Child Medication Safety Act, HR 1790


Child Medication Safety Act, HR 1790


Urgent
EdAction Alert —
May 2, 2005


Home 

Articles 

Today’s News


        Minnesota’s Rep. John Kline introduced the
Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1790) in Congress on April 21st with
16 co-sponsors. The Act protects children and their parents from being
coerced into administering psychotropic medications in order to attend
school.

            In this legislation, schools would be prohibited from
requiring parents to put their children on powerful psychotropic
medications. The legislation is very important because it allows parents
to have their children educated, not medicated. It will prevent schools
from forcing parents to use medication to keep their children in school,
instead of getting the proper academic or other help for behavior
difficulties that these children need. It also prevents the use of
powerful drugs to enforce the acceptance of the psychosocial,
non-academic standards of the federal curriculum on those who disagree
by disguising resistance as academic under-performance.

        Dr. Karen Effrem of EdWatch has

testified in Congress that medical literature demonstrates that
these medications are overused, ineffective, have dangerous side
effects, and most importantly that the “disorders” that they treat are
vague social constructs — that there are many other reasons for
behavior and learning disorders that do not require medication.

        The World Health Organization, in its World
Health Report, 2001, stated, “Childhood and adolescence being
developmental phases, it is difficult to draw clear boundaries between
phenomena that are part of normal development and others that are
abnormal.”

        The Surgeon General stated in 1999 that, “The
science is challenging because of the ongoing process of development.
The normally developing child hardly stays the same long enough to make
stable measurements. Adult criteria for illness can be difficult to
apply to children and adolescents, when the signs and symptoms of mental
disorders are often also the characteristics of normal development.”

        Last year Congress appropriated grants to local
school districts to treat teenagers suffering from mental, emotional or
behavioral disorders> This will result in more psychiatric drugging in
schools. Congress also provided $7 million for grants for  additional
interventions, which will also result in more screening and drugging of
children and adolescents.  (See our

July 26th update) 
 
        The Department of Education is spending $5
million on “Mental Health Integration in Schools”, as well as $1 million
for Senator Kennedy’s disastrous early childhood mental health program
called Foundations for Learning.   (See our

update.)  One example of the need to prohibit coercion to medicate
is demonstrated in an article just out —


Medicating Aliah.:

ALIAH GLEASON IS A BIG,
lively girl with a round face, a quick wit, and a sharp tongue.
She’s 13 and in eighth grade at Dessau Middle School in
Pflugerville, Texas, an Austin suburb, but could pass for several
years older. She is the second of four daughters of Calvin and Anaka
Gleason, an African American couple who run a struggling business
taking people on casino bus trips…Aliah was a B and C student who
“got in trouble for running my mouth.”

First diagnosed by school
personnel as having “oppositional disorder”, Aliah was later screened
for mental illness and taken to the  Austin State Hospital, a state
mental facility, against her parents wishes. “What, if anything, was
wrong with Aliah remains cloudy.” The entire story is on-line. Other
parents have testified before Congress of similar situations.

Action:
Please thank these member of Congress for co-sponsoring HR 1790:



Rep Barrett, J. Gresham [SC-3]  Rep
Boehner, John A. [OH-8] – 4/21/2005

Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5]
 Rep
Emerson, Jo Ann [MO-8] – 4/21/2005

Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-2]
       Rep
Gutknecht, Gil [MN-1] – 4/21/2005

Rep Hostettler, John N. [IN-8]
 Rep
Johnson, Sam [TX-3] – 4/21/2005

Rep Kennedy, Mark R. [MN-6]
    Rep
LaTourette, Steve C. [OH-14] – 4/21/2005

Rep Lewis, Ron [KY-2]
  Rep
Paul, Ron [TX-14] – 4/21/2005

Rep Pence, Mike [IN-6]
 Rep
Souder, Mark E. [IN-3] – 4/21/2005

Rep Wicker, Roger F.
           Rep
Wilson, Joe [SC-2] – 4/21/2005

Please urge other members to co-author this important bill. Pass this
information on to your friends and family in other states.

===============================================
EdAction is
entirely user-supported. The continuation of our work is dependent upon
individual contributors. EdAction is a political action committee.
Contributions are not tax deductible. We promote the work of
EdWatch.
If you want to ensure that our work continues, contact us

here. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe to this EdAction e-mail
service, mail to: edaction@lakes.com. Put “subscribe” or “unsubscribe” in
the SUBJECT of the message.

105 Peavey Road, Suite 116
Chaska, MN
55318
952-361-4931

http://edaction.org