(1968-72)

As seen in the case of Lori Lebeau, not all inmates experienced Weeks School as a place of structural neglect. For some, the institution had acted as a firm yet supportive environment that helped transform their lives through education, discipline, and spiritual guidance. In the early seventies, when Weeks was in constant upheaval, Lori, who had spent four and a half years at the institution, came to its defense in The Burlington Free Press. Her humanizing portrait of the house parents, whom she credits with teaching her the importance of moral courage and self-respect, contrasts many of the sordid stories that circulated in the press. By displaying a heterogeneity of experiences and post-institutional outcomes, Lori, and others like her, complicate the dominant narrative of Weeks as a one-dimensional, ruinous place for children, while also challenging negative stereotypes about those who grow up in institutional care. 

“Maybe some people don’t realize what the school had to offer. They offered us scholarships to some colleges in Vermont. They also put me through school and taught me right from wrong. I also learned to respect, not just myself, but them and other people.”

“Weeks School Was Helpful,” Burlington Free Press, March 25, 1974, p. 12