Jett Travolta (Picture: AP)
This week, we learned that 16-year-old Jett Travolta died after hitting his head during a seizure. His parents have always denied his autism, claiming instead that he suffered from an obscure condition known as Kawasaki syndrome, contracted from “carpet-cleaning chemicals”.
According to For Great Justice:
John Travolta and Kelly Preston have only publicly spoken of their son’s having had Kawasaki Syndrome, an unlikely source of seizures, for which they treated him with Scientology’s vitamin, sauna, and running therapy known as the Purification Rundown. There has also been considerable speculation on whether Jett was autistic or had Asperberger’s Syndrome. While a confirmed diagnosis has not been made public, reports of Jett’s behavior make such a diagnosis more likely than not. At the very least, he suffered some sort of neurological impairment that contributed to his fatal seizure.
In truth, Jett Travolta’s autism has been known about for years. In 2007, Hollywood Interrupted reported:
Tim and Patricia Kenny are the proud parents of a 4 year-old autistic girl, believe that it might be time for Child Protective Services to look into John Travolta and wife Kelly’s negligence in acknowledging their son Jett’s reported autism.
The Kennys also claim that Kelly and John “let Jett sit in front of video games all day eating junk food, while they eat the best organic food money can buy. They exclude Jett from all social events because they are embarrassed.”
“Once,” reports Kenny, “when Kelly took him to the movies, Jett started to have a meltdown and Kelly pointed at the nanny and ordered, ‘Take care of it.’”
“Jett does not speak at all,” confirms Kenny. “He has not even been taught how to communicate. We struggle every week to pay for our daughter’s therapy. How dare he [Travolta] ruin his own son’s chances of recovering! We want to get the word out on this.”
The Travolta family are prominent Scientologists. Scientology doesn’t “believe in” autism, and eschews conventional medicine - including anti-convulsive and anti-seizure medication - in favour of a cocktail of quackery with no basis in medical science. Jett is not the first person to suffer as a result of this kind of “therapy”.
Amid the concomitant tabloid circus, it is easy to forget that this was a real human being: a child suffering from autism. And Jett Travolta did not get the treatment his condition required because his parents subscribe to a cult that recommends pseudo-scientific remedies for serious and debilitating medical conditions.
This morning, a commenter on Damian Thompson’s Holy Smoke blog wrote:
Kelly Preston, Jett’s mother, was on the board of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights which is virulently anti-psychiatry and anti-medication. How many children’s lives have been negatively interfered with by the influence of this Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which is part of Scientology, we shall never know. There is, therefore, a kind of justice that the mother, who demonstrated against psychiatric and medical treatment and who would have been involved in the threatening of psychiatry, has lost a son as a result of this anti-medicine belief that has distressed other parents all over the world.
How true that is. And how easy it is for us to laugh at Scientology - at the ridiculous space opera stories, the E-meters, and the obviously bogus science.
But a child has just died. Whether or not his death was accelerated by the tenets of Scientology, it seems certain that while he was alive, his quality of life was severely impaired by parents who hid him because they were ashamed of him, who were unaware of his death for several hours (his body was discovered by a caretaker), and who denied him the treatment he needed, all as a result of their faithfulness to the principles of Scientology.
It is time that the authorities took the Church of Scientology’s quackery seriously.
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22 responses
More on the caretaker/nanny. Was it Travolta’s “gay lover”?
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/mystery-jett-travoltas-nanny
Thank you for that editorial Milo. Here’s my two cents, for what they’re worth: http://number6enturb.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/bringing-up-scientology-does-not-exploit-jett-travoltas-death/
The cover-up and deflection on this story is just beginning.
Read the insights of a former high-ranking Scientologist on how the organization will handel the cover-up and public relations here:
http://www.endthecult.com/2009/01/a-former-scientologist-on-jett-travolta/
If Jett were denied adequate medical treatment by “Christian” parents, he would have been removed from the home long ago, and the parents would have been criminally charged with neglect, or some form of murder when he died…
Why don’t the same legal standards apply to followers of Scientology?…
Sad thing is this is not all that uncommon. Scientologists are not allowed by the cult to get many types of medication. Ask doctors. They know. How many scientologists get sick and die who aren’t famous?
Go to whyaretheydead.com if you want a complete list of people who have died because of the “Church” of Scientology.
Freedom of religion, Thay loved Jett and that is all that matters. They just lost their only son you heartless cruel people.
I feel sorry for them that they lost their only son, however I feel more empathy towards a child that was denied conventional medical treatment because the parents are wrapped up so tightly in some cult that does not believe in medicine. The kid was having grand mal seizures weekly and should have been on medication. It takes time to try different medicines to find the correct one with seizures. “Treating” him with Scientology mumbo jumbo does not cut it.
Nonsense. We now know Jett was taking a drug called Depakote, a strong anti-seizure medication. There have been reports Travolta refused to give his son anti-seizure meds because of Scientology but those stories are not true.
http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/05/john-travoltas-son-meds-ultimately-did-harm/
There are other medications for epilepsy besides depakote. I wonder if people will ever know if they put him on another medication or did they just give up on anti-seizure drugs altogether. I had a friend who transitioned from depakote to another drug, and in that transition period, her seizures got really bad and she is now one semester behind in college. Taking someone off depakote cold turkey makes seizures worse.
He was on Depakote and it decreased his seizures but his Scientology parents said it was hurting his internal organs so they took him off of it. They tried Scientology methods, not modern medicine. Most people with seizures have to keep changing their medicine. They were in denial that there was anything wrong with him, he obviously had serious problems that they refused to address or get him conventional medical help for. They “treated” him with various Scientology methods that obviously did not work.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/browse_thread/thread/66a7c5f0e0f33248
Interesting, but one thing this site has taught me is not to believe everything you read. Presenting a section of a ‘Hollywood, Interrupted’ article as fact and saying “such a diagnosis more likely than not.” without any real evidence is using the same techniques that supporters of counterknowledge do. All this article does is make the people who already hate Scientology shake their heads; and those who support Scientology hate or discredit you for presenting non-fact as fact. When our only weapon is truth you lose when you fudge it.
P.S. What is this about Travolta’s gay lover! Come on! I could read perez hilton if I wanted to know about that junk.
What has Counterknowledge come to? With the exception of Lesley and Shawneka, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Where is your proof that Jett Travolta suffered from autism? Do you simply take the (quite possibly dubious?) word of a couple of ex-neighbours, or the insinuations of scandal mags? Also there are many other medical conditions besides epilepsy that cause/result in seizures. And how do you know (Mr or Mrs Cultawareness) for a fact that the boy was denied other conventional drugs apart from Depakote? I have no absolutely truck with Scientology with its crap idiology and practices but I do know for a fact that life-saving drugs are most certainly NOT denied to their members. Again, how do you know the Travoltas ‘were in denial’ about their son’s condition? I even read that the Travoltas were supposedly ashamed of their son’s condition. You only have to look at their family photos splashed all over the newspapers to know that this was a rotten lie. By all means carry on exposing Scientology, conspiracy theories and quackery but please make sure you stick to the facts (which, after all, you constantly accuse other people of not doing) and don’t attack people who have just tragically lost a child without being able to substantiate every claim you make.
Did I ever make the claim he had autism? I don’t know what he had but he had something mentally wrong with him and Scientology says people with mental illness are degraded and can be cured with Scientology, not medication. Scientology has been fighting psychiatric medications and illnesses for years. That is something they say, not something I am making up or assuming. Maybe you need to do more Scientology research, I have done my fair share and it did not start with Jett’s death.
Jett had epilepsy. Epilepsy is when you have ongoing seizures, which Jett had. Someone that just has 1 seizure is not considered epileptic. I have seen interviews where his parents said they took him off seizure medicine because they thought it harmed his internal organs. There are many seizure medications, most people have to change them or go on more than 1 medication during their lifetime. It is a shame this was not done for Jett, he had Scientology treatments instead. At least that is what his parents have stated. Johns Hopkins could have probably cured him of his seizures as they have done with many other epileptics.
Don’t get mad Cult Awareness. We are on your side; I don’t like Scientology. All I and I think Ronnie C are saying is your research on Scientology is much more useful than any speculations.
I am not mad Leesa and I have tons of empathy for the Travolta’s that they lost a child. However, I have been assaulted and harrassed by a scientologist, I have been locked up in a room by a cult and not allowed to leave. I know all too well the dangers they pose. I also have quite a bit of experience with epilepsy and know that Scientology discourages conventional medical treatments, they think if you have a mental illness or disorder that the only cure is Scientology. They have led the bandwagon on trying to rid the world of ritalin and the psychiatric profession.
Here in Nevada, a mother has been charged with murder because she did not give her diabetic 11-year old daughter insulin. And she died. What makes this any different, a child, with autism (epilepsy) which can be treated isn’t and he dies? This is truly a sad story. But I doubt anything will come of it. (That case in Nevada is: Nevada v. Cheryl Musso). Your different religions don’t give you the right to neglect a child. EVER.
sounds like counterknowledge has a conspiricy theory about the Travoltas to me. Hang on arent we against conspiricy theories.
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