5-19-3

Protecting Children: The Use of Medication in Our Nation’s Schools

and H.R. 1170, Child Medication Safety Act of 2003

Hearing before the Subcommittee on Education Reform Committee on

Education and the Workforce United States House of Representatives

May 6, 2003

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about this grave national issue and let me start with commending the Committee for recognizing that the coercive use of psychotropic drugs on children is not a few "isolated" incidents, but is impacting hundreds, if not thousands, of families across America.

While Utah was once the Ritalin capital of America, this Schedule II drug seems to have dropped to a national average level now in our State. However, in the wake of raised public awareness about the risks of Ritalin, other stimulants like Adderall and the amphetamine Dexadrine are deluging the child psychiatric market in its place. In fact, Adderall now comprises 32% of the national stimulant market, with 6.1 million prescriptions in 2000 and $248 million in sales. Yet, this drug has already been cited in a North Dakota criminal judgment in 1999 where a young father was not held criminally responsible for the murder of his 5-week-old daughter because he was in a psychotic state caused by Adderall. Psychiatrists testified that the drug induced the psychotic state causing delusions.

There are other drugs, not covered by Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act, that are also forced onto children, including Cylert, a Schedule IV drug, and antidepressants that are not scheduled at all. Zoloft and Paxil are among the group of new antidepressants that, in 1999, were prescribed to 1.7 million children. In fact, between 1995 and 1999, there was a 19-fold increase in 2 - 19 year olds prescribed these drugs. A FOX National News series last November found that a person taking Paxil is 8 times more likely to attempt or commit suicide than if taking a placebo. More than half of the last 12 school shootings have been committed by teenagers taking psychotropic drugs.

Meanwhile, school personnel faced with children who often have not been properly taught to read, who may be coming to school on a breakfast of sugar or no breakfast at all, who could be affected by lead, mercury or other toxic substances -a plethora of explainable reasons - are assessing them in the classroom as having a "learning disorder" or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). From here, parents are being coerced into drugging their child with threats of the child’s expulsion or charges of medical neglect by Child Protective Services against the parents who refuse to give or take their child off a psychiatric drug.

Parents are losing their right to choose.

They are being told that ADHD is a "neurobiological" disorder when even the Surgeon General’s 1999 report on mental health cannot confirm this. They are being denied access to tutoring or additional educational services for the sake of a "quick fix" drug like Ritalin that some studies say is more potent than cocaine.

Often, once the child is medicated, the various side effects associated with the drug, and which I have found were too often not disclosed to the parents when they were first given the prescription, become apparent. The child may have difficulties sleeping, eating; he may have stomach problems and may be irritable. Worse yet, when withdrawing from the drug he may become so emotionally disturbed as to feel suicidal. While the parents may want to take the child off the drug at this point, they are too afraid of the implied consequences and feel powerless.

The President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education also reported that 40 percent of children labeled with "learning disorders" were so labeled simply because they had not been taught to read. Yet through Special Education and public schools generally, we allow children to be forced onto powerful and, at times, addictive psychotropic drugs for this misidentification. While we spend over $50 billion on the War on Drugs, we are allowing our teachers to be used as mental health clinicians diagnosing learning problems as "disorders" and "diseases" and forcing this belief on parents.

We must learn from the tragic stories that parents are coming forward with. We must learn from the Columbine High School Shooting, where teen killer Eric Harris, was taking a violence-inducing antidrepssant at the time of the crime. In 1999, the Colorado State Board of Education sent us all a message when it passed a Resolution calling for academic rather than drug solutions to behavioral and learning problems in the classroom.

I realized the gravity of the situation after being contacted by many parents in Utah and hearing what I can only describe as horror stories, some of which I have attached to my written testimony for your review. With Utah children comprising a quarter of our total population, the need for protection was more than apparent. Subsequently, I ran a bill in 2002 to prohibit school personnel from pressuring parents into drugging their children. The Utah legislature recognized the need for this protection and passed the bill by an overwhelming majority of 89 in favor with only seven dissenting votes. Tragically, the Governor of our State failed to listen to the needs of our families. For reasons that can only be speculated upon at this time, he vetoed the bill, thus condoning the coercive drugging of Utah’s future generation.

Unless we, as legislators, do something about this coercive situation and using medication instead of education, we become accomplices to what many see as a drug-pushing epidemic sweeping across our nation’s schools.

I support HR 1170, but believe the Committee would be remiss in not broadening this to include all prescribed psychotropic substances. The bill is not just necessary, it is absolutely vital.

Here is a site on a press release: http://edworkforce.house.gov/press/press108/05may/childmeds050603.htm

Schools Should Focus on Educating, Not Medicating our Nation’s Children, Say Witnesses WASHINGTON, DC—Witnesses testifying before the House Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform, chaired by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), today discussed the issues surrounding the increasing use of psychotropic medications in our nation’s schools, and the role educators can and should play in the decision to medicate a child. The use of psychotropic medications, such as Ritalin or Adderall, has become increasingly prevalent in our nation’s schools, causing parents, schools, and medical professionals to question the appropriate roles each party should play in this process.

While schools may have a role in dispensing medication to a child in the course of a school day, parents and schools have become concerned about disturbing instances in which a school could coerce a parent to medicate a child as a condition of attending school. In March, Rep. Max Burns (R-GA) introduced the Child Medication Safety Act (H.R. 1170), a bill that would require states, as a condition of receiving federal education funds, to establish policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take medication in order to attend school. A non-controversial provision similar to the Burns measure was added to the Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act (H.R. 1350), the reauthorization of the nation’s special education law that was approved by the House of Representatives last week. "Schools are an important source of information for families and we encourage an open line of communication between schools and families," said Castle. "Parents, however, should never be forced to decide between getting their child into school and keeping their child off of potentially harmful drugs. School personnel should never presume to know the medication needs of a child. Only medical doctors have the ability to determine if a prescription for a psychotropic drug is physically appropriate for a child."

To address this issue, a number of states have passed laws preventing school personnel from requiring that parents medicate their child in order for the child to attend school. Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois, and Virginia have passed such laws, and Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, Utah, and Texas have established Commissions or enacted resolutions to investigate this issue or encourage schools to use proven methods of addressing behavior problems instead of relying on medication.

Dr. William Carey, director of Behavioral Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, testified on his medical experience with the diagnosis and treatment of childhood behavioral issues. Carey noted that, "In the last two decades the United States has experienced a great increase in the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its treatment with stimulants," and pointed out that, "not only child health professionals but now also a wide variety of unqualified persons, such as preschool teachers and acquaintances, are freely offering the diagnosis and confidently urging parents to accept their judgment and obtain drug treatment, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin), for the child."

Katherine Bryson, a State Legislator from Utah, has worked tirelessly in her state to prevent what she calls horror stories in which parents are forced to choose between an education for their child or making the child take medication they fear may be unnecessary and even harmful. "School personnel faced with children who often have not been properly taught to read, who may be coming to school on a breakfast of sugar or no breakfast at all, who could be affected by lead, mercury or other toxic substances-a plethora of explainable reasons-are assessing them in the classroom as having a ‘learning disorder’ or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder," said Bryson. "From here, parents are being coerced into drugging their child with threats of the child’s expulsion or charges of medical neglect by Child Protective Services against the parents." "Parents are losing their right to choose. They are being told that ADHD is a ‘neurobiological’ disorder when even the Surgeon General’s 1999 report on mental health cannot confirm this," continued Bryson. "They are being denied access to tutoring or additional educational services for the sake of a ‘quick fix’ drug like Ritalin that some studies say is more potent than cocaine."

Children, Drugs, "Ice" - & Ways Out

Supporting Documents

Model Links Locus Coeruleus & Hyperactivity

Is Ritalin Raising Kids To Be Drug Addicts?