SENATOR JOHN ENSIGN TAKES SENATE LEAD PROHIBITING SCHOOLS FROM COERCING PARENTS

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SENATOR JOHN ENSIGN TAKES THE SENATE LEAD IN PROHIBITING SCHOOL

PERSONNEL FROM COERCING PARENTS TO DRUG CHILDREN

 

With widespread reports of parents being forced to put their

children on psychotropic drugs in schools, the Senate responds.

 

LOS ANGELES — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a

mental health watchdog, supports Senator John Ensign's (R-NV)

introduction of federal legislation on July 10th, requiring states

to establish policies that prohibit school personnel from insisting

a child to take psychotropic medication as a condition of attending

school.

 

The introduction of the Senate bill comes in response to mounting

public and legislative concern about this issue. Connecticut,

Minnesota, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado and Oregon have all passed

laws prohibiting the forced drugging of schoolchildren. In 2003, 13

states have introduced similar legislation. On May 21, the U.S.

House of Representatives passed the Child Medication Safety Act 2003

(HR 1170) by a vote of 425 to one.

 

According to a press release issued from Ensign's office, " No parent

should have to place his or her child on a drug that could cause

increased blood pressure, weight loss, fatigue, mood swings, or

other side effects as a condition for providing that child an

education. It is time for federal action to put an end to this

harmful practice. "

 

In a statement by the national Parents for Label and Drug Free

Education, Mrs. Sheila Matthews says, " With parents speaking out

from every State in the Union, this federal action taken will ensure

that those calls are heard. The concern about the dramatic rise in

the diagnosing of subjective mental illnesses and the forced

drug 'treatment' of children in the public education system has

reached the Senate. On our website alone, www.ablechild.org we have

over 300 signatures of parents nationwide that have experienced this

coercion to drug their children by schools. This is not an isolated

incident. "

 

 

Bruce Wiseman, the U.S. President of CCHR says, " Psychiatric drugs

have been increasingly promoted as a panacea for educational

problems, leading to more than six million children being prescribed

cocaine-like stimulants. Teachers have been unwittingly co-opted

into acting as mental health clinicians, forcing parents to drug a

child. The Child Medication Safety Act will help repair and

rehabilitate the dialogue between teachers and parents who will no

longer fear being threatened with their child's removal from school

or the home if they choose not to subject him or her to mind-

altering drugs. "

 

The group says the Act is very simple. " It knocks out drug coercion

in the schools, " says Wiseman. " With that out of the way, parents

will have their inherent right to make an informed decision about

the health and educational needs of their children. It will allow

teachers to get on with what they were trained for: teaching. "

 

According to Wiseman, opposition to the bill by the American

Psychiatric Association and other psychiatric interest groups " may

be fueled by a predatory child drugging industry, more concerned

with their own interests than the well being of children. The sales

of stimulants prescribed to children and teens in 2002 reached more

than $1 billion. Why else would you oppose a bill that simply

protects a child from being forced onto a mind-altering drug and

protects the teacher/parent relationship? "

 

CCHR, established by the Church of Scientology in 1969 to

investigate and expose human rights abuses in the field of mental

health, have also been a voice for thousands of parents who report

psychiatric abuse of children in schools to the group's website,

www.fightforkids.com.

 

For more information contact Marla Filidei at 800-869-2247.

 

http://www.cchr.org/