Institutional science framed disabled people as social danger and used children in research.
Expert language made children sound like threats.
Walter E. Fernald was a major figure in institutional care for people then labelled feeble-minded. Early twentieth century experts often described disabled people as a social menace.
This language helped justify segregation, control and institutionalisation.
At the Fernald institution, boys were later involved in radiation experiments connected to nutrition research. The full meaning and risk were not properly explained to them in the way modern ethics would require.
The scandal shows how institutionalised children could be treated as research material rather than children.
The lesson is not only that one institution failed. The lesson is that people with less power are at risk when systems stop seeing consent, dignity and voice.
Awareverse must always ask: who has power here, and who is being spoken over?