Last week we covered the story about YouTube celebrities Myka and James Stauffer and how they “rehomed” their four-year-old son Huxley. They adopted Huxley from China three years ago, and Huxley apparently has developmental disabilities, and he’s on the autism spectrum. Myka and James made a YouTube video announcing that they “rehomed” Huxley with another family, like this child was an inconvenient pet. I spent about five minutes on their Instagram and YouTube channel and I’m pretty convinced that they only adopted Huxley for appearances, to “look good” for their inspo-mommy life, and then they gave up on him when it got too hard. Anyway, the Stauffers are still facing a huge amount of well-deserved backlash. Myka provided an update in the comment section of the YouTube video:
The 32-year-old YouTuber and mom to five other children responded to a comment in the family update video about why she and husband James chose to rehome him.
“We would never just give up a child with special needs, this is a personal matter to Hux it had nothing to do with he just had Autism,” she defended. “Multiple scary things happened inside the home towards our other children, and if these events happened with one of my biological kids, after all the help and after the behaviors we witnessed sadly we would have no other choice then to seek help and get their needs met.”
Myka went on, explaining that “Huxley wanted” the rehoming “100% we saw that in family time with other poeple [sic], he constantly chose them and signed with and showed tons of emotion to show us and let us know he wanted this….Huxley never had a say in his adoption, and he needed more help and also wanted this and we know that 100%.”
Let’s just get this straight: now she’s saying that “scary things” happened in the home and she and her husband couldn’t handle it – and we’re supposed to believe that a 4-year-old with autism was instigating things, vaguely – and we’re also supposed to believe that Huxley has the agency to communicate with the only parents he’s ever known to say/show that he wants to live somewhere else? Something in the milk ain’t clean. And then the Stauffers’ lawyers got involved and they made a statement to People Magazine:
The couple’s lawyers tell PEOPLE that the decision was an incredibly difficult one and was made “to provide Huxley with the best possible treatment and care.”
“We are privy to this case and given the facts at hand, we feel this was the best decision for Huxley,” Myka and James’ lawyers, Thomas Taneff and Taylor Sayers, tell PEOPLE in an exclusive statement. “In coming to know our clients we know they are a loving family and are very caring parents that would do anything for their children. Since his adoption, they consulted with multiple professionals in the healthcare and educational arenas in order to provide Huxley with the best possible treatment and care. Over time, the team of medical professionals advised our clients it might be best for Huxley to be placed with another family.”
“This is devastating news for any parent. Our clients came to the difficult determination to follow the advice of the medical professionals. To be clear this did NOT include any considerations for placement in the foster system, but rather to hand-select a family who is equipped to handle Huxley’s needs. They were forced to make a difficult decision, but it is in fact, the right and loving thing to do for this child.”
“We have advised our clients not to say anything further at this time, but it is likely they will share more when the time is appropriate for them and all involved,” the attorneys’ statement says. “We should be clear that Huxley is a 4-year-old child whose privacy should be fully respected. We know our clients would ask for your prayers and support and to respect their privacy with what has been the most difficult decision of their lives.”
Huxley’s privacy should be respected. His privacy should have been respected years ago, when he was used as a prop to help make Myka and James YouTube-famous. And I don’t understand what those medical professionals saw which led everyone to believe that James and Myka were incapable of caring for Huxley but were perfectly capable of caring for their other four (white) children? I mean… WTF? Buzzfeed also had an interesting piece about how f–king shady it is that this was handled privately, and all of the weirdness around the “rehoming” language.
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