Posted on 06/08/2004 11:29:20 AM PDT by Dan Evans
When Chad Taylor noticed his son was apparently experiencing serious side effects from Ritalin prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he decided to take the boy off the medication. Now, he says he may be accused of child abuse.
In February, 12-year-old Daniel began displaying some symptoms that his father suspected were related to the use of Ritalin.
"He was losing weight, wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating," Taylor told ABC News affiliate KOAT-TV in New Mexico. "[He] just wasn't Daniel."
So Taylor took Daniel off Ritalin, against his doctor's wishes. And though Taylor noticed Daniel was sleeping better and his appetite had returned, his teachers complained about the return of his disruptive behavior. Daniel seemed unable to sit still and was inattentive. His teachers ultimately learned that he was no longer taking Ritalin.
School officials reported Daniel's parents to New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families.Then a detective and social worker made a home visit.
"The detective told me if I did not medicate my son, I would be arrested for child abuse and neglect," Taylor said.
A spokesman for New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families told KOAT-TV that they could not comment on the case because of state confidentiality laws. John Francis, a detective for the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety, said that Taylor was not threatened but told KOAT-TV that parents could be charged in situations like his.
"People can be charged with child abuse, child neglect or various other crimes involving a child," he said.
More Kids on Antidepressants
Taylor is among many parents facing a dilemma over whether to medicate children who suffer from mental disorders. A recent study by Express Scripts Inc., a medical benefits management company, found antidepressant use increased 49 percent among consumers younger than 18 between 1998 and 2002. Preschoolers up to age 5, the study found, were the fastest-growing users of prescription antidepressants.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Sounds like a good idea.
when they come knock down your door
how you gonna come
with your hands on your head
or on the trigger of your gun
The Guns of Brixton - The Clash circa 1980
Lileks: Liberation of Children's Jail
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/888861/posts
The threat of these tactics is always out there when you have nexis of schools/government/psychiatric medicine. Hope he's got money 'cause he's gonna need a very good lawyer.
Not really. It's usually the schools that are the first to recommend a doctor visit for a prescription and the hapless parents go along with the recommendation. School officials will even administer the pills once they have a prescription.
Darn these drug companies. Seems like they now have the state goverments in their pockets. Just a few years ago we did not have all of these ads bombarding us on television. Now you can solve your impotence but you due to use of that drug you may have 3 new problems you never had before.
Maybe you can give her the membership as a gift.
We have a daughter who was in counseling for issues she had resulting from neglect and being placed in an orphanage when she was a very young child. After her adoption by my husband and myself in 1997 we found a counselor for her, and the counselor wanted to send her to a dr to prescribe something to "take the edge off." That's the operative phrase these days, "take the edge off."
She's doing great now, without anything to take the edge off.
The real problem is a government that can force this kind of thing upon parents, and it appears in this case that it's not just the local government but the state as well.
But hey, it's all about the children, and we all know that the government knows best how to protect them (at least that is what Joseph Lieberman and many others would like you to believe).
This will fade away, not enough people care to challenge the government's power these days.
This is regretable. The boy does not belong to the state like some kind of property.
From parents who bought into the lie of a "free" education.
The update: "SPEED KILLS -- unless you are a child. Then you can take it. It's good for you!"
When parents delegate the responsibility of raising up their children to the state (in the name of "education") the state will do so according to its standards, not those of the parents. Its incredibly naive to think you can hand your children over to bureaucrats to be raised and not expect adverse consequences. There will be many adverse consequences and, unfortunately, you won't discover most of them until years too late for corrective action.
The only solution for freedom-loving parents is exodus -- today, not tomorrow -- from the state reeducation centers.
Unfortunately, this isn't just about children either (in general). Too many people expect the government to tell them what to do, how to behave, etc. When you look at all of these little things, it can get scary.
Way too many people in this country look to the government to take care of them, protect them, etc.
Public schools are notorious for prescribing Ritalin. When my youngest son came home from his school with a note that he should be placed on Ritalin for their self-diagnosis that he had ADD, I immediately looked up the drug. It was and is a VERY dangerous drug. We had our son tested at the Gezell Institute, associated with Yale, and it was determined (after a full day of extensive tests) that he had no ADD but did have an eye muscle problem. Six months of visits to a specialist in this area and eyeglasses and he was just fine. Some parts of the USA are very into this drug (i.e., Baltimore, MD). NEVER let a school do this to your kids. They want unthinking, robot-types, that are easy to manage and will destroy your kids to get there!
I'll bet if you dig into it you'll find out that there is some sort of state or federal funding that the kids with ADD bring in for the school.
Take the kid out of school if he cannot behave himself or control himself, rather than medicate him. Of course, this means that the parten will have to make himself responsible for the "babysitting" and educating. The answer to this problem is not to inflict an uncontrolled child on the students who can control themselves enough to learn.
Ooohh! Good point!
Thank you Lady Eileen, I have been encouraging her for sometime now to home school. She is a ministers wife and home anyway but has felt "unqualified" to teach. If you have any other info I can utilize, please let me know. It would be much appreciated.
Beth
Ritalin has a paradoxical effect in kids (It is a stimulant to adults, but usually has the opposite effect in kids). You proved the theory.
Glad things worked out.
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