By Peter K. Ilchuk

“They hole up in a room and don’t do anything. We visited some of their homes and all they do is stare at the wall,” said Frater Vincent Youngbert in describing the plight of the many mentally retarded and uneducable children from deprived areas.

Frater Vincent and seven other Passionist seminarians are working in the Perry Housing Project in southwest Atlanta running a school to train these uneducable, retarded children.

“We are trying to teach them to identify colors and communicate,” he said. “Many of them had no lines of communication.” The seminarians work with Mrs. Mary Sanford who began the school on a limited basis. With the help of the Passionist group, the school was expanded and began operating out of a small apartment in the housing project.

Many of the children are picked up at their homes in the morning. During the three hours they spend at the school, they are taught to color, play with other children and communicate their thoughts. The children are given food and drink during the course of the morning.

“Most of the mothers work. They might bake a small cornbread before they leave, which is the food for the entire day for the rest of the family that stays home,” he said.

Frater Vincent mentioned one worry that threatens to ruin every gain they may have made.

“We have been trying to stimulate community interest in establishing a school for these retarded children. They have special classes for the educable mentally retarded, but nothing is being done for trainable retarded children. The work begun here should be picked up by the public school system.” In meeting with school officials, Frater Vincent was told that such a special class was planned for the future; but he said, “anything later than September is too late.” Economic Opportunity Atlanta (EOA) has helped the group in many ways. They have provided both the facilities and a trained aide to work with them.

One boy, a deaf mute, was found to be exceptionally bright; but the economic circumstances of his family made it difficult to send him to a private school for proper training. The seminarians got him enrolled in the state school at Cave Springs where under proper training and supervision he can obtain an education.

A girl afflicted with a skin disease came to school each morning with open sores. Frater Vincent saw the need for hospital treatment and asked the mother to take a day off from work to go to Grady Hospital Clinic.

“At first, we were told that skin cases were only treated on Wednesday, but after some argument we got a doctor to look at the girl. Another day off work for the mother might have meant no food on the table that week. A skin specialist was brought in who prescribed some medicine that had to be applied periodically during the day.”

“This was no solution. The mother works all day, and the girl is not able to apply the medicine herself. They finally consented to sending out a nurse during the day to see that the proper care was given.” “It took us a whole day to get something for this girl. Another woman would have given up much earlier, but the mother held on.”

The mentally retarded children are only one of the problems affecting the area and all interrelated. The seminarians also work with other children in the Perry Community Center, where 67 percent of the children have no fathers. One woman has 20 children. Illegitimacy occurs frequently with men home all day unable to obtain work.

“Some of the homes have little or no furniture except a television set which is the only entertainment many of the people get,” Frater Vincent said.

But the problem of the retarded children is still here. They can be helped at least eight hours a day by attending classes in the public school if such were available.

“As it stands now, we are trying to keep the school going after we leave by having trained women hired to work with Mrs. Sanford.” If the children go back to staring at the wall all day the little they have learned will be lost.

In addition to Frater Vincent, a deacon, the other seminarians that work on the project are Raymond Ryan, Paul Vaeth, Ronan Sedley, Germain Lory, Roy McAndrews, Anselom Drouse and Joseph Sullivan, all of whom are in their second or third year of theology. The director of the seminarians while they are here in Atlanta is Father Austin McKenna.

The seminarians live at St. Paul of the Cross which is maintained by the Passionist Fathers.