Disability Advocates Push Back On Waltham Light Show At Fernald

WALTHAM, MA — A group of disability rights advocates from across Massachusetts are asking the city to rescind its approval for the Lions Club to host a holiday light show on the city-owned Fernald property.

In a letter to Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy dated Nov. 8, the advocates called the use of the site "disturbing" and "inappropriate," given its history.

The Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center, originally called the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, was a state institution that came to Waltham in the late 1800s. It grew to include 72 buildings on 196 acres. It later came out that for decades children housed there were neglected and abused, prompting its closure. Later the center transitioned into a center for mentally disabled adults, before it eventually closed for good in 2014.

The state sold the property to the city of Waltham that year for $3.7 million, retaining some rights to profit from future leases and with some historical preservation conditions. The city explored using the property as a high school or police station, but both were shot down amid environmental concerns. The property has sat empty since then.

"Hosting a holiday light show here ignores the fact that the people who lived at the Fernald School were denied holidays with their families and loved ones for generations," the advocates, including representatives from The Arc of Massachusetts, the Disability Law Center, the Boston Center for Independent Living, and the MetroWest Center for Independent Living, wrote.

The light show, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 27 and last through Jan. 3 is being conducted as an annual fundraiser by the Lions. The Waltham Lions are a civic club with a goal to raise funds and serve the community. They offer several grants to community members, most recently helped the Boys & Girls Club of Waltham construct barriers so that children could have remote class there.

Those protesting the light show said they reached out to the city to encourage the Lions to have the light show elsewhere, but said the city dismissed requests to find an alternative.

"It’s a drive thru Holiday light display for children of all ages in a Pandemic," said Mayor Jeannette McCarthy in an email.

Marissa Sweazy marketing director for Fiesta Shows, which is the company that has partnered with the Lions for the past few years for its annual carnival fundraiser, said the company has gotten two cancellations amid the pushback.

But, she said the decision to help the Lions hold their annual fundraiser event at the Fernald was one of logistics amid the pandemic and not one meant to offend anyone.

"Unfortunately there’s not a ton of other spaces available where the traffic flow is not going to be a major disruption to abutters and a place that can hold the volume of cars," she said. "To us the pros of helping the Lions and the community overruled the historical importance of the Fernald."

The goal for both the Lions and the Fiesta Shows, she said, is to focus on the holiday in a safe way.

"It’s definitely a very tricky time for people to enjoy the season, we are doing our very best to ensure that people leave the holiday light show with nothing more than holiday cheer," she said. "We completely understand that this is a very sensitive topic, but it’s important for us to offer it."

But advocate Alex Green, a Waltham advocate who was honored by the Lions as a community hero in 2015, and who has extensively researched the history of the site said although he supports the work that the Lions do in general, the light show on the property is a bad idea.

"They’re putting up a bunch of holiday lights in the ruins of a place where people suffered," he said. "We’re a society that needs more compassion right now, not less, and this is asking people to drive through ruins but erase the history of what happened here. That history needs to come first in every way that this site is reused, and it should be led by people with disabilities."

At Fernald, people lived under conditions labeled by one federal judge as a "snake pit environment," Disability Law Center Executive Director Marlene Sallo said in a statement.

"Young boys were given radioactive oatmeal as part of 'scientific' experiments, and residents were buried in unmarked graves," she said." This needs to be widely taught and understood, and a disrespectful holiday light show brings no illumination upon that tragic history."

Green said the advocates are giving the city until the end of the week to move the show, or they say they will take further action, though they did not expound on what that might look like.

Advocates said the city agreed to erect a memorial to the former residents and house a disability history museum at the site, both of which have stalled, they said.

An online petition has garnered nearly 600 of signatures in the 24 hours it went live.

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how .