Talking about teachers and teaching made me think of this email I got...
Doping children isn't the answer.
Mike
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
http://www.researchprotection.org
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
e-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
FYI
In a series of columns in The New York Post, Douglas Montero
is exposing the Ritalin epidemic
in America' s schools. This irresponsible method of
behavior control has been referred to as,
"the dirty little secret." Those who are endorsing policies
to prescribe psychoactive drugs to
younger and younger children may be responsible for causing
permanent damage to their developing brains.
Today's article reveals that Neil Bush, the President's
brother had to fight tooth and nail to protect
his gifted son, Pierce. He tells the Post about his own
plight when he had to search for a doctor who would
back him against school officials who had tried to coerce
him into medicating his son against his will.
"There is a systemic problem in this country, where schools
are often forcing parents to turn to Ritalin,"
said Bush, 47, who spent years researching the issue. "It's
obvious to me that we have a crisis in this country."
Bush sympathizes with parents who are being intimidated:
"My heart goes out to any parents who are being led to
believe their
kids have a disorder or are disabled."
The Post has approached this national issue by providing
those who have been victimized by
this medically unsupportable strategy of using drugs to
discipline children the opportunity to speak up:
Reader's reactions to The Post series:
http://www.webforums.com/forums/f-read/msa154.64.html
In Saturday's Post, parents told their horror stories
"about public-school educators who
have pressured and coerced them into medicating their kids."
THE NEW YORK POST.
PARENTS TELL OF SCHOOL PILL PUSHERS' ‘EXTORTION'
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08102002/commentary/20424.htm
On Sunday, a third grade teacher acknowledged that the
medicating of children
in the schools has gotten "out of control." She is quoted
observing that:
"There just aren't enough resources in schools to deal with
the unruly kids,
and that's when a pill becomes an option."
DRUG CASUALTIES:
http://nypost.com/seven/08112002/commentary/54424.htm
Monday's report focused on additional parents' horror
stories and NYC School Chancellor:
"Joyce Cava, 40, of Queens, charges her son Bryan, 11, was
held back in
the fourth grade even though he passed his statewide reading
and math test
because she resisted pressure from school officials to
medicate. "It was extortion,"
said Cava, who felt the pressure to medicate from Middle
Village school officials for
an entire school year.
Outgoing School Chancellor, Harold Levy, ordered an
investigation.
"Parents across the city say school officials are
threatening to hold
their children back a grade and even file a child-abuse
complaint if they don't medicate.
Advocates support their claims. "
GIVE ‘PILL' PARENTS A HOT LINE, NOT A COLD SHOULDER:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122002/commentary/54522.htm
By Tuesday NY State lawmakers and the Dept of Education
issued statements:
"Richard Mills (head of the Education Department) said he
will instruct public-school
districts not to strong-arm parents into medicating their
kids with Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs.
His decision came hours after a top state lawmaker urged him
to straighten out the mess - and
threatened to create a law to cure it.
It also followed a statement from Gov. Pataki's office that
said state regulations prohibit educators
from diagnosing kids and pushing drugs.
"The State Education Department [SED] has a policy that
prohibits the practice, and that should
be enforced - no ifs, ands or buts," said Pataki spokesman
Joe Conway.
The SED sent a representative to the meeting of state school
superintendents in the Albany
area yesterday to discuss complaints from angry parents
about the medication issue.
The SED intends to follow up with letters to the state's 700
school districts to tell its leaders
what is "permissible" under state regulations."
See: ‘MED SCHOOL' CRACKDOWN
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08132002/commentary/54649.htm
In the Soviet Union, government psychiatrists had prescribed
psychoactive drugs to control
political dissidents who were regarded as enemies of the
state. Ironically, in America,
schoolchildren and even toddlers are being hounded to take
psychoactive drugs --
as if they were enemies of state.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.nypost.com/cgi-bin/printfriendly.pl
THE NEW YORK POST
BUSH'S BRO: MY SON WAS A VICTIM OF SCHOOL RX
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
RITALIN HELL: Neil Bush says son Pierce was misdiagnosed
seven years ago with attention-deficit disorder,
forcing the family to resist efforts to medicate Pierce with
Ritalin.- Brett Coomer
August 14, 2002 --
ANGRY New York parents who say school officials pressured
them into medicating their children have a very
powerful ally in their corner - President Bush's brother.
Neil Bush is condemning the practice for very personal
reasons:
He endured his own Ritalin hell seven years ago when
educators in a Houston private school diagnosed his son,
Pierce, now 16, with attention-deficit disorder and pushed
medication.
Bush later found out the educators were wrong about his son.
"There is a systemic problem in this country, where schools
are often forcing parents to turn to Ritalin,"
said Bush, 47, who spent years researching the issue.
"It's obvious to me that we have a crisis in this country."
The Bush family's ADD scare shows that the forced-medication
crisis in the schools isn't just an
inner-city problem. In fact, the parents of boys from the
affluent suburbs are more likely to be
pressured by schools to medicate their kids than those in
poor urban areas, according to
advocates and statistics. Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, the
Brooklyn Democrat trying to create a law
banning educators from verbally prescribing Ritalin, said
that since last week, his office has received
63 phone complaints from parents.
Based on those calls, "This issue apparently is concentrated
more in the upstate areas,
in mostly white communities," he said. The Chicago Sun-Times
reported in April that rich kids in
affluent areas are being prescribed Ritalin and other
psychiatric drugs at a greater rate than kids
in the Windy City's poorest neighborhoods, based on
prescription-drug records kept by the state.
In New York state, the use of Ritalin by school-age children
is statistically higher in counties such
as Dutchess, Westchester, Suffolk, Putnam and Rockland than
in New York City's outer boroughs,
but about the same rate as Manhattan, said Doretta Hegg, the
founder of an anti-school-medication group.
Bush thinks many suburban parents are easy to accept the
attention-deficit diagnoses because it helps
them rationalize "why their children aren't doing well" in
school. Bush says he fell into the same trap and
quickly took Pierce to a doctor who reaffirmed the school's
diagnosis. Bush went to two other doctors
who prescribed Ritalin, which Pierce, even at age 10, told
his father he didn't want to take.
Bush said he took his son to a specialist who determined
Pierce didn't have a disorder - but was a gifted
child who got bored quickly in class. "The problem is, it
isn't the kids that are broken. It's the system that
is failing to engage children in the classroom," said Bush,
who runs an education-technology business
called Ignite! based in Austin, Texas. "My heart goes out to
any parents who are being led to believe their
kids have a disorder or are disabled."
Copyright 2001 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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