treatment
In the process, she has not only kept Gouverneur open three different times in the face of state efforts to close it. But she has helped to make treatment at Gouverneur more positive.
It isn’t easy to be optimistic about the children at Gouverneur. They are the most severely retarded and brain-damaged. Of 175, only a handful can walk or talk. Many professionals feel that there is little that can be done for such people except to give them custodial care.
But Mrs. Goodman vehemently disagrees and that’s one of the reasons she has fought to keep Gouverneur intact.
“We have a wonderful staff here and we’ve learned there is no child that doesn’t respond to the touch of love. She said we would like to see more training programs for them at earlier stages. Two years ago, we fought for speech and hearing therapy, for a social worker, for more trained to nurses, and we got them. But the trouble is, it’s always a fight because the state just wants to give up on this type of child.”
Miss Goodman a small very thin woman who looks younger than her forty-three years, founded the Gouverneur Parents Association, to wage what she regards as a never-ending battle to keep the State Department of Mental Hygiene from closing Gouverneur. Three times it has tried to do so, and three times that has it has had to back down.
“There years ago. It was a budget cut. They said forced them to close it.” She recalls. “Then they said it was overcrowded but we said ‘So are all the others.’ And then this summer, they said the building was no good, that it had fire violations. Well, that’s because they don’t maintain it, they want to be rid of it.”
Dr. Stuart, Keill, regional director of the Department of Mental Hygiene, denies there is a plan to close Gouverneur permanently.
“The plan this summer was to move the children only temporarily while we repaired the building. He said Mrs. Goodman has had experiences with the departement that make her distrust all of us, but I’m trying to show her that we are as concerned about the children as she is. And her complaining is a good—she keeps us on our toes and she keeps the staff and parents inspired,”
Keill said that fire hazards at Google near are being corrected. And he has ordered a complete structural study of the building aimed at helping the department decide whether it would be better to renovate Gouverneur for permanent use or build, a new center for the retarded on the Lower East Side.
Parents Should Visit
Another of Miss Goodman’s victories was the right for parents to visit their children on the wards, seeing other children and getting to know the staff and other parents. Until three years ago, they had to see their children in waiting rooms.
“We wish more parents of retarded kids could visit here.”" Mrs. Goodman said. Gouverneur could be a model for other schools, she added. Parents “need education to see that all places aren’t like Willowbrook and to see how much a retarded child can offer. Many who are only vegetables, and expected to die when they were moved here 12 years ago, are now responding, even improving. And a mother’s touch do wonders.”
When Mrs. Goodman walks along the words at Gouverneur, she proves that the most severely retarded still respond to affection, even those who can do nothing all day but lie in a crib, their twisted limbs and atrophied muscles useless, recognize “Goody,” smile at her and try to talk to her or hug her.