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Genesis at Xaverian students to compete in New York City History Day

February 24, 2012 Denise Romano

BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein

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Two Genesis at Xaverian students are competing in New York City History Day thanks to an in-depth documentary they made on the sordid Willowbrook State School.

Elizabeth Quinn and Anna Siewers live on Staten Island, but are seventh graders at Genesis in Bay Ridge. Every year, the school participates in National History Day, which is when students either submit a paper, write a play or make a documentary about something that happened in American history. Students projects are approved and graded by their history teacher in June. They begin work on the project over the summer and must have it submitted by January.

To narrow down choices, each year there is a topic. This years was Revolution, Reaction and Reform. Since the students work with disabled children during the summer and love making movies on their iPads, they chose to do a documentary on Willowbrook whose name became synonymous with the warehousing of developmentally disabled individuals after the scandal broke in 1972 about the treatment of those who lived there.

Since a good deal of the project must be based on primary sources, Siewers mom, Marianne, drove the two girls to Albany over the summer to look at original documents regarding the Willowbrook case.

They saw the original lawsuit, articles from the Staten Island Advance and of course, the documentary that Geraldo Rivera made, breaking open the story on the inhumane and despicable conditions at Willowbrook.

This really helped with the reform aspect of the project, the elder Siewers explained. The reform was realizing that keeping people with disabilities in the community is better for them. Theres the whole philosophy of inclusion and exclusion.

While looking at these primary sources, Quinn and Siewers looked for names of people in articles who could be interviewed further for the project. They came across and successfully spoke with Victoria Schneps-Yunis, this papers co-publisher, who fought to have the school closed; Jane Kurtin, a Staten Island reporter who covered the story; a New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer who helped with the case; and Chris Burke, an actor with Down’s Syndrome, famous for the show Life Goes On.

[When Burke was a child] institutionalization was the norm, but his family decided to keep him home and include him in the community, Siewers said. We showed how someone who is kept within their normal environment could grow.

Quinn and Siewers also spoke with local parents who have disabled children today. They talked about the reform aspect of the documentary and the importance of Medicare and Medicaid.

If you arent a watchdog, services go away and when they go away, its hard for them to come back and its harder to take care of kids, Siewers said.

After the interviews were finished, the students had to cut down nine hours of footage into just 10 minutes of documentary.

It was very hard, but it taught us a lot, especially how to manage our time, said the younger Siewers, adding that she also learned how to be more organized.

We learned how to do research better, Quinn added.

Quinn and Siewers said they were surprised to be selected to represent their school. Shes a hard history teacher, Quinn said. We felt good about ourselves.

New York City History Day will be held on March 11 at the Museum of the City of New York.