Genie (feral child) Totally Explained

Everything about Genie Feral Child totally explained

Genie is a feral child who spent nearly all of the first 13 years of her life locked inside her room. She was discovered by authorities on November 4, 1970. Her real name has been withheld to protect her privacy.

Early life

Genie was the fourth (and second surviving) child of unstable parents, Irene and Clark. An elder brother, John, also lived in the home. Irene was partially blind due to cataracts and a detached retina, and Clark (who was 20 years his wife's senior) was mentally unbalanced. His condition seems to have worsened after his mother's death in a hit-and-run accident.
When Genie was 20 months old and was just beginning to learn speech, a doctor told her family that she seemed to be developmentally delayed and possibly mildly retarded. Her father took the opinion to extremes, decided that she was profoundly retarded, and subjected her to severe confinement and ritual ill-treatment in an attempt to "protect" her.
Genie spent the next 12 years of her life locked in her bedroom. During the day, she was tied to a child's potty chair in diapers; at night, she was bound in a sleeping bag and placed in an enclosed crib with a cover made of metal screening. Her father beat her every time she vocalized, and he barked and growled at her like a dog in order to keep her quiet. He also rarely allowed his wife and son to leave the house or even to speak, and he expressly forbade them to speak to Genie. By the age of 13, Genie was almost entirely mute, commanding a vocabulary of about 20 words and a few short phrases (nearly all negative), such as "stopit" and "nomore".

Rescue

Genie was discovered at the age of 13, when her mother ran away from her husband and took her daughter with her. On November 4, 1970, the two entered a welfare office in Temple City, California to seek benefits for the blind. A social worker met them and guessed that Genie was 6 or 7 years old and possibly autistic. When it was revealed that she was actually 13, the social worker immediately called her supervisor, who then notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Temple Station Deputies responded, the parents were charged with child abuse, and Genie was taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Genie's mother, weak and almost blind, claimed she was herself a victim of abuse by Genie's father. The father committed suicide by shooting himself on the day he was to be arraigned on child abuse charges.
Genie had a strange "bunny walk", in which she held her hands up in front, like paws. Although she was almost entirely silent, she constantly sniffed, spat and clawed. Many of the items she coveted were objects with which she could play. In spite of her condition, hospital staff hoped they could nurture her to normality. When interest in the case widened, Genie became the focus of an investigation to discover whether there might be a critical age threshold for language acquisition. Within a few months of therapy, she'd advanced to one-word answers and had learned to dress herself. Her doctors predicted complete success. They even screened François Truffaut's movie The Wild Child for ideas. Psychologist James Kent became her surrogate parent.

First foster home

Jean Butler was Genie's teacher at Children's Hospital. Butler became Genie's foster parent by accident or by, what members of the Genie team suspected, a scheme that Butler concocted to allow Genie to stay with her. Butler claimed that she herself had had a rash that was likely measles, and thus when Genie had visited her home, Genie may have contracted it. Genie was moved to Butler's home with the initial intent of a temporary quarantine, but the stay became prolonged when Butler petitioned to make it permanent. Butler became very protective of Genie and resisted visits by other members of the Genie team including Susan Curtiss and James Kent.
Butler's personal journal recorded concern that Genie was taxed too greatly by the Genie team and experiments; however (according to Susan Curtiss in the Nova transcript), Butler didn't hide that she hoped Genie would make her famous. According to Curtiss, Butler frequently stated that she was "going to be the next Annie Sullivan." Her true intentions may never be known, but many members of the Genie team claimed genuine affection for Genie and an overwhelming desire to "rescue" her.
Butler did, however, continue the essential practice of observing and documenting Genie's behavior while in her home. One such behavior Butler documented was Genie's practice of hoarding, a behavior typical of children who have been moved from abusive homes. When Butler applied to be Genie's legal foster parent, she was rejected. An independent film entitled Mockingbird Don't Sing is based on Genie's life.

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