Ritalin Bill "Not Perfect, but Good Step for Parents"
None by KCPW
(KCPW News) After a five-year battle, parents' rights advocates got a victory late Friday when Governor Huntsman signed the so-called "Ritalin Bill." Two governors previously vetoed the bill, before this year's compromise made it into law.Though not perfect, Sandra Lucas of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights says it's a big step for parents who do not want to medicate their children. The measure prohibits teachers from requiring that a student with behavioral problems be medicated as a condition of class participation. The compromise does allow a teacher to refer a student to the school psychologist for treatment recommendations.
Lucas calls attention deficit disorder a "bogus diagnosis." However, she says there have been fewer reports of teachers making such recommendations since her group began pushing the "Ritalin Bill." There is no penalty for teachers who don't comply, but if Lucas finds teachers violating the law, she says she'll be back asking lawmakers to add punishment.
Schools and local pediatricians opposed the measure because they say rules are already in place to prevent teachers from diagnosing children. The new law also prevents officials from removing a child from parental custody simply because the parents refuse to give their child psychotropic medication.
Email to a friendPosted in Legislative Coverage, KCPW Newsroom, and 2007 Legislative Coverage. Copyright 2009 KCPW
1. Kim T. said:
Sandra Lucas needs to evaluate the actual scientific research supporting ADD as a diagnosis before she speaks. As a school counselor for 10 years, I have seen many students whose parents use it as a crutch, but many students who truly suffer from the condition and benefit greatly from supportive medication. Would Lucas call depression a "bogus diagnosis"? As someone who also has ADD, I am personally insulted by her comments.
3. Phillip Parke said:
Interesting that the Medical Recommendations Bill that was just signed into law doesn't PROHIBIT anyone from seeking or getting psych treatment who wants to. It just protects those who elect not to. Hurray for parental rights in Utah and to Sandra Lucas for caring!
4. Kim T's Keeper said:
Kim T. - please provide the scientific evidence! You state such exists - where is it? It does not in fact exist.
Kim T. Needs to evaluate the actual scientific research because there is NONE. NONE whatsover. What brain scan, blood test, urine test or any biological test is used to label a kid ADHD? None! Yet biological methods are rampant. What a national disgrace!
Ms. Kim T does a great disservice blathering such nonsense.
See book here, The ADHD Fraud: http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=9628
See audio here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C29OuQ9dmiU
5. Andy said:
Leaving out my own personal feelings on the matter. Here are a just a few facts.
Psychiatry is commiting fraud.
Below is an excerpt from a report and recommendations on fraudulent psychiatric diagnosis and the enforced drugging of youth. Get defined any words that you don't understand in a good dictionary.
"1. PSYCHIATRIC "DISORDERS" ARE NOT MEDICAL DISEASES. In medicine, strict criteria exist for calling a condition a disease: a predictable group of symptoms and the cause of the symptoms or an understanding of their physiology (function) must be proven and established. Chills and fever are symptoms. Malaria and typhoid are diseases. Diseases are proven to exist by objective evidence and physical tests. Yet, no mental "diseases" have ever been proven to medically exist."
"ADHD is not like diabetes and Ritalin is not like insulin. Diabetes is a real medical condition that can be objectively diagnosed. ADHD is an invented label with no objective valid means of identification. --Dr. Mary Ann Block"
"Biological psychiatry' has yet to validate a single psychiatric condition/diagnosis as in abnormality/desease or as anything 'neurological,' 'biological,' 'chemically imbalanced' or 'genetic.' --Dr. Fred A. Baughaman, Jr.,Pediatric Neurologist, 2002"
"As with all other emotional disorders, however, researchers have vigorously attempted to find proof that ADHD is caused by a chemical imbalance, but have come up with nothing. --Ty C Colbert, Ph. D."
"The aim of doctors should be to do whatever they can to keep children off prescribed drugs, particularly those that can have an effect on the mind. --George Lipton, Chief of Western Australia Mental Health Department"
"Eric Harris, Jeremy Strohmeyer, and Kip Kinkel; These young felons murdered 22 people between them after being subjected to psychiatric or psychological behavior modification techniques and drugs."
This is only a tiny part of the fraud that psychiatry is committing.
What I wrote here is not opinion it is fact.
6. Joava Good said:
I applaud Governor Huntsman for supporting parental rights and for Ms. Lucas for being persistant. Children do not need drugs, they need smaller classrooms and more help from teachers who care that they learn.
7. Jim Moore said:
I wonder what our founding fathers did without all the drugs to keep their teachers happy. I find it amazing that anyone who can read the PDR say the mode of action for any of these drugs is unknown but the effects on every organ system in a person's body are very well documented. Ritalin has been linked to cancer, Strattera is a failed antidepressant with suicide warnings on it. To defend a teacher's right to recommend these drugs is criminal. Period.
8. Mike Farmer said:
I am pleased that this bill has passed! It is amazing to me that the pediatrician community is so quick to provide drugs to children. All you have then is a drugged child. Symptoms disappear, problem, whatever it is, remains. Children are our future. Drugs are not the answer.
9. Martell Menlove said:
H.B. 202 may be a "Good Step for Parents". However, that step will likely trample a child who desperately needs help and the step is made square on the faces of many good teachers. Teachers do not diagnose ADD/ADHD or prescribe medication. That is not their role and they legally cannot diagnose or perscribe medication. They have provided valuable feedback to parents, and often provide well-received suggestions to assist parents in making medical decisions about their children. This bill greatly discourages these positive and helpful communications from occurring. How is this a step in any direction but backwards?
The statement surprises me that there is "no penalty for teachers who don't comply". The bill clearly states that "violation of this section is cause for disciplinary action."
What bothers me the most about this bill is that following 106 lines of specifically telling teachers what they can and cannot say, mandating that teachers be trained in what they can and cannot say, and directing school boards to discipline teachers for violating what they can and cannot say, the Bill in two (2) lines states: "Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to discourage general communication not prohibited in this section between school personnel and the student's parent or guardian." You cannot say this to parents; you cannot say that parents; if you say this or that to parents you will lose your job; but don’t be discouraged from communicating with parents – really! I do not understand how discouraging helpful communications is a “good step for parents”?
10. Lorraine Hough said:
Dear Kim T:
While there may be research supporting ADD, that research I know can be literally ripped into shreds. A lot of the educating of teachers and pediatricians on the issue has come from those who have a vested monetary interest in legitimizing ADD.
By saying that ADD is a "bogus diagnosis" I don't think Sandra Lucas is saying that there are not those who feel challenged in the area of attention or focus, or trying to tell you that you do not feel what you are feeling, but that the existence of what is considered ADD symtoms, which diagnosis thereby allows pediatricians to drug, is not actually a "disorder" of the mind. These individuals may exhibit unique behavior, but should not be treated or labeled as though they are somehow disordered and in need of drugging.
I can give you an example of my own son whose first grade teacher used other children in the classroom as a sell job for me to get my son on drugs. She also had all three of her own children on drugs and she thought she was doing me a favor by sharing this information with me.
It occurred to me that my son didn't need to be like the other students and that his uniqueness should not be labeled as a "disorder." So I chose to homeschool him in his second grade year and I also enrolled him in a special "Learning Techniques" program which takes what is working right with the mind and strengthens it even further. My son now is in the public school for his third grade year. He is at the top of his class and reading at above 8th grade level. His teacher's comments last parent/teacher conference were, and I quote, "He is soooo smart - probably one of the smartest in the class. You should consider having him tested for "gifted." He is going to do great things! He is so kind and I am so happy to have him in my class." Would you say his first grade teacher was "qualified" to push drugs on him? Most parents would probably have taken the easy bait, which is why we have millions of children on drugs in the schools today.
So here we have a case where we have a little boy who could have been told there was something wrong, disordered, not right about him. He could have grown up feeling inferior, as though somehow his brain was defective and disordered and that he "needed" to be drugged just to keep up with or be like the other kids.
Instead we celebrate who he is along with the things that are challenging for him as we know it is all an unfoldment of the greatness within him. We uncovered the solution because it was a solution we were looking for - not drugs or Band-Aids.
Teachers witnessing the behavior of children over years and years of teaching do not qualify them to lead parents into drugging their children. It is not their place, but many have made it their place. The schools and pediatricians who fought the bill because there were already rules in place should know that their rules didn't stop my son's teacher from pushing drugs on my child.
Promoting the use of drugs which CAN have serious or even fatal effects on children is not what teachers should be pushing or presenting. There are millions of kids like mine, the brightest and the best, who are all sitting so perfectly in their chairs doing just what the teachers ask because they have been chalked full of chemicals and told their minds aren't working right, and some of them are now dead - it breaks my heart.
Kim T, you said you have seen many students who have benefited from "supportive medication." What you mean is drugs that are in the same class as cocaine. This is not support, but rather very unsupportive in the sense that society as a whole is becomming numbed out to the permanent solutions that are available here and now in favor of the "quick fix" which is not a fix at all, but rather a long term Band-Aid with no solution.
Doctors are handing out Ritalin like candy based on none other than a teacher's mere complaint of an attention issue and some children get sacrificed along the way with their very lives for the so-called good the whole. I would not sacrifice my child so willingly.I for one am so completely thankful for the efforts and hard work of Sandra Lucas for bringing to light some sense of sanity regarding the issue of so-called "ADD."
11. Madison Lucas said:
Mr. Menlove should reveal that he is in fact a school principal. To say that teachers don't diagnose and prescribe is to play with words. Teachers do tell parents that they suspect that the child "suffers" from ADHD and that he/she would benefit from drugs like Ritalin and others. So let's not get clever with words, please.
Secondly, Mr. Menlove is upset that teachers need to be trained. Obviously they need to be trained! If they were not been responsible for hundreds of thousands of kids being drugged over the years, we wouldn't be faced with the need for this law and this training.
While my siblings and I were never personally in danger of being drugged (my parents would have never allowed it), many parents have been bamboozled and coerced into it. So on behalf of all other kids out there who are not going to be drugged as a result of this bill I want I want to thank the members of the Eagle Forum who worked so hard for this bill, legislators who voted yes, and Governor Hunstman for signing it. You are my heroes.
Sandra Lucas is my mom and I am very proud of her for working so hard on this issue and never giving up when being personally attacked and maligned by unscrupulous school officials, money hungry pediatricians and so-called disability groups that are nothing more than front groups for pharmaceutical companies.
The good guys do win!
12. My Momma Never Drugged Me! said:
Hey, don't forget to sign the anti-teenscreen petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html
And check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
13. Madison Lucas said:
Simply correcting the link to our website.
14. Sue Mills said:
Mr. Menlove, Please stop complaining and get to work on making public schools a better place. For you to say that teachers do not diagnose ADD/ADHD or prescribe medication, is correct on it's face. If they did that would be practicing medicine without a license - a criminal offense. However, you well know that teachers do recommend medication. That's the modern public school teacher's method of discipline - drugs.
Schools receive additional funding for labeling children, what an incentive for more drugging!
Mr. Menlove you should follow this Arizona school's lead and ban ADHD:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/42934.php
You'll have better performing students. That's what you're there for, eh?
15. Alfred Neslen said:
Since this law took about 5 years to finally get passed, it would seem logical that, even with all the financial resources available to those who are complaining about the passage of HB202, even they could not cover up the truth about the Psychiatric lies that have been perpetuated on the public. The legislators did their homework,reviewed all the data and consistantly brought this issue before their peers and pushed it through to its inevitable conclusion.
16. Robyn Bagley said:
Congratulations, Sandra, on obtaining victory in your long fought battle. It was a pleasure dialoguing with you about this issue during election season. I applaud you for pressing forward minus the support of your current Representative, Karen Morgan, who has consistently voted against this bill year after year. The readers may be interested to know that by and large those legislators who opposed this bill were the ones who receive their largest amount of campaign funding and support from the teachers unions and education community. Their votes are no surprise since as Sue Mills stated, schools receive additional funding for labeling children with "disabilities." You have taught us that those who perservere can prevail. Thanks, Sandra.
Robyn Bagley
17. Micahel Pech said:
If the supposed "mental health experts" actually had real science behind them then other disciplines wouldn't be trying to do their job. Nor would they be so anxious for anyone to try. Unless, of course, it's profitable. The history of psychiatry is hardly rampant with altruism now is it. It's scary that school administrators would want to be in bed with that. Children and parents DO need the protection of this bill.
18. Jill Coleman RN said:
Drugging kids is a cop-out. You may as well give them some street drug because kids who are 'medicated' have a higher chance of becoming drug addicts when they grow up. They develop a drug mentality-A thinking that drugs are part of their life and that they need them to help them survive. This is a pitiful way to start out for any child. It makes me sick to think that a parent would be so ignorant and not check out the real facts before they just assume that drugs are the answer, or worse yet, they are just too lazy to really help their child. Giving a child a mind numbing drug like Ritalin is criminal as far as I am concerned! The world could use more people like Sandra Lucus. She has the balls to do something about it!!! Well done!!!
19. Sally said:
I think we need to come up with some new ways of teaching. Not everyone learns from sitting still in a classroom for hours on end. How much is actually learned at the end of the day? I would like to see someone come up with a number. How many hours out of that 6 hour day is actually spent learning?
20. Christie Pride said:
As many can see, drugs are not a "choice" answer. I support Ms. Lucas highly. I have one child labeled "ADHD" and her dad was also diagnosed. He took drugs for awhile but didn't like them and absolutely refused them for our daughter.
I have worked with her on refining and recognizing dietary needs and sleep needs as well as developing personal focusing skill over the last few years. She was diagnosed in Kindergarten. She is now a lovely third grader whose teacher informed me at the parent conference that she "had no idea (my daughter)had difficulty with organization" when we were discussing something about her classwork that related to some of her organizational challenges.
Hallelujah for parenting each child and focusing on individual needs versus slapping a drug label on them!
There are many resources for parents of children with ADD behaviors - Vision Therapy, Feingold Association, Dr. Charles Gant (whose website helps determine need for nutrition therapy for all psych related disorders to get the body back in balance). All of these have had success in "treating" and "curing" kids who were offered medication for attentional problems.
Teachers should consider, at the very least, keeping candies out of their classrooms as rewards and for parties and keep back to basics with food options during school. This could help about 1/4 the kids easily.
21. Father said:
Interesting discussion. My son has an appointment on 3-20-07 with his pediatrician because he has not been focusing at school. Parents and health care professionals need to be cautious when evaluating a child for ADD/ADHD. I agree that schools cannot recommend medication but they are a very important source of information for us parents and that communication should not be shut down because sometimes they see things that we may not, at least it is in my son's case.
I read about Dr. Fred Baughman's opinions and also consulted the APA website. The APA's official position is that careful evaluation is needed in order to diagnose a child properly; here is a sentence from Dr. David Fassler (representing the APA) during a hearing with the U.S. House Government Reform Committee in 2002: "Medication, including methylphenidate or Ritalin, can be extremely helpful for many children, but medication alone is rarely the appropiate treatment for complex child psychiatric disorders such as ADHD. Medication should only be used as part of a comprehensive treatment plan which will usually include individual therapy, family support and counseling, and work with the schools." Here is the link in case someone wants to read the entire article: http://www.psych.org/news_room/press_releases/treat_adhd92602.pdf
My opinion in this matter is that there is no black and white answer but one that could fit the uniqueness of each case; some people may not need medication, some do. I am going to keep reading more about ADD/ADHD and I will try to research what is the latest scientific data on ADD/ADHD.
Have a good day.
22. Martell Menlove said:
In fact, I am not a school principal. I am the Superintendent of Box Elder School District and hold a PhD in Special Education from Utah State University. Whereas no one else had identified their affiliation, I did not realize that was expected in posting a comment. Sorry!
I have sought on numerous ocasions to receive a list of Utah teachers who have inappropriately forced a student to take Ritilin. No one has yet produced a single name, yet alone those who are rsponsible "for hundreds of thousands of kids being drugged over the years". Maybe Madison has that list for me?
I am also thrilled that Madison's parents were in control of his/her medication choices. I totally support that. I just do not understand why teachers are to blame when doctors perscribe and parents choose to provide medication to their children. Why does this law not require training for doctors or parents?
Maybe Sue can help me understand how schools receive money for labeling children with ADD/ADHD? I have worked in public schools for 30 years and do not recall this ever happening? ADD/ADHD is NOT a qualifier for special education services and associated funding.
23. Janie Lee, M.Ed. said:
I can confirm even though I am an independent activist and a parent, that the school system "is" responsible for getting children labeled as ADD/ADHD under the direction of the guidance counselors, under the direction of psychiatry and some misguided neurologist. In the few instances where good teachers do try really hard not to do this and to keep parents from doing and have no other options to give parents and not enough time to meet a childs actual educational needs the mental health system advocates trained by their states in many cases have been taught how to help the children get this label and to convince parents that it is in their childs best interest. There are also what they call parent support groups that are funded by the drug companies that teach people how to do this stuff. The mental health propaganda on this has been there for many years now, many parents are being pushed into getting a child diagnosed and treated and made into a special education student so that the child can so call get their needs met. I can again affirm that these things are used to get more funding into the public school systems and social services systems, it is systemic.
The only thing different now is it is propagandized that mental illness is real and that these drugs must be taken. Our children can not even go to public schools anymore without having this mental illness as a disease pushed on them, and take medications for it on a daily bases, this is partially why there is so much drug abuse now.
I can affirm to you that no one from the top down can answer the 6 questions that have been posed to them by me and my group called IES over the last 3 years. These are the questions and if you can get the answers for them then by all means please reach me at mama_jane_4_2000@yahoo.com and I will have them scientifically reviewed for you.
1. Evidence That Clearly Establishes the validity of "schizophrenia" "depression" or other "major mental Illnesses" as biologically-brain based diseases.
2. Evidence For A Physical Diagnostic Exam such as a scan or test of the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc that can reliably distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs), from individuals without these diagnoses.
3. Evidence For a Base-line Standard of a neurochemically balanced "normal" personality, against which a neurochemical "imbalance" can be measured and corrected by pharmaceutical means.
4. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can correct a "chemical imbalance" attributed to a psychiatric diagnoses, and is any thing more than a non-specific alterer of physiology.
5. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can reliably decrease the likelihood of violence or suicide.
6. Evidence That Psychotropic Drugs do not in fact increase the overall likelihood of violence and suicide.
In fact these drugs are dangerous and have these side effects:
Drug induced stuttering, Weight gain, Dizziness, Sleeplessness, Restlessness, Anxiety, Diabetes, Racing heart, Heart disorders, Suicide risk in children, Increased risk of birth defects, White Blood Cell Disorders, Convulsions and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, Life threatening inflammation of the Pancreas, Illegal sales on the street, Illegal creation of drugs, Illegal experimentation and addiction to drugs, Glaucoma, Harmful food and drug interactions, Synergistic and Anti synergistic affects, Unnatural and dangerous serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, Prescribing wrongfully, Dyskyntonia, Sudden Deaths, Drug overdoses, Drug induced psychiatric symptoms.
I am not a scientologist, I am pretty sure though that many of these people are, but what does that have to do with any of this? Nothing. They are absolutely correct and I can prove it.
I have a group that has been working to get the public officials to acknowledge this to the public for over 3 years now, they know it they just hide it because it because it is not financially benefical to them. If you would like to be a part of this group here is a link to it:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IES-Matters/
Good job Sandra Lucas, this is important work that you are doing and this Superintendent is not fully telling the facts, but the officials don't know the truth anymore either do they? They believe the lies that the drug companies and the psychiatric systems are pushing.
24. Anonymous said:
I wonder how many people who have posted here have trialled a drug with their children. I used to take the stance that my child did not need to be medicated either. Two years later, he is 2 grade levels behind in school, along with experiencing numerous other difficulties. I agreed to a trial of medication and guess what....it works. My child is excelling at school now, remains focussed on tasks and has not experienced any side effects from being on his dose of daily medication. He has actually thanked me and the psychiatrist for helping him. His self-esteem is much greater as well in the short time he has been on the medication trial.I can only hope that parents make informed decisions and do not do their child an injustice, simply by taking the "no drugs" approach to the problem.I speak from experience.
25. A concerned special educator said:
I've been a special educator for over 20 years. I agree with Superintendent Menlove that teachers are often the scapegoat for everything that is wrong in our society. Why? Are parents so afraid that they will lose the power over what happens to their children? Aren't parents the ones that take the child to a physician? Aren't parents the ones that decide with the MD whether to medicate the child? Does our society really think teachers and other school personnel have the final word or are so powerful they will sway someone towards medication without the person sorting it out for themselves? To me it sounds like something's wrong with parents, not teachers.
No wonder every year there are fewer individuals interested in teaching as a profession. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd become a lawyer, make a decent salary, and work on litigating against the schools. That seems the profitable way to make it in society these days.
26. A concerned special educator said:
I've been a special educator for over 20 years. I agree with Superintendent Menlove.
Regardless of whether ADHD "exists" or not, this bill addresses only the schools. Why do teachers have to be the scapegoat of everything wrong in our society? To me it's pure and simple paranoia. Afterall is it the teachers who take the child to the MD? Is it the teachers who prescribe medication? No, it's the parents. What about educating them AND the MDs? Why not have sanctions against MDs who prescribe ritalin?
It's not been my experience that parents accept professional advice blindly. I know there are pockets, particularly of immigrant parents whose culture respects teachers as professionals. But as a general rule our society does not respect teachers as professionals. So why should those advocating this bill be so threatened that the teacher may "say something" that will "cause" parents and MDs to prescribe medication? Where is the MD in this equation? I don't think they've been considered because the AMA is a pretty heavy organization, unlike the UEA!!
The field of education has seen a drastic decline in the number of people becoming teachers in recent years. Fairly soon the State of Utah will see a shortage in all grade levels and subject areas, not just special education. This kind of legislation is just one more reason someone would choose NOT to be a teacher.
If I had an opportunity to do it over I'd become a lawyer, make a decent salary, be a respected professional (well, at least more respected than teachers) and litigate against the schools. That's the way to make a decent living in today's society.
27. Kathleen said:
It is truly a shame that so many of you are blinded by a religion or whatever and would rather have children fail in their attempts to make friends, as well as in their academics, have plummeting self-esteem; need to feel good about themselves and so try a joint that a friend tells them will make them feel better and thus start them on the path to illegal drug use.
If you read the literature, for children with ADHD who take prescription medications, the use of illegal drugs is lower than those who are diagnosed ADHD and whose parents refuse to give them the medications. You people aren't looking at the evidence based studies done by researchers at major universities.
And don't be so high and almighty with your denegrations of those whose job it is to help children succeed in this world. Our children are our future, and I sure don't want these impulsive, violent, oppositional and conduct disordered children taking care of me when I am older; and I don't think you do either.
And don't think you can protect your child from exposure to illegal drugs...no one can..and most of you who spout off against technology without really understanding the brain and what is happening need to go back to school and understand that these so-called mental illnesses are in actuality very neurologically based and new studies are being done every day which give credence to these developments.
Depression causes shrinking of the hippocampus, damage as bad as not worse than a seizure disorder. I guess if your child had a seizure disorder you might give him medication...but then again, you possibly wouldn't.
When are we going to think about the needs and the rights of the children to succeed and become what ever they desire to be as they reach adulthood. I'm all for children who have strong self-esteem, are achievers and despite their IQs continue to push the envelope every single day. Just ask these children how they feel now as opposed to a few years ago, and you will see the successes...and yet you would deny your own children, who may seriously need medications, the ability to become all that God put them on this earth to achieve.
Check out the LEXICOR website for the newest information on objectively looking at actual brain wave patterns which evidence many types of problems with learning, sensorimotor dysfunction, ADHD, behavioral inhibition and more. Find a practitioner in your area who does these tests and have your child tested. See if this qEEG does not describe your child to a T.
And by the way, not everyone diagnoses with only a checklist from a teacher. Unfortunately there are too many of those who do, and this gives the rest of us who do indepth evaluations with objective evidence, a bad name.
I know that God put me on this earth to help children succeed in whatever they try, and I would never do anything that would harm them in any way. It is too bad that none of you ever open up your eyes enough to see the lives and families that have been saved and changed for the better due to the proper medications. Unfortunately that doesn't make the news...only the cases that were wrongly diagnosed and put on stimulants and consequently drove them into a manic violent state and they hurt someone.
Lets concentrate on all the success stories. And let's get in there and help the teachers. School is not like what it was even 10 years ago. You have no idea what abuse teachers have to put up with from students....and I thinkI might have an idea whose children they are. God bless you all and God save the children.
28. Debbie said:
I agree that teachers need better training in the area of teaching all types of children in their classrooms. However, I am grateful for the research being done for children that really do need help and for the research done to help find medications to help those that truly need the help.
I have been on both ends of the ADHD delima. Only 1 of my 10 children has had to have medication to help with ADHD. Training to help them learn how to become organized, eat the right foods and stay focused in life has been the drug of choice for us. But as the 1 that needed more than good teaching skills could provide proves, some children do need the aid of medication.I will agree that "most" children don't need to be medicated and can benefit from consistant parenting, organizational skills training and teachers who aren't afraid to be trailblazers in adapting their teaching skills to reflect that all children learn differently.
29. Psi said:
Just finished reading a fantastic book: MAD IN AMERICA by Robert Whitaker. I urge everyone who hasn't already read it to do so ASAP.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES by Marcia Angell is also highly recommended.
30. Dave Johnson said:
It is very interesting to finally find out where many of the things that parents come up with for antiADHD propaganda is coming from. I have been teaching, in both regular and special education classrooms for nearly 20 years now. The most amazing thing I have ever seen take place is when children who CANNOT attend/focus/delay gratification are miraculously allowed to do so. Now I have heard most of the anti-medication information, and I see the point of view of parents who are against medicating their children. My own son was pretty active when he was in Kindergarten and it was suggessted and we looked into it with a psychologist and his pediatrician, and medication was not warrented according to their dual diagnosis, but I know that even as a teacher and special educator I was very leery of the outcome and whether I would abide by it. But I have also seen 100s, yes 100s of children who can not attend to what is going on in the classroom to save their souls. I have read these comments on how this "diagnosis" (of ADHD) causes them to be labeled in various special education programs, and how the Columbine killers were caused to do there abhorrent acts by medication, and frankly lose all respect for people with these ignorant thoughts. It is not exactly like insulin and diabetes (for I am a diabetic) because if they are not utilizing the medication that helps others with this same condition, they won't be dead in a few days. Some children with ADHD can survive and even prosper without the medication, if they are in an environment that allows them to control the show (because they are not in control of their actions) and make adaptations for their characteristics of constant movement, impulsive actions (and you know with impulsive actions, they are going to run out of positive/appropriate things to do sooner than latter) not paying attention to what is going on in the class (and often times, not letting others benefit from what teaching instructions are going on as well, unless they are parapalegic and mute as well). As a teacher and special educator, if you don't want to attempt to find out what is available or effective in allowing your children to garner the most from their educational experience, so be it, as I am sure you are living examples of, noone is going to force you to do anything. But before you advocate the overthrow of the menatl health profession and everyone or everything it stands for, you might want to observe some classes, or schools where there are more positive outcomes being displayed. If you can buy into the fact that some are being helped by this treatment, if might make you feel a little sheepish about all the scientific research you are forwarding. For I have to be honest with you, I can only relate the research I see every day of success for students who months ago couldn't finish work, have any long lasting friendships, were constantly in trouble with discipline issues and a whole host of others negative characteristics be able to get their work done, have friends, and live above the line on a much more consistent basis then ever dreamed possible. Perhaps you might even stick around for days in which they forget, or run out of medication to see how quickly they revert to some of their former characteristics. When this occurs we do call home and ask, because my job is to see that students have the most success possible, which doesn't usually occur on these days. I really think for them to burn the good bridges they have been building due to their ability to focus, delay impulses and think before they act for something that is out of their control is the real crime. Their are behavior programs, and I applaud those who home school and work extra hard with their children to get them through to more positive behaviors, but I hope you see the difficulty with a teacher responsible for between 20-40 students being able to take that time with one or two students, when their responsible for so many more. For that is what will label these kids LD, EBD or whatever other category, is because we can't take that time, and be able to deal with the others in our care. If any of this makes sense, please try to align it with the other information that you are so willing to follow, maybe not blindly, but certainly more willingly than something that goes agaginst your preconceived notions...Thanks for listening.
31. Julie Beckham said:
I have taught special education for seven years and I can say there is definitely a difference when a child who has ADD/ADHD takes his meds and when he doesn't. I have seen kids go from being out of control behaviorally and unable to perform academically to being well-behaved and academically successful when they have the right dose of the right medication. I don't want children to be doped up zombies. I just know how much happier kids are when they are able to be successful academically and accepted socially. The disorder is certainly misdiagnosed sometimes, but I believe that it really exists. When I see a child who cannot even pay attention to an activity he enjoys, how can I not think there is something that is not working right in that child.
32. Julie said:
I too am a special ed teacher, middle school, and teach medicated and non-medicated children. In my state, I'm not "allowed" to suggest that a child is ADHD, but if I'm asked by the parent, I list the common characteristics of ADD/ADHD and ask parents to look across settings (home, church, little league, out in public) and see if their child displays these same characteristics in all settings. Then I would suggest they consult their pediatrician - if they ask. Without question, my student's who are diagnosed with ADHD (parent choice, not mine) are much more successful both academically and socially.
Another twist to this whole scenario is when a student does display the characteristics and cannot remain focused and gets in trouble, it's still not their fault, and we, as teachers) are picking on their child and labeling them a trouble maker when in fact, they must be ADHD. It becomes a convenient "diagnosis" for parents to use when they want to avoid discipline.
I teach using many teach styles as my student's have visual, auditory, kinisthetic and sensory issues. I provide many levels of material as my student's are on many levels but all must access the same information and take the same standardized tests. My goal is student success in both academics, as well as life, and if it becomes aparent that the child would benefit from pharmacological intervention, I would hope that any parent would listen to a professional who cares enough to make the suggestion!
33. Amy said:
Oh puleeze! Using a biological method to treat something that is absolutely not biologically proven is simply experimentation on children. Wasn't there a superintendent here who said teachers don't push drugs? Well, that's a lie and the comments on this story prove that. I doubt seriously that Utah is much different than the rest of the country and Canada. See 2 part video here http://tinyurl.com/3aj2pt that just aired on national Canada TV.
There's a new sheriff in town in Utah and you cow pokes better shape up and knock it off with the drugging of children.
34. Todd Rosier said:
What business does anyone have in putting any child on Ritalin? Its seriously degrading to validate a child's behaviour when on such medications. What so-called "mature adult" would put their own children on these drugs. Get a life! Too bad a good government would just close all of the public schools and keep these idiot "School Superintendants" and "teachers" off of out tax payroll.
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36. Marie said:
Schools do get money for ADHD. I believe that it is $400 for each child labeled. But the big money comes from listing it under Other Health Impaired which qualifies them for all sorts of money under Learning Disabilities. There is definitely big money in this for the schools!
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40. Brian said:
I have an adult friend who just told me last week that, as an adult, she started taking a med for ADD. She took her first pill and started reading a magazine article. On the second page she started to cry. When her husband asked why she said that for the first she could actually remember what she had just read. She always thought through school that she was just stupid for not being able to remember.
She found that the medicine lasts for about four hours per dose. With this new ability to concentrate and remember she is now in her Junior year of a nursing degree.
I am not a big meds fan either, but facts are facts. I feel that those who don't listen to reports such as this have an agenda of their own that makes it very hard to be objective. Whether we like it or not we have to listen to each other if we are ever going to arrive at balanced truth. In fact, information that is not balanced might even be called non-truth to some degree.
I struggle and work for balance in my thinking. Let me encourage all to lay aside any agendas and try to listen to each other. There is no other way to find objective truth.
Brian
41. Anonymous said:
The $cientology is strong in many of these comments. See you April 12th.
42. Janie Lee, M.Ed. said:
I get so tired of everyone saying that it isn't the teachers, it isn't the schools, it isn't the system's, and that everyone that doesn't agree with the drugging and wants to change things for our children's future is a scientologist. I strictly am not a scientologist and most of what is happening is garbage. We cry because it is a proven fact now that our kids are getting high via prescriptions at the schools and in the homes, the reality is that it is just like those here that only posted to waste space or are trying to justify their own bad positions. I was a parent that begged the school for assistance and not drugs, the shcool did help eventually after I was brain washed into letting it get so far that he and I thought something was terribly wrong with him. The system did that, they taught me all of that. He did feel like a failure in school because the teachers were only looking at things he wasn't so strong in not his good side of him. He was mechanically gifted and had a good sense of humor. Not things to be appreciated in a school setting, by teachers that wanted him to sit still all day and read a book, that wasn't him. It got on the teachers nerves and they tortured him for that, they almost ruined him, I changed things for him and he doesn't remember that part of it as much, I put him in a school where there was some good teachers and the people in the school was good and the teachers he had took and interest in him and taught him what the other teachers were failing to teach him and he has done fairly well in life in many ways I think. The schools are an outdated institution that are a pipeline to prison for a lot of kids and that is a shame that was never what the public school was meant to be. NEVER, but without the medication and without the labels in order to use the special rules the teachers won't do what they are suppose to and the schools do get extra money for having a certain amount of seats full and the special education. I believe that each and every child should be able to have a special education, really! I am not a scientologist either, some schools are pure pigheaded and once they find out certain things can be quite nasty to the parents and the kids as well, they can prejudge and make a child's life miserable, they can discriminate and terrorize a whole family if the family isn't not very poor and very uneducated. Really! People wonder why I home school that is part of the reason and then there are plenty more.
2. Sandra Lucas said:
In fact I have evaluated the so-called scientific data "supporting" ADD as a diagnosis. The American Psychiatric Association voted ADD as a mental disorder by a show of hands during their 1980 meeting. In 1998, The National Institute of Health held a Conference on ADD/ADHD. At the end of this conference they issued this statement: "....We do not have an independent, valid test for ADD/ADHD and there are no data to indicate that ADD/ADHD is due to a brain malfunction."