A Deadly Coincidence: School Shootings and Drugged Students

CFP ^ | April 4, 2005 | Alan Caruba

[MikeEdwards]

I keep waiting for someone to notice the way the rash of school shootings the U.S. has experienced has coincided with the massive program of drugging "over-active" students or those deemed to have an "attention deficit." Medicating students has replaced counseling.

On December 1, 1997, Michael Carneal, a troubled 14-year-old, killed three students and wounded five others at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky. In 1998, there were three events in which boys, one as young as 11, killed classmates and teachers. Most notorious is the April 20, 1999 Columbine High School massacre by two boys, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, who killed twelve students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others before committing suicide.

There were two incidents in 2000, one involving a 6-year-old who shot and killed another 6-year-old at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, and on May 26, Nathaniel Brazill, 13, killed his English teacher on the last day of classes in Lake Worth, Florida. On March 5, 2001, Charles Williams, 15, killed two students and wounded 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, California. And, in 2003, two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota by a fellow student, age 15. He is awaiting trial. . . . .

[silverleaf]

If you think counseling works on a kid (teenager no less)afflicted with FAS/FAE and the brain abnormalities that result in ADHD behaviors- then you haven't tried to raise one.

[cinives]

There are a number who have noticed this trend and written about it, including testifying before Congress: Peter Breggin, Thomas Szasz, Thomas Armstrong and others.

[kellynla]

another day, another article, another reason to home school...

[mtbopfuyn]

I keep waiting for someone to notice the way the rash of school shootings the U.S. has experienced has coincided with the massive program of drugging "over-active" students or those deemed to have an "attention deficit."

The link doesn't work, so from the excerpt I see no where that these kids were ADHD. That said, I keep waiting for someone to notice the way the rash of school shootings in the U.S. has experienced has coincided with the massive program of uninvolved parenting.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not convinced that the drugs have anything to do with these shootings. A more likely scenario is that the kids were screwballs to begin with.

[camle]

ok, so you establisshed a correlation. you did NOT establish a cause.

there's a rooster on a farm near my dad's old home. every morning he climbs atop the barn and crows. then the sun comes up. therefore: there is a correlation between the rooster crowing and the sun coming up - there is NOT a cause/effect relationship.

lest we fall prey to the same junk science that infects the smoking situation.

[Izzy Dunne]

it is easier for teachers and administrators to recommend drugging students who exhibit disruptive behavior or what, to a lay person, appears to be an emotional disorder.

Anybody notice anything wrong with this sentence?

Why do teachers have any say at all in "recommending" drugs?

[television is just wrong]

http://www.all-natural.com/add.html

Sometimes controlling a child's diet is important. They might have food sensitivities that are causing the problems.
Food dyes are a big culprit.

Sometimes the simplest cure is the best.

This weekend, I had a long time friend of my sons who is ADD threaten to kill my son. He shoved him over causing a concussion, and my son ended up in the ER,.

[visualops]

Americans are paying too high a price for being subject to too many laws, too many rules, and too much regulation.

Ain't that the truth!

[iconoclast]

ok, so you establisshed a correlation. you did NOT establish a cause.

Statistical correlation threatens to eclipse science.

[The Lumster]

"Medicating students has replaced counseling"

Actually medicating students has replaced discipline. A few swats from the coach used to be worth a whole lot more than a dozen counseling sessions

[Smartaleck]

"I'm not convinced that the drugs have anything to do with these shootings."

They're usually on drugs for a reason.

I can't figure out where this backassward thinking comes from?

It's like a schizo on lithium kills someone and they blame the drug? HUH?

[camle]

agreed. if i had a dime everytime a "scientist" or "researcher" propounds upon a correlatative subject claiming cause, i'd be richer than Bill Gates.

[Bushforlife]

ADD and ADHD are in my opinion non-diseases. There will always be, and always have been, boys who were daydreamers, who found school boring, and who were always "up to something". These behaviors are a large part of normal male childhood behavior. However, these behaviors have become rendered pathological by a society which CHOOSES to no longer make allowances for this normal variant of childhood male behavior.

What we as a society are faced with is a group of young women fresh out of universities [where as we on FR all know, the liberal social indoctrination includes an intense feminist agenda] and newly appointed to the posts of elementary and high school principals and teachers, and who then decide that they are NOT going to make allowances for this typical male adolescent behavior of being a daydreamer, a class clown, or just not paying attention in class. Rather than deal with the behavior as in the past, with firm but patient compassionate guidance, the pressure is placed on the parents to have their "problem" sons "evaluated" by the psychological/psychiatric establishment.

Following the principle "when your only tool is a hammer, everything sooner or later begins to look like a nail", in order to justify their existence, and to treat according to the "standard of care" by which they would be judged by the legal establishment in case of a maloccurrence, these eminent physicians advice that these children be drugged.

In a good many occurrences, the parents give in to this combined school/psychiatric establishment pressure and allow the long term drugging of their sons. In some cases it is a matter of the parents not knowing better. In others, there is no longer a caregiver at home in this "modern" age of working mothers, so that it is just easier to drug the children.

The novel "Tom Sawyer" is a tribute to this normal adolescent daydreaming active behavior. In today's society, he would have been medicated into submission to the feminist agenda.

It will be interesting to see the result of this forced feminization of an entire generation of young men.

[TalonDJ]

It is not so much blaming the drug itself as blaming the USE of the drug in place of more traditional child development techniques which have worked for thousands of years. Personally I was homeschooled before the fad really got underway. Otherwise I am sure I would have been tagged ADD. Such 'disorders' are just ways of telling a kid, "Hey, you are really messed up. But don't worry, it is not YOUR fault and not OUR fault. Just take these pills and pretend you are OK.'

[Smartaleck]

"It is not so much blaming the drug itself as blaming the USE of the drug in place of more traditional child development techniques which have worked for thousands of years."

There are a number of factors involved.

[silverleaf]

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Based on your own experience, I presume?

How many ADD/ADHD-diagnosed(by pediatrician or child psychologist/psychiatrist)sons have you raised?

[SoftballMominVA]

Why do teachers have any say at all in "recommending" drugs?

Teachers should not have any say in recommending drugs or assigning a DSM-IV diagnosis.

I am a special education teacher in Virginia and one of the very first things I was told was to never do either one of the 2 above things. If I did, I could be sued and the school district would not only NOT defend my actions, they would join in the suit. Diagnosis and drug recommendations are never to be done by a teacher. It is illegal. Cut, dried, no arguments.

Now, I know in just a moment someone is going to think and then perhaps post, "But wait a minute! This is exactly what happened to my son/daughter/niece/nephew/friend/etc. Instead of getting into a discussion her on FR of whether or not it is legal and whether or not it happened, I recommend that you or your friend file a due process suit against the school immediately. This is a clear violation of IDEA.

[SoftballMominVA]

Why do teachers have any say at all in "recommending" drugs?

Teachers should not have any say in recommending drugs or assigning a DSM-IV diagnosis.

I am a special education teacher in Virginia and one of the very first things I was told was to never do either one of the 2 above things. If I did, I could be sued and the school district would not only NOT defend my actions, they would join in the suit. Diagnosis and drug recommendations are never to be done by a teacher. It is illegal. Cut, dried, no arguments.

Now, I know in just a moment someone is going to think and then perhaps post, "But wait a minute! This is exactly what happened to my son/daughter/niece/nephew/friend/etc. Instead of getting into a discussion her on FR of whether or not it is legal and whether or not it happened, I recommend that you or your friend file a due process suit against the school immediately. This is a clear violation of IDEA.