# John Travolta's Son Dies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648 "2009-01-03T00:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/81 "2009-01-03T21:11:04Z")
We can’t know if any of this is true, but note the date. This article came out nearly two years ago. [TRAVOLTA FAMILY TRAVESTY: Wild Hogs Star Gives own Autistic Son the Silent Treatment - May 10, 2007](http://www.hollywoodinterrupted.com/archives/travolta_family_travesty_wild_hogs_star_gives_own_autistic_son_the_silent_treatment.phtml) > [@](#): > > Tim and Patricia Kenny, 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. > > “I don’t think it’s a stretch to call their treatment of Jett child abuse,” Ocala, Florida restaurant manager Tim Kenny tells Hollywood, Interrupted. Kenny claims he met Travolta at his restaurant in February, and, after “comping” the movie star and his daughter a meal per restaurant policy for celebrities, he asked him, “as one autistic child’s father to another,” if he “was doing anything special in terms of therapy” for Jett. Aghast, Travolta responded, “Well, we involve him in the arts.” > > … > > 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.” ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/82 "2009-01-03T21:21:37Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > It seems like his parents did everything they could to make him safe. I find it interesting, for a 16-year-old boy, that they still needed a baby monitor and a door chime on the bathroom door. But if that’s what they needed to do, that’s what they needed to do. Check out **bobkitty** ’s post. It’s a strategy often use with people who suffer seizures, I assume so that someone can hear if they enter or leave a room, experience distress, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/83 "2009-01-03T22:27:56Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > If any disabled child is being mistreated or neglected due to religious matters, it should be made public. The Travoltas have already publicized their devotion to Scientology, plus they’ve described what they believe was wrong with their son (KS) and promoted Scientology’s non-medical treatments. These public statements should be closely scrutinized, not buried in the ground – if not for Jett’s sake, for the sake of _all_ children who are being medically mistreated by religiously delusional parents. If Jett Travolta did have autism, there’s not much in the way of treatment that could have prevented his death. Like others have said, even people on anti-seizure medication can still have seizures. Even perfectly normal people can fall and hit their head. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/84 "2009-01-03T23:37:52Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > Like others have said, even people on anti-seizure medication can still have seizures. Even perfectly normal people can fall and hit their head. The smoking gun would be if their son was taking any anti-seizure medication at all, or if it can be established that he was prescribed treatment by a regular doctor which his parents failed to provide. That said, I don’t expect the mainstream media to make a big deal of the religious angle – they’re already tiptoeing around Jett’s medical condition, which makes sense when you consider how litigious the Church of Scientology is. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/85 "2009-01-03T23:38:35Z")
I’m not being disrespectful at all, but I’m just curious: did anybody else have the odd instant-progression to Mark Twain’s daughter Jean when hearing this? (A century minus one year and one week and one day separate them: Jett died of a seizure in his bathroom the day after New Years 2008, Jean Clemens of a seizure in her bath the day before Christmas 1909.) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/86 "2009-01-04T00:06:23Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > The smoking gun would be if their son was taking any anti-seizure medication at all, or if it can be established that he was prescribed treatment by a regular doctor which his parents failed to provide. That said, I don’t expect the mainstream media to make a big deal of the religious angle – they’re already tiptoeing around Jett’s medical condition, which makes sense when you consider how litigious the Church of Scientology is. ☹ To the best of my knowledge there is nothing in Scientology that would even discourage the treatment of a seizure disorder. Yes, they might somehow classify autism as a “mental illness” and refuse to call it by its name, blame it on something else he had maybe, but they could treat it all the same and they could treat seizure disorders with medications if indicated. Not all seizure disorders are treated - sometimes the seizures are infrequent enough as to not warrant it and sometimes the medications are not well tolerated or have untoward side effects worse than the seizures. He may have been on medicine or not and been appropriately cared for. I’m no fan of Scientology but this is unlikely to be blamed on religious beliefs. Tragic stuff happens. No matter what your belief system. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/87 "2009-01-04T00:44:44Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Nitpick: [_Sic_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic) is not an abbreviation. I sit corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/88 "2009-01-04T00:46:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’m not being disrespectful at all, but I’m just curious: did anybody else have the odd instant-progression to Mark Twain’s daughter Jean when hearing this? (A century minus one year and one week and one day separate them: Jett died of a seizure in his bathroom the day after New Years 2008, Jean Clemens of a seizure in her bath the day before Christmas 1909.) My husband did. Now, as to **Equipose’s** quoted article (and why you’d bring it up if you don’t know if it’s true or not I’m not sure…) > [@](#): > > Tim and Patricia Kenny, 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. Then why don’t they call Protective Services instead of talking to a reporter? Seriously, WTF? I’ve seen situations that I believed were abuse and called Protective Services with names/locations/dates and they did investigate it. C’mon, what’s wrong with the Kennys? > [@](#): > > “I don’t think it’s a stretch to call their treatment of Jett child abuse,” Ocala, Florida restaurant manager Tim Kenny tells Hollywood, Interrupted. Kenny claims he met Travolta at his restaurant in February, and, after “comping” the movie star and his daughter a meal per restaurant policy for celebrities, he asked him, “as one autistic child’s father to another,” if he “was doing anything special in terms of therapy” for Jett. Aghast, Travolta responded, “Well, we involve him in the arts.” So… let me get this straight. This person Kenny meets Travolta’s family at this restaurant, Kenny is not a doctor or other qualified expert, and he “diagnoses” Jett right on the spot? WTF again? Isn’t that a little intrusive? Even assuming Jett is displaying some sort of atypical behavior it’s pretty presumptive to jump to “autism” even if it is one of the diagnosis _du jour_ these days. There’s more than one reason a child may be uncommunicative or behaving oddly, including some seizure disorders. Yes, there’s an overlap between epilepsy and autism, but every epileptic child that acts oddly is not automatically autistic. > [@](#): > > 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. How the hell do the Kennys know this? Do they spend time in the Travolta home on a frequent basis? This sounds like hearsay. > [@](#): > > They exclude Jett from all social events because they are embarrassed." This contradicts reports that they took Jett everywhere with them and Mr. Travolta spent hours a day with his son. If he’s disabled he may not be capable of participating in many social events but that doesn’t mean the parents are “embarassed” or mistreating the child. > [@](#): > > “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.’” And… how is this different than removing any disruptive child from a movie theater? Kenny doesn’t detail what this “meltdown” consisted of, but if a child is screaming, crying, or otherwise disruptive in a movie theater YES, they should be taken outside and I fail to see where using a nanny to do this while the parents stay with another child or children is inappropriate. > [@](#): > > “Jett does not speak at all,” confirms Kenny. "He has not even been taught how to communicate. It is also possible that Jett _is not able_ to communicate. Or that he has some sort of issue that makes him unwilling to speak or interact with people he doesn’t know well. Yes, that could be autism, but it could also be a speech impediment or some other problem. > [@](#): > > 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." Excuse me? “Recover” from autism? One does not _recover_ from autism. One might learn to _cope_ autism, but it does not go away. There is no cure at this time. In fact, there’s not even really good consensus on what is and isn’t effective therapy for autism spectrum disorders. It sounds to me like the Kennys disagree with someone else’s parenting choices and wish to air this in public. Shame on them. If they were truly concerned that there was some sort of neglect or abuse the proper course is to notify child protective services, not blast it in the media. For all we know protective services _has_ looked into this and found no wrong-doing - we’ll never know because THEY, at least, know how to respect others’ privacy. Honestly, I haven’t a clue what, if anything, Jett suffered from. As I’ve said, there are a lot of things that can mess a kid up, including a seizure disorder that is resistant to treatment. It would just add to the tragedy if Jett had some sort of brain damage or brain abnormality that messed him up that nosey people kept attributing to autism, or used to accuse his parents of abuse or neglect. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/89 "2009-01-04T01:00:48Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > My 14yo niece, diagnosed within the last year with a seizure disorder, is under strict orders from her doctor to not be alone in the bathroom until they get the seizures under control- any time she’s in the bathroom, someone has to either be in there with her or just outside the door (mortifying for an otherwise “normal” 14yo). She has a time limit for showers (and showers only- no baths) and has to sing along with the radio the whole time she’s in there. I can see why there would be a chime on the bathroom door, just to let a nanny/parent know that Jett was going in or out, but a baby monitor at all times? I would think that points to either a seizure d/o not anywhere near under control, or some other health problem. > > What the hell is up with the Bahamas? The recent spate of celebs/pseudo-celebs dying there is going to turn it into a bad idea for a vacation. After reading your post I have to ask you if you think that’s the reason for the baby monitor in his bedroom? When I first read that it gave more credence to the idea he had autism but maybe that’s also part of the seizure thing. From my readings of John Travolta I get the impression he’s not as enamored with the Co$ as other Hollywood celebrities are. He was a big supporter of the early stuff involving dianetics before it became a fully involved commercial church. I agree with other posters that it has to suck to be a celebrity and lose a child. The media attention makes the worst thing on Earth that more difficult to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/90 "2009-01-04T01:31:52Z")
There’s just about as much wackiness surrounding Autism as there is surrounding Scientology. And this intolerance towards Scientologists is getting out of hand. You can dislike the church, you can hate its practices and think it’s a scam. But hating the believers of the church crosses a line. People believe in all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. Intolerance against scientologists is starting to look disturbingly similar to intolerance against Jews or other people with ‘different’ beliefs. As for Travolta, he’s always had my respect. He comes across as someone who doesn’t let his celebrity go to his head, and he is an extremely well respected pilot, in a way that many celebrity pilots are not. Hell, Quantas was willing to type rate him in a 747 and let him fly a scheduled run. That’s a pretty impressive feat for a pilot who is not flying full time for an airline. Travolta takes flying very seriously - he does his recurrent training, he does emergency training, he flies carefully. He flies extremely difficult, dangerous airplanes like 50’s era fighter jets. One time he had a full electrical failure in a Cessna Citation jet in instrument conditions, and he managed to do a barnstormer spiral down through a hole in the clouds to get below the cloud deck, then he hand-flew the airplane into the nearest airport and landed safely. That’s some impressive flying. He seems to approach most things in his life the same way, and I have no doubt that he tried to give his son the best care he could. The family deserves the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/91 "2009-01-04T02:22:18Z")
I heard Xenus today, oh boy. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/92 "2009-01-04T03:01:22Z")
That was a great post, **Sam Stone**. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/93 "2009-01-04T03:38:24Z")
The poor Travoltas (and by extension, all of Jett’s loved ones), they have my sincere deepest sympathies. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be losing a child and being in the spotlight like what’s about to happen. I hope they find some peace and comfort wherever they can. As far as the article linked to above, how is it that someone who only briefly met John Travolta in February of '07, knew / learned that much information about the family to have the piece written about it by May of '07? Man, that was one whirlwind relationship right there. Especially one that ended up being so disapproving. Makes one wonder about the veracity… ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/94 "2009-01-04T04:54:41Z")
Just chiming to add that the “article” posted is bullshit. **Broomstick** provides a fine rebuttal. We’re supposed to give credence to some restaurant owner who met the Travoltas? And from what I can surmise of the “article,” it doesn’t appear that the restaurant guy met them more than once - which, of course, is the first question that a real reporter would ask before giving any ink to this story. If you read the link, you’ll see that the beef with the restauranteur is that the Travolta’s haven’t participated in fundraisers they’ve held for autism. If anything, this thread has helped me gain a great deal of respect for the Travoltas, regardless of their religious beliefs. For someone in the public eye as much as the parents, they’ve seemed to keep a low profile, and as others have said, Travolta’s not like Cruise, a Scientology mouthpiece. Truth be told, I can’t ever recall him speaking on any issues concerning Scientology in recent memory. It troubles me that people’s first thoughts are that the Travoltas were somehow neglectful and their actions led to their son’s death, when there is no evidence to even suggest that this is the case. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/95 "2009-01-04T04:57:53Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > There’s just about as much wackiness surrounding Autism as there is surrounding Scientology. I was actually thinking earlier that when the Jett Travolta non-news\* quiets there’ll probably be another flood of vaccination=autism talking heads due to his death. There hasn’t been one for a while. _Disclaimer: By calling it_ non-news\* I’m not minimizing it as a tragedy, but it’s a _private_ tragedy and not a national one; while we can have empathy for celebrities like Travolta, Jennifer Hudson, and others affected by tragedy, we don’t actually grieve for them and it serves nobody- least of all the celebrities (and I doubt the Travoltas are even the only ones to have a massive personal tragedy this week) to have it on CNN/FOX/MSNBC constantly when Israel and the new Administration and the economy and the wars we’re involved in or may be soon are arguably more important to the nation and most of the individuals therein. That said I feel no guilt in discussing it on a message board because it is of some interest and the chances of the Gens Travolta being disturbed by anything on SDMB are about as close to absolute 0 as you can get without being absolute 0. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/96 "2009-01-04T05:04:30Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It is also possible that Jett _is not able_ to communicate. Or that he has some sort of issue that makes him unwilling to speak or interact with people he doesn’t know well. Yes, that could be autism, but it could also be a speech impediment or some other problem. Or even, and I’m not being facetious, simply extreme shyness. I’ve known several people in my life- some of them people I love- who are or were chatterboxes when they were alone with me or others they were comfortable around and turned into Helen Keller when a stranger or someone they just didn’t know well entered the mix. While they may have had anxiety disorders or whatever, most of these people were generally well adjusted, perfectly intelligent- even funny and outgoing- when with their comfort-group, and I can only imagine that having a superstar for a dad would make you a bit mistrusting of strangers, like for instance the kind you meet you in a restaurant who from their few minutes “in the presence” feel qualified to discuss the most intimate aspects of your life as an insider. Something I’ve wondered about people like the Kennys is how do the reporters find them/how do they find the reporters? Surely the reporters don’t go around saying “Excuse me sir, do you know the Travoltas well enough to comment on their parenting abilities? No? OK, thanks… pardon me ma’am, do you [rinse/lather/repeat]”, while at the same time I can’t imagine that if I called up CNN or People Magazine and said “Hey, I once parked a car for Johnny Depp and I want to talk to someone on my theory that his kids are dyslexic and he’s a closeted neo-Nazi” that they’d listen to me. Anyone know the procedure by which the media and the informants make contact? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/97 "2009-01-04T05:31:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … I can’t imagine that if I called up CNN or People Magazine and said “Hey, I once parked a car for Johnny Depp and I want to talk to someone on my theory that his kids are dyslexic and he’s a closeted neo-Nazi” that they’d listen to me. I can. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/98 "2009-01-04T05:49:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Something I’ve wondered about people like the Kennys is how do the reporters find them/how do they find the reporters? Surely the reporters don’t go around saying “Excuse me sir, do you know the Travoltas well enough to comment on their parenting abilities? No? OK, thanks… pardon me ma’am, do you [rinse/lather/repeat]” Jett Travolta’s possible autism has been a [topic](http://www.nypost.com/seven/06012007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm) [of](http://boards.eonline.com/Insider/Boards/thread.jspa?threadID=46178&tstart=-1) [discussion](http://forums.whyweprotest.net/298-jett-travolta/video-proof-jett-travoltas-autism-31978/) for several years, long before his death. It’s not just one disgruntled restaurant owner who’s making these claims. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > There’s just about as much wackiness surrounding Autism as there is surrounding Scientology. This is true. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/99 "2009-01-04T05:51:40Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > I can. ☹ Yeah, when it comes to “breaking news” events, the various news sources tend to be _really_ bad about vetting folks before letting them on the air. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgonzola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648/100 "2009-01-04T06:35:43Z")
I don’t understand all the controversy about whether the boy is being “treated” or not. Whether he’s developmentally disabled in some fashion, has some version of autistic spectrum disorder, all people really seem to know for sure is that he’s being _treated at home_, since he hasn’t been institutionalized. Everything else is pretty much speculation based on assumptions around the Travolta family’s apparent wishes not to be interrogated about family health issues by strangers in public, and the fact that John Travolta has declared himself a Scientologist. Being treated at home, in and of itself, is not the worst thing that can happen to you if you have problems with your brain biology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-travoltas-son-dies/479648.md?page=6)