Jani's parents

I recently wrote a post about 7 year old Jani Schofield who is battling Schizophrenia. To read that post click here.



Just recently I have heard through word of mouth that there are claims that Jani's father Michael Schofield admitted to physically abusing and starving Jani out of frustration. There are those who hold the opinion that due to this abuse Jani was forced to turn inward and now lives in this alternate world where she carries delusions.

Some have also attacked Harpo Productions (Oprah Winfrey's company) and the LA Times for omitting the allegations against Jani's father. However, I do not know that these allegations have any official or legal force behind them.

I recently came across a blog that gives some detail to the abuse. Is Something Not Quite Right With Stan - A Mental Health Blog, quotes from Michael Scofield's blog. I am not sure if the original post from Michael still exists as I have heard through the grapevine that it does not and I have not investigated myself.

According to Is Something Not Quite Right With Stan - A Mental Health Blog, the post from Michael Scofield includes this disturbing admittance.

"Five year olds are still desperate for parental approval.

Yes, kids have temper tantrums. But Jani would dig her nails into my skin and pull...leaving a bloody track down my arm or face. She would grin while she did this, a demonic grin that would have scared me had I had time to really think about it. But I didn't.

We tried everything. Positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement. Hitting her back (I won't tell you how many people told us that all she needed was a good beating). We took all her toys away. We gave her toys away. We tried starving her. We did EVERYTHING we could to try and break her. Nothing worked.

Even then, it did not occur to us that our daughter was mentally ill. Now I wonder who was really delusional. Susan and I held fast to our belief that Jani was just a misunderstood genius.

Then Bodhi was born.

The violence became so bad that at times Susan and I both lost it and hit Jani as hard as we could. We hit in impotent rage.

We got a referral to a psychiatrist.

Two months later, Janni was hospitalized for the first of what has since been four times, but in truth will be many more times.

Today, Jani is no longer a brat. Today, Jani is schizophrenic."

Jani's Story

I'm surprised that Michael was not fearful of posting this information and I am wonder if social services has investigated this case. If they have the investigation has not been made public.

Jani's father held a blog entitled January First (Notes From Calalini) (for those who do not know Calalini is what Jani describes as the border of her world and ours) but the blog now continues at a different site called Jani's Journey.

The blog leaves an opportunity to donate to Jani's family and Michael posts with frequent updates. It is clear from his writing that he is in pain.

I certainly feel for this family and for Jani however I do not condone the violent acts against Jani. I certainly do not know what it feels like to be in their situation however the measures they went to are unacceptable.