Posted on 08/24/2005 5:44:07 AM PDT by dukeman
When 15-year-old Chelsea Rhoades left for school early one day last December, her family expected it to be just another normal, uneventful day at one of Indiana’s premier public high schools. But school officials had slightly different plans.
When Chelsea arrived in her school homeroom that day, her teacher directed everyone who did not have an opt-out slip to another classroom. Only five students had slips. The rest, who had no idea what the teacher was talking about, were divided into groups of 10-15, herded into classrooms and placed in front of computers. Chelsea, who was busy helping a friend in a wheelchair get situated in front of a computer, barely registered what she was signing when a form was placed in front of her. No explanations were issued. At least, none that Chelsea can recall. All she knew was that she was about to take a test. What she didn’t know was that the test, made up of yes-and-no questions with no room for alternate answers or explanations, is part of a TeenScreen mental health screening program for suicide and social disorders that is being implemented in schools across the country, often without parental knowledge or consent.
After completing the test, which took 10 minutes, the students were instructed to wait outside. That’s where an employee with the local community mental health center found Chelsea, directed her to a more private hallway and then informed her that, according to her test results, she was suffering from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and social anxiety. The mental health worker explained that the test results indicated Chelsea had OCD because she responded that she liked to help clean the house and social anxiety disorder because she responded that she didn’t party much. The worker told her that if her condition got any worse, her mom should bring her to the mental health center for treatment.
According to Chelsea, all her friends were told that something was wrong with them, too. In fact, it seemed that the only students who weren’t told they were suffering from some sort of so-called “disorder” were the ones with the opt-out slips. And when Chelsea’s mom heard about the events of the day and her daughter’s diagnosis of OCD and social disorder, she immediately took action.
Driven by recommendations from President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which has called for mental health screening for all school-aged children, including those in preschool, TeenScreen is sweeping across the nation and finding its way into our public schools. Some states have already moved forward to implement recommendations by the commission. For example, the Illinois legislature has passed a plan to screen the mental health of all pregnant women and children up to 18 years of age. The plan also includes the use of antidepressant drugs. Under such a plan, both children and adults will be screened for so-called mental illness during their routine physical exams.
This all began in April 2002 when President Bush launched a new mental health commission. After supposedly conducting a comprehensive study, the commission recommended mental health screening for “consumers of all ages,” including preschool children. Schools, the commission concluded, are in a “key position” to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work in the public schools.
So what’s the problem with that? For one, although these programs are touted as suicide prevention tools, they seem to have more to do with drugging children than saving lives—and they are understandably raising an outcry among parents and child advocacy groups alike. For example, the Alliance for Human Research Protection (www.ahrp.org) speaks about this screening program in terms of its being a “duo-drug promotion scam” and “declaring otherwise normal children to be mentally ill.” And Phyllis Schlafly (www.eagleforum.org) points out that drug companies are gearing up for bigger sales of antidepressants at the same time that the FDA is requiring warnings that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children who take them.
Chelsea’s parents have done a great deal to sound the alarm in their community about this insidious program. They used part of the family budget to place a large advertisement in their local paper in an effort to inform other parents about troubling aspects of the mental health screening program that include possible referrals of students for treatment, which could include drugs; entirely subjective diagnoses of psychological problems; and lack of evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts. And with the help of The Rutherford Institute, they are also preparing to file a lawsuit against the school district for its failure to inform them about the test or gain their permission.
It has been well established that parents have a fundamental constitutional right over the care, custody and control of their children, absent some showing of abuse or neglect. So for those who want to protect their families from this latest assault on the family, there are some immediate steps that can be taken to combat the problem.
First, learn your rights as a parent under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. The PPRA is a federal law that was intended to protect the rights of parents and students. The PPRA allows parents to inspect their children’s instructional materials and requires that schools obtain “written parental consent” before schools engage in such programs as mental health screening. Also, contact your local school officials and demand that you be notified immediately if they are conducting mental health screening on your children. Finally, contact your representatives in Congress and protest these invasive activities that are being foisted on unsuspecting students and families.
For Chelsea and her family, the battle is just beginning. But if they are able to prevail, hopefully the Indiana school district, as well as other schools, will develop a little social anxiety of their own.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute and author of the award-winning Grasping for the Wind. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
No doubt...whether there is more to this story or not..."mental health" screenings in our public schools?...for all kids????(including kindergartners?) When did I get a chance to vote on that one? This is disgusting...Joe American is bending over and taking it once again.
And a good portion of kids will grow up to be highly dysfunctional people because of this...kids that my kids may run into someday.
(shaking head)
But what the hell do I know...exhibiting or articulating common sense is probably a mental disorder now too.
Howdy
Duck tape??
vacuum bag is hot
ha
...with the exception of the fact that they have no right to even know that their daughter was pregnant, or that some school employee drove her to the abortion clinic.
ping...
" The Hatch Amendment requires not merely the lack of an "opt out", but positive parental consent before anything that can be considered psychological treatment, conditioning, or testing can be performed. It also applies to stuff like DARE and "diversity training"."
Given that the Bush administration is the one who is pushing for this, he will probably veto the Hatch Amendment.
The Bush-bots may not like this, but Bush is easily the most Big Government-loving president we have had in a long time. At least when the Big-Gov't liberals are in office the conservatives are there to keep them in check. With Bush in office the conservatives just fall right into line.
Maybe sending your kids to government school is a disorder.
He can't. It's been law since 1984.
-Eric
You're a sexual deviant who obsesses about love by the dashboard light. You and your ilk (especially your ilk) disgust me.
/sarc
It takes an OCDer a long time to post on the Internet because it's "Type a sentence, go check the stove... type a sentence, go wash your hands... type a sentence, go check the stove... type a sentence, go wash your hands..."
DID A TEACHER REALLY HAVE A POSTER READING,"YOU ARE THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE?" My God!
Yuck! You're a sicko alright. Up your lithium dosage immediately and switch to ketchup, barbecue sauce or horseradish immediately!
I always thought that was the proper way to say it as well. But I've been reliably told that the tape was developed by the military to be waterproof. Hence, duck tape. Could be true. I don't know. But thanks for looking out for me! Quack, quack! :-)
And what's with all the mustard haters on this thread? You people have gone and reminded me of one of my favorite DU posts:
Der Blaue Engel (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-05-05 09:10 PM
Original message
Does this place depress the hell out of anybody else? I mean DU.
I feel like I have an addiction to an abusive spouse or something sometimes. I can't stop coming here, but something, every day, makes me feel like ****, whether it's an individual person's nasty post, or an administrative decision that doesn't make sense, or just the general state of the world that I'm confronted with by staying informed.
Is it just me having a downward spiral? Is DU particularly dysfunctional or is it just the way of all things?
I hate it when my safe haven makes me cry.
Geez, according to this history, both are correct. It was originally duck tape, but became duct tape. Is usually called duct tape.
Fascinating facts about the invention of Duct Tape by Johnson & Johnson Co. in 1942.
Adhesive tape (specifically masking tape) was invented in the 1920's by Richard Drew of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Co. (3M). Duct tape (the WWII military version) was first created and manufactured in 1942 (approximate date) by the Johnson and Johnson Permacel Division. Its closest predecessor was medical tape. The original use was to keep moisture out of the ammunition cases. Because it was waterproof, people referred to the tape as "Duck Tape." Also, the tape was made using cotton duck - similar to what was used in their cloth medical tapes. Military personnel quickly discovered that the tape was very versatile and used it to fix their guns, jeeps, aircraft, etc. After the war, the tape was used in the booming housing industry to connect heating and air conditioning duct work together.
Soon, the color was changed from Army green to silver to match the ductwork and people started to refer to duck tape as "Duct Tape." Things changed during the 1970s, when the partners at Manco, Inc. placed rolls of duct tape in shrink wrap, making it easier for retailers to stack the sticky rolls. Different grades and colors of duct tape weren´t far behind. Soon, duct tape became the most versatile tool in the household.
I hate it when my refuge makes me cry....
Stuff like this will just accelerate the privatization of education, whether through vouchers for everyone (my preferred choice) or some other means.
My youngest just graduated high school this May, for which I am profoundly grateful. I can't begin to describe the deterioration in the public schools during the thirteen years my two daughters were there. Unbelievable. I am just grateful that my kids are out, as I could not have afforded private school and homeschooling wasn't a viable option for our family.
I figure, though, that I probably have at least ten years before I'll have school-age grandchildren, and I'm praying that by then our traditional public school system will be a thing of the past.
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