This post contains references to sexual assault.
Summary
Tell Them You Love Mewas a powerful exploration of control, consent, disability, race, and sex that featured several shocking reveals throughout. Directed by Nick August-Perna and executive produced by Louis Theroux,Tell Them You Love Mehas certainly sparked conversation and debate. Focusing upon the case that led to aprison sentence for Anna Stubblefield, a former philosophy professor and disability activist accused of sexually assaulting a non-verbal black man,Tell Them You Love Mebrought up pressing questions about society’s prejudices, the ability to consent, and abuses of power.
Like many of thebest Netflix documentaries, the power ofTell Them You Lovewas amplified by how it guided viewers through the experiences of Derrick Johnson, the young man at the center of the legal case, and his family. While facilitated communication suggested Derrick had intellectual capabilities behind anything his family previously thought possible, seeds of doubt were sown and Anna’s methods were called into question. As a story covering many different angles and nuances,Tell Them You Love Medelivered one shocking reveal after another.
Where Anna Stubblefield & Derrick Johnson Are Today After Tell Them You Love Me’s Controversial Case
After the events of the documentary Tell Them You Love Me, Anna Stubblefield and Derrick Johnson lead very different lives in different spheres.
10Anna Used Facilitated Communication With Derrick
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed The Details Of This Controversial Method
Tell Them You Love Meprovided details related to the use of facilitated communication between Anna Stubblefield and Derrick Johnson. This form of assisted typing claims to let non-verbal people communicate, as a facilitator guides their arm for the operation of a keyboard or device. In the case of Derrick, Anna guided his hand and believed that, over time, he learned how the system worked and demonstrated both cognitive understanding and deliberate communication.
Whilethe validity of facilitated communication was called into question byTell Them You Love, it was shocking to witness the rapid pace of Derrick’s supposed use of facilitated communication. While Derrick and Anna’s conversations were simple at first, Anna praised Derrick’s potential, and he even began to attend an African-American literature class. The idea that somebody could be trapped in their body, just waiting for someone to give them the tools they needed to communicate, brought up vital questions related to how disabled people have been perceived by society.
9Anna Was Married When She Met Derrick
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed Anna Stubblefield Was Married
When Anna Stubblefield first encountered Derrick Johnson, her relationship with him was in a professional capacity as she tried to ascertain if he could benefit from the use of facilitated communication. However, as time went on, Anna believed that Derrick had fallen in love with her, and acted on this belief to engage in sexual acts with him. This development opened up a world of questions related to professional boundaries and the ability of non-verbal disabled people to consent to sexual activity.
However, Anna’s relationship with Derrick also had another shocking dimension to it, asAnna was married at the time and had a daughterwhile she was pursuing an extramarital affair with Derrick. Although he did not participate in the documentary, Anna was married to a man named Roger Stubblefield (viaForbes), and after her affair with Derrick had begun, she told Derrick’s family she was going to leave her husband for him. Anna and Roger have since separated.
8Facilitated Communication Has Been Used By Abusers
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed FC Has Been Misused
The narrative inTell Them You Love Mewas presented so that audiences were not fully aware of the controversies surrounding facilitated communication until after Derrick Johnson’s story was told from the perspective of Anna Stubblefield. This dark side of facilitated communication became increasingly sinister with the revelation that it had been previously used to abuse and take advantage of non-verbal and disabled people.
As Derrick’s family started to doubt the validity of facilitated communication,Tell Them You Love Mehighlighted other incidents where the technique had been used to commit heinous acts. These incidents came from the Frontline documentaryPrisoners of Silence, which explained how an autistic boy had been sexually abused by his facilitating aid. This information laid the seeds of doubt over Anna’s method of communicating with Derek, and raised questions over the consensual nature of their relationship.
7Later Tests Show Derrick Was Less Capable Than Anna Claimed
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed That Derrick Was Reassessed
Once the validity of Anna Stubblefield’s use of facilitated communication was questioned and the Johnson family expressed their doubts over Derrick’s ability to consent,Tell Them You Love Mecontinued to delve deeper into the controversial practice. The non-verbal communications expertHoward Shane conducted his own tests with Derrick and found no evidence that Derrick was functioning at the cognitive levels that Anna claimed. Shane’s results showcased Derrick’s expressive and receptive language as being around the level of a 6-12-month-old child.
This information and the revelation that Derrick’s family could not communicate with him using facilitated communication gave extra credence to the idea that Anna’s claims about Derrick’s mental capacity were false. Without any medical professionals to back up Anna’s claims, there was no way to prove that she was not guiding Derrick’s hand, and it was possible she subconsciously chose what she wanted him to say. This possibility meant that Anna’s behavior became a matter for the police.
John Johnson Revealed More Details About His Brother
Anna Stubblefield was very open about the fact that she had a physical relationship with Derrick Johnson, and when she told the story from her perspective, she presented it as a loving and consensual relationship. However, as Anna’s use of facilitated communication was called into question, the potential for sexual abuse became a major point of concern. As Derrick’s brother,John Johnson, explained the marks he noticed on Derrick’s body inTell Them You Love Me,the possible ramifications of Anna and Derrick’s relationship became even more worrying.
John claimed that he did not think Anna truly recognized how she “devalued my brother.” John described finding “abrasions” on Derrick’s back that were like “somebody’s dragging you across the floor” and that it was only in hindsight that he suspected this was from Anna being sexual with Derrick. John shockingly alleges that Anna was “exerting so much force” on Derrick that she left scars on his body.
5Anna Was Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed That Anna Served Time In Prison
The case against Anna Stubblefield was a complex and shocking one that brought up many issues around consent, disabilities, and race, and saw Anna sentenced to 12 years in prison. In Anna’s initial trial, no evidence from facilitated communication was permitted, which meant the court could not consider much of her reasoning behind her supposed relationship. WhileAnna pleaded not guilty and said that Derrick was mentally capable of engaging in their relationship, the prosecutors said he could not consent.
Anna was found guilty of two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Anna was also required to register herself as a sex offender (viaNJ). In her initial sentencing, Anna was required to serve at least 10 years of her sentence before she would have been eligible for parole, and her position as a Rutgers professor was forfeited.
4Anna Was Released After Two Years
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed That Anna Appealed Her Conviction
Although Anna Stubblefield was sentenced to 12 years in prison,Tell Them You Love Merevealed that she was actually released after just two years. Anna appealed her conviction, and a three-judge panel decided in her favor. The judges ruled that the court’s dismissal of testimony related to facilitated communication limited Anna’s defense.Anna pleaded guilty to third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact and was sentenced to time served and released.
After leaving prison, Anna picked a waitress job but was soon recognized by a customer who complained, and she was let go. InTell Them You Love Me, Anna stated that she now has a part-time work-from-home job where “nobody knows me.” Although Anna was released from prison, it appeared as if the shadow of this case would follow her around for the rest of her life, as she lost her previous career in academia.
3Anna Has Her Defenders
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed That Some Believe Anna Acted In Good Faith
Despite being found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault, Anna Stubblefield still has some supporters who believe in her use of facilitated communication. As a former professor of philosophy at Rutgers University–Newark, Anna was respected in her field and was a notable voice regarding the rights of non-verbal disabled people. Despite the criminal case against Anna, some in theTell Them You Love Medocumentary spoke in her favor and expressed their belief in facilitated communication as a genuinely effective method.
Disabilities professor Devva Kasnitz spoke in the documentary about the benefits of facilitated communicationand stated, as a disabled person herself, the importance of providing non-verbal people with means to communicate. Devva attended Anna’s trial and stated that “whatever went on in private,” she believed Anna “absolutely believed it was consensual.“Tell Them You Love Mebrought up difficult questions and provided no easy answers about whether Anna acted maliciously or aimed to exploit Derrick.
2The Use Of Facilitated Communication Has Been Rejected
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed FC Has Been Discredited Scientifically
Facilitated communication served as the entire basis for the reappraisal of Derrick Johnson’s intellectual capability. For much of the runtime ofTell Them You Love Me, Anna Stubblefield highlighted the miraculous potential of this method and how it allowed Derrick to discover a whole new world of communication and allow his wants, desires, and ideas to be known. However, it was later revealed that the use of facilitated communication had actually been rejected by many reputable organizations.
The final moments ofTell Them You Love Meincluded a title card that revealed howthe use of facilitated communication has been rejected by the American Psychological Association, the American Speech-Lanugage Hearing Association, and several other prominent organizations. While facilitated communication has remained in use by some institutions as a means for non-verbal people to communicate, it has been discredited as a scientific technique. The abuse allegations associated with facilitated communication have meant its use has been discouraged by most disability professional organizations.
1Anna Believes She Is Not Guilty
Tell Them You Love Me Revealed Anna’s Belief That She Committed No Crime
Despite pleading guilty to third-degree aggravated criminal sexual assault, Anna Stubblefield continually professed her innocence inTell Them You Love Me. Anna allowed herself to be interviewed for the documentary and used this as an opportunity to highlight her and Derrick’s story. While Derrick’s family participated in the documentary to highlight the abuse they believed he suffered at the hands of Anna’s miscarriages of power, Anna herself has said she did not commit any crimes.
WhileTell Them You Love Medid not explicitly take any stance on Anna’s guilt, the evidence that the use of facilitated communication has been discredited and the results from Derrick’s later evaluation stood against her. Derrick’s family originally took Anna at her word, but neither Derrick’s mother nor brother could use facilitated communication to speak with him. The case against Anna Stubblefield was a complex one, and althoughTell Them You Love Medid not give any conclusive answers, it opened the door for an important conversation surrounding issues of consent, control, disabilities, race, and sex.
Tell Them You Love Me
Cast
A professor has a relationship with a nonverbal man with cerebral palsy. Their affair leads to a criminal trial over disability and consent. The film shows interviews and footage presenting both perspectives.
