By Alana Loftus & Liam Buckler The Belchertown State School in Western Massachusetts, once described as ‘barbaric’ and ‘a hell hole,’ was a place of horror for its patients. The school, which opened in 1922, housed around 700 students with mental health disorders and developmental disabilities. Despite its grand campus, it was revealed in the 1970s that the patients were living in dreadful conditions and were terribly mistreated. In 1972, a patient’s father filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming the young residents were living in horrific conditions. Benjamin Ricci, the father, released …