A judge has ruled that Vermont teen Elissa Maple be returned home on her 18th birthday, which is July 1, but DCF is fighting the ruling, even allegedly attempting bribery of the teenager to get her to voluntarily sign over her rights on her birthday. If she does so, they can keep her in the system for an additional 3 years. Elissa has spent the last year and a half being held against her will in a Massachusetts mental health facility, and has been forced to consume a cocktail of unwanted drugs.
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Vermont Teen Drugged Against Her Will, Held in Custody in Massachusetts Mental Health Facility [2]
With her release date just one month away, Elissa has reported to her mother, Karen, that the people at the hospital have promised her photography classes, money, and a number of free services if she will voluntarily sign herself in to their system, programs that Karen says she would be able to get anyway, even out from under their care. Karen reports that the hospital staff has begun taking Elissa out to eat dinner on most nights, and has taken her to the zoo and the mall, in an apparent attempt to bribe her to sign away her rights. If she does so, Karen says that they will have complete control over her daughter.
As recently as Sunday night, May 31, Elissa told her mother on the phone:
“I’m coming home, Mom. I want to come home.”
But Karen is very afraid that they are trying to brainwash her daughter to keep her in the system. As Medical Kidnap has previously reported, because she is a ward of the state, she can be used as a guinea pig in medical drug testing. If she voluntarily commits herself on her 18th birthday, those practices can continue.