In recent months, the 8-year-old has gone from being a symbol of childhood genius in New York to a source of serious concern for mental health professionals in Colorado. Justin threatened suicide in November, according to his mother and hospital reports. Afterward, testing at Children's Hospital found him to be of average intelligence. A psychological evaluation from the hospital said, "His recent suicidal gesture . . . exemplifies his inability to continue the existence that has been assigned by his mother, the gifted community and most likely by himself." Justin has been placed with foster parents by the Health and Human Services department in Broomfield, his mother accused of neglect. "This child doesn't seem to have the degree of intellectual capacity he is purported to have," Michael Grills, Justin's court-appointed guardian, told a judge Feb. 6. "Either these folks who did the testing at Children's are flat wrong or the extraordinary gifts this child currently has are a fiction -- something that has been contrived. "The picture that is painted of this child being extraordinarily gifted and talented does not seem to bear out." Many of the claims about Justin's ability and potential could not be independently verified in an extensive investigation by the Rocky Mountain News. Records are nonexistent or cannot be confirmed. Proponents now say that their relationship with Justin was based entirely on e-mail, that they had no firsthand knowledge of his work. Many acquaintances simply have clammed up. Still, Justin has his true believers. "My observations of him are that he's exactly what he was claimed to be," said Tracy Neal, director of the Malone Family Foundation. The foundation was created in 1997 by John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media Corp., and his family to improve access to quality education for extraordinarily talented young people who lack financial resources. Neal said the newly formed Broomfield County is behaving like "peasants with pitchforks, coming after the weak and powerless." Elizabeth Chapman complains that her only child is grossly misunderstood and not receiving the specialized help he needs as a profoundly gifted child with a learning disability, which, she said, is an inability to process the spoken word. "People just don't understand these kids," Chapman said in one of many interviews with the News during the past six months. "People fear what they don't know or understand. They don't come with manuals." |
