- Protecting Children: The Use of Medication in Our Nation's
Schools and H.R. 1170, Child Medication Safety Act of 2003
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- Hearing before the Subcommittee on Education Reform Committee
on Education and the Workforce United States House of Representatives
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- May 6, 2003
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- Thank you for the opportunity to speak about this grave
national issue and let me start with commending the Committee for recognizing
that the coercive use of psychotropic drugs on children is not a few "isolated"
incidents, but is impacting hundreds, if not thousands, of families across
America.
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- While Utah was once the Ritalin capital of America, this
Schedule II drug seems to have dropped to a national average level now
in our State. However, in the wake of raised public awareness about the
risks of Ritalin, other stimulants like Adderall and the amphetamine Dexadrine
are deluging the child psychiatric market in its place. In fact, Adderall
now comprises 32% of the national stimulant market, with 6.1 million prescriptions
in 2000 and $248 million in sales.
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- Yet, this drug has already been cited in a North Dakota
criminal judgment in 1999 where a young father was not held criminally
responsible for the murder of his 5-week-old daughter because he was in
a psychotic state caused by Adderall. Psychiatrists testified that the
drug induced the psychotic state causing delusions.
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- There are other drugs, not covered by Schedule II of
the Controlled Substances Act, that are also forced onto children, including
Cylert, a Schedule IV drug, and antidepressants that are not scheduled
at all. Zoloft and Paxil are among the group of new antidepressants that,
in 1999, were prescribed to 1.7 million children. In fact, between 1995
and 1999, there was a 19-fold increase in 2 - 19 year olds prescribed these
drugs. A FOX National News series last November found that a person taking
Paxil is 8 times more likely to attempt or commit suicide than if taking
a placebo. More than half of the last 12 school shootings have been committed
by teenagers taking psychotropic drugs.
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- Meanwhile, school personnel faced with children who often
have not been properly taught to read, who may be coming to school on a
breakfast of sugar or no breakfast at all, who could be affected by lead,
mercury or other toxic substances-a plethora of explainable reasons-are
assessing them in the classroom as having a "learning disorder"
or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). From here, parents
are being coerced into drugging their child with threats of the child's
expulsion or charges of medical neglect by Child Protective Services against
the parents who refuse to give or take their child off a psychiatric drug.
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- Parents are losing their right to choose. They are being
told that ADHD is a "neurobiological" disorder when even the
Surgeon General's 1999 report on mental health cannot confirm this. They
are being denied access to tutoring or additional educational services
for the sake of a "quick fix" drug like Ritalin that some studies
say is more potent than cocaine.
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- Often, once the child is medicated, the various side
effects associated with the drug, and which I have found were too often
not disclosed to the parents when they were first given the prescription,
become apparent. The child may have difficulties sleeping, eating; he may
have stomach problems and may be irritable. Worse yet, when withdrawing
from the drug he may become so emotionally disturbed as to feel suicidal.
While the parents may want to take the child off the drug at this point,
they are too afraid of the implied consequences and feel powerless.
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- The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education
also reported that 40 percent of children labeled with "learning disorders"
were so labeled simply because they had not been taught to read. Yet through
Special Education and public schools generally, we allow children to be
forced onto powerful and, at times, addictive psychotropic drugs for this
misidentification.
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- While we spend over $50 billion on the War on Drugs,
we are allowing our teachers to be used as mental health clinicians diagnosing
learning problems as "disorders" and "diseases" and
forcing this belief on parents.
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- We must learn from the tragic stories that parents are
coming forward with. We must learn from the Columbine High School Shooting,
where teen killer Eric Harris, was taking a violence-inducing antidrepssant
at the time of the crime. In 1999, the Colorado State Board of Education
sent us all a message when it passed a Resolution calling for academic
rather than drug solutions to behavioral and learning problems in the classroom.
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- I realized the gravity of the situation after being contacted
by many parents in Utah and hearing what I can only describe as horror
stories, some of which I have attached to my written testimony for your
review. With Utah children comprising a quarter of our total population,
the need for protection was more than apparent. Subsequently, I ran a bill
in 2002 to prohibit school personnel from pressuring parents into drugging
their children. The Utah legislature recognized the need for this protection
and passed the bill by an overwhelming majority of 89 in favor with only
seven dissenting votes.
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- Tragically, the Governor of our State failed to listen
to the needs of our families. For reasons that can only be speculated upon
at this time, he vetoed the bill, thus condoning the coercive drugging
of Utah's future generation.
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- Unless we, as legislators, do something about this coercive
situation and using medication instead of education, we become accomplices
to what many see as a drug-pushing epidemic sweeping across our nation's
schools.
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- I support HR 1170, but believe the Committee would be
remiss in not broadening this to include all prescribed psychotropic substances.
The bill is not just necessary, it is absolutely vital.
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- Here is a site on a press release: http://edworkforce.house.gov/press/press108/05may/childmeds050603.htm
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- Schools Should Focus on Educating, Not Medicating our
Nation's Children, Say Witnesses
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- WASHINGTON, DC -- Witnesses testifying before the House
Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform, chaired
by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), today discussed the issues surrounding the
increasing use of psychotropic medications in our nation's schools, and
the role educators can and should play in the decision to medicate a child.
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- The use of psychotropic medications, such as Ritalin
or Adderall, has become increasingly prevalent in our nation's schools,
causing parents, schools, and medical professionals to question the appropriate
roles each party should play in this process. While schools may have a
role in dispensing medication to a child in the course of a school day,
parents and schools have become concerned about disturbing instances in
which a school could coerce a parent to medicate a child as a condition
of attending school.
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- In March, Rep. Max Burns (R-GA) introduced the Child
Medication Safety Act (H.R. 1170), a bill that would require states, as
a condition of receiving federal education funds, to establish policies
and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take
medication in order to attend school. A non-controversial provision similar
to the Burns measure was added to the Improving Education Results for Children
with Disabilities Act (H.R. 1350), the reauthorization of the nation's
special education law that was approved by the House of Representatives
last week.
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- "Schools are an important source of information
for families and we encourage an open line of communication between schools
and families," said Castle. "Parents, however, should never be
forced to decide between getting their child into school and keeping their
child off of potentially harmful drugs. School personnel should never presume
to know the medication needs of a child. Only medical doctors have the
ability to determine if a prescription for a psychotropic drug is physically
appropriate for a child."
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- To address this issue, a number of states have passed
laws preventing school personnel from requiring that parents medicate their
child in order for the child to attend school. Connecticut, Minnesota,
Illinois, and Virginia have passed such laws, and Georgia, Hawaii, North
Carolina, Utah, and Texas have established Commissions or enacted resolutions
to investigate this issue or encourage schools to use proven methods of
addressing behavior problems instead of relying on medication.
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- Dr. William Carey, director of Behavioral Pediatrics
at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and clinical professor of pediatrics
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, testified on his
medical experience with the diagnosis and treatment of childhood behavioral
issues. Carey noted that, "In the last two decades the United States
has experienced a great increase in the diagnosis of Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its treatment with stimulants,"
and pointed out that, "not only child health professionals but now
also a wide variety of unqualified persons, such as preschool teachers
and acquaintances, are freely offering the diagnosis and confidently urging
parents to accept their judgment and obtain drug treatment, such as methylphenidate
(Ritalin), for the child."
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- Katherine Bryson, a State Legislator from Utah, has worked
tirelessly in her state to prevent what she calls horror stories in which
parents are forced to choose between an education for their child or making
the child take medication they fear may be unnecessary and even harmful.
"School personnel faced with children who often have not been properly
taught to read, who may be coming to school on a breakfast of sugar or
no breakfast at all, who could be affected by lead, mercury or other toxic
substances-a plethora of explainable reasons-are assessing them in the
classroom as having a 'learning disorder' or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder," said Bryson. "From here, parents are being coerced
into drugging their child with threats of the child's expulsion or charges
of medical neglect by Child Protective Services against the parents."
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- "Parents are losing their right to choose. They
are being told that ADHD is a 'neurobiological' disorder when even the
Surgeon General's 1999 report on mental health cannot confirm this,"
continued Bryson. "They are being denied access to tutoring or additional
educational services for the sake of a 'quick fix' drug like Ritalin that
some studies say is more potent than cocaine."
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