Pharmaceutical blackmail - Authorities use a heavy hand to keep kids on drugs.
Editorial
Wednesday, August 16, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Albany Times Union, in a May 7 story, tells what happened to
parents Michael and Jill Carroll when they tried to take their son,
7-year-old Kyle, off Ritalin.
Kyle Carroll was first prescribed the drug last year, after he fell
behind at school. Teachers drew up an "individualized education plan," a
standard course of action for children with "special needs." But last fall,
when Kyle started second grade, the Ritalin didn't seem to be doing much
good. Furthermore, the Carrolls grew concerned that Kyle was only sleeping
about five hours a night and eating just one meal a day -- lunch. So they
told school officials they wanted to take Kyle off the Ritalin for two weeks
to see if that helped.
That's when they got a call, and then a visit, from a child protective
services worker, based on a complaint from Kyle's school guidance counselor.
The charge? "Child abuse," in the form of "medical neglect."
As a result, the Times Union reports the Carrolls are now on a
statewide list of alleged child abusers, and find themselves "thrust into an
Orwellian family court battle to clear their name and ensure their child
isn't removed from their home." The child remains on the medication, "in
part because they fear child welfare workers will take him away if they
don't," the Albany daily reports.
Furthermore, the Albany paper found the Carrolls' case is far from
unique: "Public schools are increasingly accusing parents of child abuse and
neglect if they balk at giving their children medication such as Ritalin, a
stimulant being prescribed to more and more students."
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports as many as 3.8 million
schoolchildren, mostly boys, have now been diagnosed with
"attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder," characterized by a short
attention span, jumpiness and impulsive behavior. At least a million
children now take Ritalin for this condition, and use of the drug has risen
manifold in recent years. But even the AAP acknowledged in a recent study
that many cases are misdiagnosed.
"This thing is so scary," says Patricia Weathers, of Millbrook, a
suburb of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Officials at the Millbrook School District
called police and child protective services when she took her 9-year-old
son, Michael Mozer, off medications earlier this year.
"Absent evidence that the lives of children are at stake when they're
not on Ritalin," USA Today editorialized this week, "no arm of the state
should be ramming the drug treatment down parents' -- and children's --
throats."
Amen to that. The underlying problem here is the notion that children
belong first to the state -- that biological parents are allowed to retain
custody only at the discretion of school and "child welfare" officials, who
after all have professional diplomas, and thus know best. No free country
can long operate under such a presumption, with its inevitably corrosive
effect on the family.
(emphasis mine) |
