255. Bjerketun verneskole for jenter

Today it is called “Bjerketun ungdomspsykiatriske behandlingshjem” and the treatment methods are therapy but it wasn’t always so. In 1960 the media published a number of articles based on the testimony of a counselor who had worked there. Among the issues mentioned were use of isolation rooms, corporal punishment and girls being forced to undress in front of male employees.

The media coverage resulted in a closure of the boarding school. The so-called “protection school for girls” was a prison for young girls where the girls were subjected to a treatment which you normally would expect to see in bad 1970’s sex-movies.

It could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Derfor tiet ansatte om vold i barnehjem (NRK – In Norwegian language)
• About the treatment facility today (In Norwegian language)