116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Home / Opinion / Letters to the Editor
What if your loved ones were subjected to abuse from the State?
Stephen Haider
Dec. 19, 2022 6:00 am
The continued abuses of people in positions of perceived authority within the State of Iowa are abhorrent.
Hiding under the umbrella of the State, have been conducting nonconsensual human experiments since long — long ago. And, here we are in 2022, with Glenwood Resource Center set to close, its closing prompted in part by allegations from employees that a former superintendent of the facility conducted sexual experiments on disabled human beings at the Glenwood Resource Center. These monsters in the State depend on people forgetting the past.
In 1939, a state employee ran the “Monster Experiment” at the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home in Davenport. A University of Iowa professor and his grad student tortured orphans with psychological abuse to induce stuttering in children who spoke absolutely normal English — traumatizing and altering their individual life experience indefinitely.
In 2017, an employee at the Woodward State Hospital School resigned after allegations of sexual and/or verbal abuse committed by the worker against three residents were substantiated by the state during an investigation into claims made by that same employee against another worker that the state could not verify.
This indicates that there are numerous atrocities to residents that are occurring without any accountability or oversight. These patterns of systemic abuse by State of Iowa employees suggests that they continue to operate under the mantra “We can do what we want.” If your loved one was under attack by these State of Iowa monsters, what would you do?
Stephen Haider
Des Moines
Opinion content represents the viewpoint of the author or The Gazette editorial board. You can join the conversation by submitting a letter to the editor or guest column or by suggesting a topic for an editorial to editorial@thegazette.com