Tell Them You Love Me

Why did the judge not ask Derrick to answer questions with the help of the keyboard after passing the simple IQ-test where Derrick is shown an apple and the keyboard assistant/facilitator is shown a spoon? If the answer would have been "apple" then the real questioning could proceed. If the answer would be "spoon" then we know the facilitator talks. Alternatively, the assistant/facilitator should not have been shown a picture of apple/spoon at all. It's Derrick that needed to answer in court, right? It looks like Anna was talking to herself through her patient Derrick. By letting Derrick move away from his home to a new home (with Anna) the gov subsidies would have moved too. Anna gets out of an unhappy marriage and becomes a heroine that made an intellectual out of a non-verbal man that was over-protected / locked away by his mom and bro for way too long. It's so simple : let Derrick prove in court that he really wrote those essays etc? Most probably the judge and jury saw that Derrick really wasn't and will never be capable. That's how Anna ended up in jail.

As much as everyone wants Derrick to be a vegetable who doesn't mind being a virgin living with his mom until he dies, he isn't. Telepathy tapes justifies the professor and it's just sad the jealous brother got in the way of the love of his life. The brother got his way tho, he stopped the perpetrator and now he's brother can live by himself with his mom decade after decade not getting any of his sexual needs met and then age and die slowly always remembering Anna as this bright spot in his youth that could've blossomed him into the sun but now he gets to act like a vegetable to please his brother.

From the beginning, it was made clear that, to tell this story, we had to present all angles and involve all those who were part of it. Newark ethics professor originally convicted in 2015 of sexually assaulting Derrick Johnson, a nonverbal man with cerebral palsy. The two met in 2009 through his brother, John Johnson, a student of Stubblefield's. After John Johnson approached the professor, then 39, about his brother's condition, Stubblefield offered to help Derrick Johnson, then 28, with his communication skills. He soon learned to use a keyboard with an LED screen to type and, with Stubblefield's assistance, began taking a university class. The film explores the unsettling case of Dr. Anna Stubblefield, a white Rutgers University philosophy professor and disability theorist who began working with Derrick Johnson, a non-verbal Black man with cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities, using a scientifically questionable method to help him communicate. That method, called Facilitated Communication, involves supporting the hand of a person with motor skill issues so they can point to letters on a board or tap letters on a keyboard to express thoughts.

At the beginning I was like "oh, how amazing! The possibilities are great and his life has changed". But little by little you start to see that things are not okay and that every achievement raises questions.

The way that the woman believes blindly that their relationship was normal and all was fine is just horrendous. She can't think critically and therefore thinks everyone is wrong. The way that the communication works and how his intelligence develops extremally fast is very unlikely. When the assistance starts he barely communicates, but soon he starts to read papers and give political opinions?

The documentary shows how science and study are important to prevent misinformation and charlatans to take advantage on others.

Stop attributing nonsensical gibberish to your clear malice which you clearly meant to inflict, AND STILL seem intent on believing. What Anne did to this man with the comprehension of a child is absolutely disgusting and beyond my ability to comprehend. What she did was clear and intentional manipulation by way of Florence Nightengale Syndrome- falling in love with someone you care for, but went into territory of illegality and manipulation.

I'll admit to having a pang of knowledge the minute it was cast on the screen that there was no admission of FC in the trial- while it's largely viewed as junk science by many of the prominent academics in society, it was still a crux of this case and should have been allowed to be heard and shown in order to shine a spotlight on her fraud. Rather than allowing her to manipulate his supposed conversation and intelligence, it should have been performed with Derrick by an outside source, accompanied by a double blind example as shown to see if he was capable or was obviously being manipulated to convey what she wanted. That her case was overturned and she took the option to plead to a lesser charge shows she knew what would be the outcome. Of course her mother and her friend took her side in all of this- but where were the people who were in Derricks corner, besides his mom and brother?

It's absolutely appalling that she still sees absolutely nothing wrong with what she did and what her behavior has left him with. It's quite clear merely by witnessing his mother discuss the need for medication due to his excessive masturbatory practices after Anne's disgusting behavior- how? Because his brain hasn't experienced any sort of pubescent behavior. Thereby introducing her deviancy into his subconscious, he began experiencing something unfamiliar, but pleasing. So as a result, he began behaving in ways that simulated the pleasure in other ways.

It's beyond insulting how these so-called 'white knights' think they're so necessary in saving black culture- and I've no doubt Anne pictured herself on the whitest horse, cloaked in goodness and godliness to somehow save Derrick- yet in her blatant disregard for facts and evidence, saw only her needs and her elevation as the most important factor. She was willing to completely disregard her own family-(husband, children) career and status to be seen as the heroine in her own story.

The most confounding part of all of this though- does anyone realize that Anne fell in love with herself? It's classic psychotic narcissist syndrome- she loves her own image so much that she projected it onto Derrick. That's beyond sick.