http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/columnists/8806541.htm
Profiling ADHD suspects
Responses to Thursday's column, "Some kids can't be kids," included a call from
a Columbus woman who remains angry about the discussion she had with teachers
and counselors regarding her son's school performance and classroom behavior.
By the time she was asked to attend a meeting at the child's school, this
mother said she already felt like it was her against them .
She said the counselor was going along with the teachers' recommendations,
although the counselor had never even met the student in question.
The woman, who requested anonymity because she fears retribution, said her son
excelled in math but had problems with reading. And she readily admitted her
son had behavioral problems. But because a friend had a child with attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and she recognized differences in the two
boys, the woman said she knew something was wrong with her son -- but it was
not ADHD.
Eventually, the son was placed on Ritalin, but nothing changed. When she went
back to the teachers, she said they grew angry with her.
Fast forward to today. Because her son eventually got the right medical
attention, he is on track with schoolwork. The family seems headed toward a
happier ending, but the story is not.
Another call came from a woman in Connecticut, who expressed a great deal of
interest in what she calls the profiling of children suspected of having ADHD.
"Often boys who stand up to authority get labeled ADHD," said Sheila Matthews,
vice president of Able Child (www.ablechild.com), an organization that fights
against the inappropriate psychiatric drugging of children.
Matthews and her group are fighting for the Child Medication Safety Act of
2003. "When one looks at history, many men and women who have changed the
nation have been those who possess the ability to stand up to authority. We are
filling our jails with our most gifted and bright children, just because they
fall outside the mental health's bell curve theory on education."
The Child Medication Safety Act would prohibit school officials from requiring
students to take medication as a condition for attending school while at the
same time protecting school personnel's ability to discuss classroom behavioral
issues with students, parents and family members.
The bill would require states, as a condition of receiving funds administered
by the U.S. Department of Education, to develop and implement policies and
procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to obtain a
prescription for substances covered by Section 202 of the Controlled Substances
Act as a condition of attending school or receiving services.
Matthews said rich and poor children are being inappropriately drugged:
"I can say that as a person who lives in a very affluent community, one of the
richest in the nation, the rich are drugging their children -- they just don't
want to talk about it. And if the rich don't want to drug their children, they
can afford tutoring services. The poor are at the mercy of the profit-driven
drugging system