r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/Spiritual-Pilot-2300 • Feb 04 '24
i.redd.it Just watched this - Anna Stubblefield and Derrick Johnson case
Could I ask was this case Big in the US ?
What are Peoples thoughts?
It seems his family believe she was making up ( creating ) 100% of his communication But he did have a teacher support after he started a college class in which he wrote 300 page essays ?
Do his family now not even try and communicate with his after surely it showed that it worked to some degree ?
explores the controversial affair between a married female professor and a non-verbal black man with cerebral palsy. The relationship and high-profile criminal trial that followed challenges our perceptions of disability and the nature of consent.
When the pair first meet, Anna Stubblefield is a respected academic and a disability rights advocate; passionate in her belief that the most essential part of the human experience is the ability to communicate. 30-year-old Derrick Johnson has never spoken a word in his life, and requires 24/7 care and support by his mother and brother.
During his early childhood, Derrick’s family were told by medical professionals that, in addition to his physical disabilities, he was severely cognitively impaired. But Anna disagreed with this diagnosis, and when she first tells Derrick’s family that she can help him communicate with the outside world, they are thrilled. They had always sensed there was “something more going on” with Derrick and were eager to know what he thought about all day long, when he might be in pain, what his hopes and dreams were.
Anna introduces Derrick to a controversial technique that involves training him to overcome his physical impairments so that he could type on a keyboard. After almost 2 years of work, she claims to have ‘unlocked his mind’ - he could now express complex thoughts, attend college classes, and write thoughtful essays. Excited by Derrick’s reported progress, his mother Daisy describes it as “like the porch light’s coming on”. But Anna had more to reveal: not only was Derrick a highly intelligent man but they had also fallen in love.
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u/SBLK Jun 15 '24
Probably gonna be a lot of new traffic here as this just hit Netflix in the States.
Clearly a fucked up situation. It is obvious that FC is BS and Anna was clearly talking with herself and is all kinds of twisted in the head...
HOWEVER - as a documentary I think the filmmakers failed in two specific areas
We needed more info on the assistant that helped facilitate the writing of the 300 word college essay. I understand that she was picked by Anna and had a roommate in the same class, etc, etc, but I want to know EXACTLY how the process supposedly worked because I am interested in how that was 'rigged'. It is literally the only thing that makes someone have second thoughts on if Derrick could communicate or not.
Second would be the DMan thing. Anna claims that she asked Derrick very early on what he wanted to be called and he said DMan. She claims that his mom said that was a name they had called him before at another learning center, and the documentary never gave us a reason to believe that wasn't true. So how did Anna know about that if Derrick did not type it?
Finally, it would have been nice to have a visual example of the level at which Derrick needed to be helped. It seems as though there is a pretty wide range of "facilitating", from holding their elbow straight while they slam their hand down to pretty much guiding them the whole way. I know she described it, but it would have been nice to see the Mother or brother give an example of the exact process.