Based on my experience with kids, scooter most likely feels trapped for various reasons: 1 - lack of internal coping mechanism (never taught that its ok to feel a certain way) 2 - the realization that he IS different without the accompanying external validation that it's ok to be different. 3 - a mostly aimless daily routine were one just waits out their days 4 - poor or no support network

This is not much different than kids put into the Children's Aid system. Now that's another shit show that needs fixing.