Feel free to freak out now

[Mythsaje]

Mental Health Screening in Schools Signals the End of Parental Rights
by Nancy Levant

In the 2005-2006 school year, all parents will receive written notice of new policies from your children’s schools. Many schools will ask you to sign permission slips, allowing school counselors or “advocates” to have conversations with your children. You will be told how your local schools are now involved in vision and dental screenings, learning disabilities and speech impediment screenings, and other acts of kindness, but watch for the small print or the extra little blurb, which states that your children will also be evaluated for emotional wellness. Watch for wording like “happiness indicators” or “family participation.”
The fact is that our president has mandated that every American child, age 3 through 18, is federally ordered to be evaluated for mental health issues and to receive “enforced” treatment. Welcome to President Bush’s New Freedom Initiative and New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Welcome to life-long profiling and drug addictions, New Freedom-style.

52 million students and six million adults working in schools, according to this commission, will be tested and should flush out at least 6 million people, or shall we say new customers, who will then be mandated to receive “treatment.” What treatment does our president’s commission have in mind? The newest drugs in the pharmaceutical pipelines, of course. The commission recommends “specific medications for specific conditions.”

One of the state-of-the-art treatments, and most expensive, is an implanted capsule – yes, that’s right, implanted. The capsule delivers medication into a child’s body without the child having to swallow a pill or the need for parental permission for dispensation.

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/05/16/24_209_102_203_25370.htm

[Maestro]

1. I'm an administrator in Texas

and to my knowledge I have heard nothing of this, but perhaps I need to speak with our counselors and my principal.

[Mythsaje]

3. I remember

hearing a whisper about this sometime last year, but it quickly faded into the background (almost a sure sign that there's something to it--in my experience).

With the astounding number of incredibly skilled researchers in DU, I figure we can all get to the truth of it quickly enough.

[tk2kewl]

60. I too remember hearing about this on DU in lat '04

[FourStarDemocrat]

105. This link has info:

I googled it and it comes from a conservative website, but it is accurate. As you can see, many true conservatives are outraged by this as well. Texas Rep. Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian tried to stop this from going through, but his ammendment failed.

http://www.conservativeusa.org/mentaltesting.htm

On Sept. 9, the ‘Ron Paul Amendment’ was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 95-315. The Amendment would have prevented the funds sought by an appropriations bill (HR 5006) from being used for the mandatory mental-health screening of Americans, including public schoolchildren."

The 118 GOP Congressmen who voted for this incredible violation of parental rights were:

Bachus (Ala.), Baker (La.), Barton (Tex.), Bass (N.H.), Beauprez (Colo.), Blunt (Mo.), Boehlert (N.Y.), Boehner (Ohio), Bonilla (Tex.), Bono (Calif.), Bradley (N.H.), Brown (S.C.), Burr (N.C.), Buyer (Ind.), Calvert (Calif.), Capito (W.Va.), Carter (Tex.), Castle (Del.), Crenshaw (Fla.), Cunningham (Calif.), Tom Davis (Va.), L. Diaz-Balart (Fla.), M. (Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Dreier (Calif.), Dunn (Wash.), Ehlers (Mich.), Emerson (Mo.), English (Pa.), Ferguson (N.J.), Foley (Fla.), Fossella (N.Y.), Gallegly (Calif.), Gerlach (Pa.), Gibbons (Nev.), Gilchrest (Md.), Gillmor (Ohio), Gingrey (Ga.), Granger (Tex.), Hall (Tex.), Harris (Fla.), Hastings (Wash.), Hayworth (Ariz.), Hobson (Ohio), Houghton (N.Y.), Hulshof (Mo.), Hyde (Ill.), Isakson (Ga.), Issa (Calif.), Jenkins (Tenn.), Johnson (Conn.), Sam Johnson (Tex.), Keller (Fla.), Kelly (N.Y.), King (N.Y.), Kirk (Ill.), Kline (Minn.), Knollenberg (Mich.), Kolbe (Ariz.), LaHood (Ill.), Latham (Iowa), LaTourette (Ohio), Leach (Iowa), Lewis (Calif.), LoBiondo (N.J.), McCrery (La.), McHugh (N.Y.), McKeon (Calif.), Mica (Fla.), Murphy (Pa.), Ney (Ohio), Northup (Ky.), Nunes (Calif.), Nussle (Iowa), Osborne (Neb.), Pearce (N.M.), Peterson (Pa.), Pickering (Miss.), Platts (Pa.), Porter (Nev.), Portman (Ohio), Putnam (Fla.), Radanovich (Calif.), Regula (Ohio), Rehberg (Mont.), Renzi (Ariz.), Reynolds (N.Y.), Rogers (Ala.), Rogers (Ky.), Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Shays (Conn.), Sherwood (Pa.), Shimkus (Ill.), Simmons (Conn.), Smith (N.J.), Taylor (N.C.), Thomas (Calif.), Tiberi (Ohio), Turner (Ohio), Walden (Ore.), Walsh (N.Y.), Wamp (Tenn.), Weldon (Fla.), Weldon (Pa.), Weller (Ill.), Wicker (Miss.), Wilson (N.M.), Wilson (S.C.), Wolf (Va.), and Young (Fla.). (House Roll Call no. 438, 9/9/04)

"Prior to the House vote, Paul had vehemently denounced mandatory mental-health screening in a letter to fellow congressmen. Paul wrote, ‘Psychotropic drugs are increasingly prescribed for children who show nothing more than children’s typical rambunctious behavior. Many children have suffered harmful effects from these drugs. Yet some parents have even been charged with child abuse for refusing to drug their children. The federal government should not promote national mental-health screening programs that will force the use of these psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin.’

"The idea of nationally screening school children for mental health stems from the establishment of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in 2002. Its mission is to ‘promote successful community integration for adults with a serious mental illness and children with a serious emotional disturbance. As WorldNetDaily reports, the commission’s panel ‘recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children … Schools, the panel concluded, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.’

Also check out what Congressman Ron Paul has to say about this on his website http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100604.htm

[katinmn]

140. They passed it when we were distracted by something else.

I also heard something about this but when it got tucked into an unrelated bill, how the heck can we keep track of all this garbage?

Well, I know plenty of parents, myself included, who will not allow our children to become guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

They can shove their capsules up any of their own orifices.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I haven't heard about it either Maestro

I am in MO. I talked to our school counselor about this when I first heard of it. She keeps up with news on the mental health front. She had heard nothing about it. Her daughter who is a psychiatic social worker had also heard nothing. And I have searched the net. Nothing but mentions like this on blog sites.

I think it's left wing paranoia.

[LynnTheDem]

128. "leftwing paranoia"???

Republican Ron Paul;

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100604.htm

[proud2BlibKansan]

203. Well some of us who work with 'troubled' kids

think under diagnosis is a much larger problem. We see kids every day who are hurting, depressed, angry, lashing out at their peers and adults. Many of them are downright dangerous. Their parents think denial is just a river in Egypt. Of course, I oppose mandatory screenings, but something has to be done to help kids whose parents refuse to do so. Even ONE kid like this in a class of 30 has a huge negative effect on a classroom and an entire school.

[converted_democrat]

168. I know it's hard to swallow, but it is true..........

There has already been a documented case of forced drugging.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_aliah.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Check out this -

it's the last line from the article at the link in the OP:

Still got your kids in public schools? Shame on you, and may God bless your poor children and forgive you.

[Maestro]

22. Wow!

More anti-public school BS! We get enough from the Radical Right! Oh well, I am going to check into this. I am also taking a school law class for my principalship certificationa. I will check there as well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Be sure and let me know what you find out

and I will let you know anything I find as well.

[Maestro]

36. Deal.

Let's virtually shake on it. ;)

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. Gotcha

Did you see my response to Eloriel? I just can't see this happening in this coming school year. Not enough time to implement it. You know how these govt mandates are. We get bombarded for months ahead of time.

[mrdmk]

58. Here is some logic for us

1) Bush helps the pharmaceutical companies by having more people (children in this case) forced to use questionable drugs.

2) Give people more incentive to remove their children from public schools.

3) Fundies consider secular persons to be crazy, so why not dope up the people of the devil so they will not come after their sons and daughters.

4) This maybe far fetched, but people on Prozac tend to talk to God.

[EFerrari]

70. Or they stop talking to God, depending if the Prozac is working

for them.

Careful - baby with the bathwater alert. :)

[mrdmk]

88. I had an ex relationship put on Prozac because of a head

injury.

Which is true to give Serotonin drugs to a victim of a head injury. This is suppose to occur right after the injury and only for three months and no more. Unfortunately it happened two years after her injury and was to be considered a lifetime treatment or until the pain doctor took her off of the pain medications (a long nightmare of a story). It was a total circle jerk with these doctors. By the time I got some people to listen she was very hooked to Prozac.

A doctor did pull her off of all of her drugs at once and that required a two week stay in the Psychological Ward after I dealt with her for a week. This was difficult because I had to take her to the hospital emergency room and have fifty-one fifty order by the emergency room doctor.

There are three professions in California that can give a fifty-one fifty order (mandatory observation in a Psychological Ward for three days because the patient is considered harmful to their self and/or to others). They are Emergency Room Doctors, Police, and Kindergarten to twelve grade Teachers. Upon an order from anyone in these professions, observation is required, no ifs, ands or buts.

And yes after the start of Prozac she did talk to God.

[EFerrari]

93. I completely know what you're talking about.

Antidepressants can sometimes make you feel well enough to manifest other issues that were buried by depression.

My partner came down with a psychotic disorder and I couldn't get a 51/50 to save his life or mine. Isn't that ironic?

And the doctors we had access to were either overburdened or jackasses or whatEVER. Took us YEARS to get what we needed.

I've now seen these new drugs deployed skillfully by dedicated professionals to people who really benefit from them. And, I'm here to say, THAT IS NOT THE NORM.

And there is no effen excuse for that. We have great tech. It doesn't get delivered.

:hug:

[FreedomAngel82]

108. I wouldn't be surprised either

Especially if they have a lil hyperactive kid in their class. When my brother was younger he was a bit more hyperactive then now days. Now days he's more quiet and all that. But a teacher of his in elementary school recommended he see a specialist and the specialist ran some tests on him and ended up putting him on ritalin. The doctor kept an eye on him though and was really great. My brother was definitley really different on the medicine. During church and class he would sit up straight and hardly talk. I remember he once told my Mom how he didn't like how it made him feel so as he got older my Mom took him off of it. My grandmother used to think of it as a way to punish him and to keep him to behave (even though he wasn't that bad at all). So I wouldn't put it past fundies.

[katinmn]

144. Sedate the populace. No more protests.

[cynatnite]

62. I would also be interested in knowing what you discover

While I'm not completely convinced, I am very concerned. I stay involved with my kids' education.

[proud2BlibKansan]

114. You need to understand

that mental health screening and force feeding meds are two completely different things.

[katinmn]

160. They are already doing it. See recent article in MJ

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_aliah.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

179. Sounds like a troubled kid to me

Barking at a teacher because she looks like a man? That is pretty bizarre. What if your child was a classmate of hers? Would you want your child's class disrupted by a classmate barking at teachers???

The other concern I have about this story and so many others like it is that we are not hearing the school's side. Privacy laws prohibit schools from discussing kids like this with the media. So we get the parent's version of events. And the parent is usually angry. So we are not getting both sides of the story. For example, why was this child removed from her parents' custody? That is an extreme step, it is expensive and involves legal wrangling that just doesn't happen every day. I doubt barking at a teacher is enough to have a child committed to a mental institution without parental consent. So what else did this child do??? Convenient that THAT detail is left out of the story. hmmmm

[converted_democrat]

188. Are you referring to the Mother Jones story?

It clearly states why she was taken from her parents. It clearly states the details of the story. If that is the article you are referring to, you need to read it again. I realize it's a long article, but it clearly says what the child did, and what the parents did, and what the state did. I agree that she may have had behavioral problems, but forcing to take multiple medicines that have not even been cleared for that use, and not letting her speak to or see her parents for months at a time is not the answer.

[katinmn]

193. I agree. I thought it was a well researched article.

MJ has high standards and has a long history of coming at things decidely differently than corporate media.

They do not cut and paste like corporate media.

[proud2BlibKansan]

201. Schools NEVER contribute to these stories

They can't. Privacy laws prohibit it. And even if parents give permission for schools to share info with the press, schools are very reluctant to share ALL the dirty details. Parents are lawsuit crazy these days. If I ever spoke to the press without going through my district admins, especially to relate a story about a particular kid, I would most likely lose my job. At the very least, I would be in HUGE trouble.

[proud2BlibKansan]

199. Think about what is left out of that story

and the fact that the school's version is not shared. How do we know she didn't threaten to kill a teacher or a classmate? How do we know she wasn't trying to sell drugs at school? We don't. The parents shared what they wanted with Mother Jones.

I have seen too many 'my kid was mistreated at school' stories and how the press presents only ONE side. I know the missing details to some of these outrageous stories. I have posted a couple narratives here on DU about this.

Sorry, a one-sided story is not complete.

[converted_democrat]

209. I think it explains it quite well. It isn't one sided.

What, if anything, was wrong with Aliah remains cloudy. Court documents and medical records indicate that she would say she was suicidal or that her father beat her, and then she would recant. (Her attorney attributes such statements to the high dosages of psychotropic drugs she was forcibly put on.) Her clinical diagnosis was just as changeable. During two months at Austin State Hospital, Aliah was diagnosed with "depressive disorder not otherwise specified," "mood disorder not otherwise specified with psychotic features," and "major depression with psychotic features."

[proud2BlibKansan]

220. "with psychotic features"

Do you understand what that means? It is not a label that is randomly thrown out when nothing else seems to fit.

I still say this story includes no statements from the school. That makes it one sided.

[converted_democrat]

210. sorry dupe

[Maestro]

206. This is a children protective services problem

The school did exactly what it was supposed to do as far as I can tell from the article. The child was clearly disruptive and properly screened. From that point on it is out of the hands of the school district. If you were the child's parents, what would have done?

[converted_democrat]

208. Here's a more indepth story same topic same girl.........

Read it then let's have a discussion. It's another version of the first story, only with more info and more back up.

http://www.tilrc.org/docs/0505aliah.htm

[Maestro]

214. Once again

Are you angry with the school district or the mental health officials? I do not know the complete background of the story but this part seems to show the the mental health orgainzation went too far.

She concluded Aliah was suicidal but did not hospitalize her, referring her instead to an emergency clinic for further evaluation. Six weeks later, in January 2004, a child-protection worker went to Aliah's school, interviewed her, then summoned Calvin Gleason to the school and told him to take Aliah to Austin State Hospital, a state mental facility. He refused, and after a heated conversation, she placed Aliah in emergency custody and had a police officer drive her to the hospital.

The Gleasons would not be allowed to see or even speak to their daughter for the next five months, and Aliah would spend a total of nine months in a state psychiatric hospital and residential treatment facilities. While in the hospital, she was placed in restraints more than 26 times and medicated -- against her will and without her parents' consent -- with at least 12 different psychiatric drugs, many of them simultaneously.

On her second day at the state hospital, Aliah says she was told to take a pill to "help my mood swings." She refused and hid under her bed. She says staff members pulled her out by her legs, then told her if she took her medication, she'd be able to go home sooner. She took it. On another occasion, she "cheeked" a pill and later tossed it into the garbage. She says that after staff members found it, five of them came to her room, one holding a needle. "I started struggling, and they held my head down and shot me in the butt," she says. "Then they left and I lay in my bed crying."

This seems to be health workers run amok. I don't know what else to add. All I am saying is that the district did what by law it was supposed to do given the info that I have. From there, it seems obvious the case was mishandled by state mental health officials.

[converted_democrat]

219. I'm upset that this could happen to a child. Period.

It saddens me that this could happen to any child in America.

[Maestro]

221. Me too.

However, you ought to see what I see on a daily basis from ignorant parents! And they do nothing to help any situation the child may find himself or herself in however deplorable the situation might be.

[Maestro]

207. Another thing that story just sort of glides over

is the fact that it says, '...she was placed on a special ed track." The fact is, there is a myriad of tests that by law the school district must follow per IDEA, a federal law. This girl definitely showed some problems and from the sound of the article they were mental. Again, the district seemed to do everything by law. The forced medication and insistence by health professionals outside of the school realm is completely another issue. In the end, I hope this girl gets some help because it sounds like she needs it.

[converted_democrat]

211. So, you think putting a child on 12 medications at one time is a good

idea? Most of which have never been approved for use on children, or for use on emotional disorders. I agree that she should get some help, but the "help" they are giving her is no good.

While in the hospital, she was placed in restraints more than 26 times and medicated -- against her will and without her parents' consent -- with at least 12 different psychiatric drugs, many of them simultaneously.
snip

In addition to the antidepressants Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and Desyrel, as well as Ativan, an antianxiety drug, Aliah was given two newer drugs known as "atypical antipsychotics" -- Geodon and Abilify -- plus an older antipsychotic, Haldol. She was also given the anticonvulsants Trileptal and Depakote -- though she was not suffering from a seizure disorder -- and Cogentin, an anti-Parkinson's drug also used to control the side effects of antipsychotic drugs. At the time of her transfer to a residential facility, she was on five different medications, and once there, she was put on still another atypical -- Risperdal.

[Maestro]

212. Stop putting words in my mouth.

Of course I don't. All I am saying is that the school did all by law that it was supposed to do. From there it is out of the district's hands.

[converted_democrat]

217. I'm not putting words in your mouth.........

What happened to this kid is troubling, you want to let it go, fine. I don't. It really bothers me that this could happen to any loudmouth child out there. I agree that she had some issues, but this did nothing to help her. Nothing. In fact she's probably screwed up worse.

[Maestro]

218. I don't think you understand me.

We completely agree that this child needs help. I agree that mental health officials, from what I have read, did not handle the case well. All I am saying is that per guidelines that we have in Texas, it sounds as though the school district did everything correctly. When we refer children to outside mental health organizations, we stay in constant contact with the doctor, parents and of course the child whom we keep a close eye on in school. It seems that for whatever reason the CPS and mental health officials went overboard in this case, especially force-feeding medication and denying parental visits. However, I don't want anyone to think that, we in education, handle most cases like this. We don't .

[donco6]

234. Yes - people don't understand this.

Once a kid is identified as special ed, our hands are tied for the most part. Plus the fact that we just don't have the staff to even BEGIN to tackle student mental health issues - at least, not in any therapeutic way. It's interesting that people don't look to schools for dental services or medical services, but for some reason they all think we should be able to shrink heads in our spare time.

[FreedomAngel82]

107. Interesting

That doesn't help with what they're trying to tell if it is true. I have had conversations with rightwingers who hate public school. I don't know why. I went to public school throughout my whole schooling and loved it and had a great experience. A lot of my friends were very smart and have gone onto really great schools for college. The only thing I don't like about the public school policey now days is how they concentrate mostly on taking and passing a test instead of actually learning and how the school funding is so backwards. My area is really really really low on the list of getting funding in our state. The school board has made a vow to work harder to get money for our county. I hope they're successful. I started noticing my school going downhill in late 2000 or early 2001 (I graduated in 2001).

[donco6]

233. Again, not completely their fault.

This testing crap is being foisted on us by Bush and NCLB. We know there's too much emphasis on passing tests, but if we don't pass the tests, the state comes in and forces us to charter the school. This means some outside vendor comes in (Edison, et al.) and takes over. Even in the face of mounting evidence that chartering does absolutely NOTHING to improve student performance! So what are we supposed to do? I don't even live in a state where the state department of education is interested in fighting NCLB, like they are in Utah and Connecticut. In fact, our Commissioner is a leader in the RW faction of state school administrators. He LIKES vouchers and privatization, and never misses a beat in pointing out how "bad" our schools are.

We have a new high school right now, for example, called Big Picture. Great program. Kids learn TONS, and it's all based on learning through internships, where the kids learn material based on what "turns their crank." It's all completely out of sequence, but the kids actually learn because they WANT to. Unfortunately, the kids also have to be tested on the state CSAPs, which are based on the state standards, which are divided up in the usual way (sophomores - American History; juniors - Government; etc. etc.) These kids probably won't test well because they don't learn things in that standard order. So what to do? Get a waiver? The state won't even ASK the feds for waivers. It's all horribly horribly frustrating!

[DuaneBidoux]

228. You might check this link

It's got exactly the same name and acronym and from what I can tell has absolutely nothing to do with what the article is talking about.

<http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhprograms/TMAPover.shtm>

PS: note that in the very first paragraph it states clearly adult disorder...I find nothing whatsoever to do with schools.

[rodeodance]

12. yes, check it out and let us know please.

[rman]

127. Not heard about it? Check out whitehouse.gov

"New Freedom Initiative"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/toc-2004.html

[katinmn]

147. New freedom Commission= Healthy Forests Act=Clean Skies Initiative

Boy, Rove really follows by the playbook, doesn't he?

[katinmn]

146. State by state implementation plan

This seems to be a work in process (not complete but outlines which offices and departments they will work through). I found it by googling the New Freedom Commission which Bush created via executive order (no need to even vote on it?)

They seem to have forgotten one state - Minnesota. Is that because Garisson Keilor says our men and women are strong and our children healthy?

Joking aside, this is scary shit!

http://www.nasmhpd.org/general_files/State%20table5.pdf

[Ishoutandscream2]

244. I'm a counselor in Texas at a 9th grade center

This is news to me, and trust me, we would have heard something about this awhile back.

[proud2BlibKansan]

245. Thank you

and welcome to DU :hi:

[The Doctor.]

2. "mandated medication"?

This is a joke... right?

[Mythsaje]

4. Let's hope so n/t

[rodeodance]

7. This inititive is on the gov. website--I did not know its date of implem-

entation. um....

[rodeodance]

10. treatment = drugs. Gotta wonder how the pharmaceutical industry is

involved in this "freedom inititive"??????/

[Mythsaje]

11. what gov website? n/t

[rodeodance]

18. start at this site--Bush Executive Order here

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020429-2.html

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 29, 2002

President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
Executive Order

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve America's mental health service delivery system for individuals with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Establishment. There is hereby established the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (Commission).

Sec. 2. Membership. (a) The Commission's membership shall be composed of:

(i) Not more than fifteen members appointed by the President, including providers, payers, administrators, and consumers of mental health services and family members of consumers; and.....

(

[confuddled]

24. Here's one .gov site introducing the screening.

http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-05.htm

You get to guess who benefits most from this.

[Eloriel]

17. No, NOT a joke and it HAS been discussed and linked to

here at DU. It's one of THE Most personally frightening things coming out of this administration. We are DONE, IMO, if this goes into effect. They will drug and zombie-fy a whole generation. There will BE no resistance, ever. We as a people will simply all be slaves.

here's the only link I've got right now (I keep "losing" them in my vast and often messy archives):

Mental Illness Affects Many (SETUP for BUSH's New Freedom Commission)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1527795#1527829
see also: A sane voice shouts NO to Bush's 'mental health' plan by Underground Panther in the Sky, Unknown News

[fortyfeetunder]

25. Not a good picture...

And the worst effect to all this is: the prevasive stigma attached to mental illness.

It could affect folks' livelihoods. Kids need not to be branded this young.

Wonder what will happen if I refuse to sign this?

[Ladyhawk]

53. It would be nice to just get rid of the stigma.

If I can recover from my illnesses, why shouldn't I be allowed to contribute? I have a lot to offer if only I could be free again.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Then why don't those of us in public education

who work with emotionally disturbed kids know nothing about this but what we see here on DU?

I have spent a lot of time looking into this, Eloriel. You know I don't trust the Bush administration. But I have found NOTHING from a credible source that verifies we are going to start force feeding meds to kids. And this coming school year? It takes months to implement govt mandates in a public school. There is tons of mandatory training beforehand. Yet, I have heard nothing from either my school district or any of the professional groups I belong to.

[rodeodance]

39. it may be that there are target states?

[Maestro]

46. Could be.

But like Proud2BLib said, it takes many months of preparation to implement something like this and I just don't see it happening. And the prescribing drugs part is just a disaster waiting to happen for public schools. Lawsuits would put a halt to any of this, pronto. The litigation would carry on for years.

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. Could be

But I belong to a couple national groups. Both educator and parent groups. I know I would have heard something by now. This is a big deal. It would be HUGE news in the special ed community. But I have received no emails, read no articles in my journals or on any of the special ed websites I frequent for news. Like I said, I have only seen this mentioned on DU. And the links are not to what I would call 'credible' websites.

We knew about NCLB for nearly a decade before it finally was passed into law. I wrote dozens of letters and signed as many petitions protesting elements of that law. I really think if there was actually a law authorizing medicating kids AGAINST THE WISHES OF THEIR PARENTS, I would have heard something by now.

[FreedomAngel82]

110. Maybe

because of how they'd know people would react they're keeping it very very hush-hush until the final plans are done. :shrug: In my experience through life you don't ever want to mess with a parent and their child no matter what their race, religion, political party etc.

[FreedomAngel82]

109. And also

probably states to start testing. Then if the program is successful in this state they can try other states and gradually move on up to all across the country. Either that or they'll test one state and say it's good to go if it goes according to their plans and then just slam it onto the teachers. I also wonder what would happen if parents refuse it. :\

[proud2BlibKansan]

118. Something like this is not going to be just slammed

at schools. No way.

[halobeam]

241. I'm on a HAVE TO KNOW basis......

What states are the target states?
We are thinking of leaving and I MUST know. I don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

This is absolutely sickening. I heard about this a while ago too, then NOTHING until now. And it passed?

[Eloriel]

66. Well, we've been discussing it here. (Links)

Don't know what to tell you, nor do I know what is a "credible source" to you. BUT --


I don't believe *I* claimed it would include "force-feeding meds to children" or that it would start "this coming school year." Or if you read that, I apologize for not qualifying the LIVING HELL outta my post. Let me do so now: I am merely verifying that this has been reported elsewhere and SOME of those reports have been posted in LBN.

Here's two sources from a quick google search I just did, tho all of these are from rightwing sources that for all I know you may choose to ignore (you can do your own google search in that case-- or not):

Mandatory Mental Health Screening Threatens Privacy, Parental Rights
Friday, September 17, 2004
By Wendy McElroy
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132397,00.html

Action Alert: Mental-health screening of children
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/update09.07.04.htm

Doctors Group Opposes Mandatory Mental Health Tests for Kids
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/11/140125.shtml

Bush plans to screen whole U.S. population for mental illness
Sweeping initiative links diagnoses to treatment with specific drugs
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078

Here's Myths and Facts (in HTML instead of pdf)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:qCfh17b3GX8J:www.edaction.org/images/Mental%2520Health%2520Briefing%2520Myths%2520and%2520Facts.pdf+Mental+health+screening+schools&hl=en&client=firefox-a

STOP SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING
Tell Your Representative to vote YES on the Paul Amendment
http://www.eagleforum.org/alert/2004/Mental-Health-9-08-04.html

I think you could ignore all these rightwing objections if this were some Democratic initiative, but it's not.

Here are three LBN discussions:
Attempt to stop mandatory mental screening fails
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1018271
Link: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41606

Congress Funds Mandatory Psychological Tests for Kids
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1018998
Link: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/22/215244.shtml

Lawmaker tries to block mental-health screening
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1002593
Link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41511



Edited: Here are some GD links:

Calling all DU mental health professionals
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2415082

'Ritalin bill' advances; some call it unneeded
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3064783

Is mandatory mental health testing the beginning of the end ?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2413903&mesg_id=2413903

[rodeodance]

75. whow--thanks for the links. --so exactly WHO is pushing this?

[proud2BlibKansan]

113. Yes, I have seen most of those

But the OP says this will start THIS school year. And Maestro and I are trying to tell you we know NOTHING about it. Trust me, we would know if the govt was going to start medicating kids without their parent's permission. That is a pretty big change from SOP.

You can be assured that as soon as this becomes official and we are advised it IS a reality, there are a ton of teachers on DU who will be talking about it.

[fortyfeetunder]

72. They don't want you to know..until it's too late

This is like the stealthy freight train of doom, you know it's coming (via DU) and you have an idea when (next school year) but they aren't telling you the intermediate stops...

[FreedomAngel82]

112. Exactly

I think if this does happen it won't happen until after the 2006 elections. It's too early unless they've been waiting for the right moment. :\

[proud2BlibKansan]

182. Nope

This is BIG. No way would it be dumped on us in the schools.

Please remember that 95% of us in education are Democrats. We question the Bush administration as much or more than most posters on DU. If this was being snuck in, some education adminstrators would have to know. And they would sneak the word out to the rest of us.

[FourStarDemocrat]

102. This was hidden in the 800 pages of the Budget vote a few months ago

There were several links to it here and a few threads. At the time, congress members and the media were all concentrating on something else hidden in the budget that some of the senators were able to take out--it was the part that allowed Congressmen to read the tax records of private citizens, such as the heads of non-profit groups. Remember that and the ruckus about it, and how they deleted that after a week or so from the final bill? But not this piece of legislation- it stayed in.

[proud2BlibKansan]

184. Yes I do remember that

but that is all I have heard of it. And as Maestro and I are trying to tell you, the implementation of something like this is HUGE. It would take at least a year.

[FourStarDemocrat]

198. I agree, and I hope the states start suing, or challenging in courts. nt

[Swamp Rat]

129. We will become a nation of Bushler Zombies

[tecelote]

8. Not my kids.

[katinmn]

157. No say in the matter. An amendment requiring parental consent FAILED.

So we as parents probably won't be asked for our consent! We have to sign to allow to have their pictures taken but Bush doesn't want us to sign off on mental health screening.

:mad:
Diest confirmed that Ron Paul's amendment requiring parental consent prior to government psychological testing/mental screening of all school children was not added to the bill.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/brave_new_world/new_freedom_paul_amendment.htm

[mzteris]

173. can you say

homeschool?

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the "Christian" homeschoolers - are the libertarians and the seriously anti-gov't types. Polar opposites - but joined in the rejection of "gov't" control over their children - an uneasy alliance.

We homeschool one child entirely for educational reasons..... BUT - things like this make me glad we do.

[katinmn]

177. I was going to wait a couple years but

it's starting to look like this would be a good time to give my daughter a taste of living overseas for a while.

I'm ready to get the f*** out of this country while we still have the freedonm to do so.

[mzteris]

190. hubby's been working

overseas for the last 8 months or so.......and the thing he likes the best is not having to listen to or read ANYTHING about bush and the neocons! Maybe they're talking about it, but he can't understand the language (hahaha).

He's making serious noise about all of us moving over there, too. (You don't know anything about safety, do you?)

[katinmn]

195. What do you mean?

(You don't know anything about safety, do you?)

[mzteris]

202. Sorry

I guess I was being too cryptic. :(

You said you were looking to leave the country & hubby is looking to hire people to do construction-related safety in Taiwan.......

[katinmn]

204. LOL. I wish!

:hug:

[ewagner]

9. specific medications for specific conditions.”

So for example, being a Democrat constitutes a "specific condition" that requires a "specific medication".....say.......prosac?

Or maybe some other psychotrophic drug?

I don't like this but there wasn't a fricken' thing we could have done to stop it...they had the votes, they had the WH.

[tecelote]

15. This is why the right to bear arms is so important.

No one is giving my kids drugs without serious risk.

[AnnInLa]

67. "right to bear arms is important"...????

You're kidding, right? Tell me you're being sarcastic, huh?

[tecelote]

68. Yes. It's the second time today my sarcasm has been mistaken.

I apologize.

I believe that I will defend my kids from this in any way I can. But, I would never use a gun.

Others will though.

In fact, I can't believe many parents, right or left, will agree with this. It will come to fist fights at the very least. Children are dear to us all.

[amazona]

175. parents won't fight this, they never have

Parents have been advised or even told their children can't come back to school unless put on Ritalin for a couple of decades now around my area. I've not known personally of any parent who resisted. I've heard many parents rave about the change in their child. The problem is, the child becoming more passive and easier to handle when on the drug is an immediate reward for drugging the child. The addiction and other side effects that may or may not be suffered by the child as an adult are far in the future. Parents are extremely loyal to these drugs in my limited and anecdotal experience. They honestly believe the drugs are helping.

Ron Paul and other extremists are not representative of how parents really feel when their child is diagnosed and requested to start taking these drugs if they want their child to return to the classroom. Most anti-psychiatry and anti-pharma spokespeople are considered kooks.

Private schools aren't any better, in fact, they generally are less tolerant of children who "act out."

Drugs have become the new normal.

[expatriate]

238. This is true

In the 1990's, I was placed in just this position by a school regarding my adopted son, who had broad spectrum brain damage caused by Fetal Alcohol Effect. The teacher he had insisted that he be put on Ritalin, and no matter how often it was explained to her that he could not take Ritalin because of a seizure disorder (Ritalin lowers the body's resistance to seizures, and is contraindicated in children with epilepsy), she demanded that he be put on Ritalin "like all the other kids in his class".

We took him to a neurologist, who did a complete evaluation, and stated emphatically that under no circumstances was he hyperactive, and that he should not ever take Ritalin. I watched as he spoke to the teacher directly on the telephone. He got redder and redder in the face as she demanded that the kid be placed on Ritalin, and no matter how much he explained that it was not necessary and could be damaging to the child, she wouldn't back down. Then she said she would be happy if he put the kid on Cylert instead. The doctor said that wasn't going to fly either, that the kid had behavioral problems, but not to a degree where medication was necessary.

After several consultations with psychologists and psychiatrists, the consensus was that the kid should not be put on Ritalin or any other drug. Teacher would not back down and refused to have him in her class - and because he was rated as needing special education, and she was the only special ed teacher in the school, we were stuck. We met with the principal of the school, a longtime educator, and he suggested homeschooling. We asked for one more meeting with the teacher, and offered to work with her in any way that we could to help her deal with the kid's behaviors, short of putting him on Ritalin because of his seizure disorder.

No go. She would not accept him in her class without drugs, no matter what anyone said, and kept reiterating that all the other kids in the class were on Ritalin and he needed to be on it too. We ended up homeschooling. Once she called me and said that she could recommend a doctor who would put the kid on Ritalin, if we wanted. That's when I realized we were dealing with a learning disability and it wasn't the kid's. Since the kid made fantastic progress homeschooling, we just went ahead with it.

Now that teacher is the principal of that school. I wonder how many kids there are now on Ritalin. What horrified me throughout the entire struggle was the parents of other kids who just did whatever she insisted on, and had their kids on drugs. There are simply not that high a percentage of hyperactive children in the population, and Ritalin does not work on people who are not truly hyperactive. Ritalin is not a depressant or a tranquilizer, it's a stimulant, and works in hyperactive kids by stimulating a part of their brain that is, essentially, not active enough (and which their body tries to stimulate through the hyperactivity). Giving a normal kid Ritalin is pretty much useless, or revs them up even more.

[amazona]

239. wow -- good for you!

Teachers who think they are doctors are scary.

Who knows where some of those other kids are now or what health complications they may develop from taking a stimulant they didn't need.

[expatriate]

242. Thanks

I should have put a caveat in there that this was not a typical teacher, and in fact, was not a typical public school district. It was in a small town in north central Pennsylvania, where the teachers who taught at the school had been students at the same school years before. The local university provided the teachers via their education department - which had lower standards for graduation of education majors than any other department at the university, or at any other university I researched when I found out that a low D student could graduate with a degree in education - and that the standard for a D was the standard for an F elsewhere. This lady was not a good educator by any means - and sadly, the small town situation and way the school system was basically a closed shop of home town folks made for a very strange situation.

I've heard similar stories from other parents in other areas though. It certainly isn't the case with all teachers, but there are those who just think drugs like Ritalin are the be all and end all of all behavioral problems.

[liberalla]

131. Agreed!

I 'got' it -- I love your sarcasm and your sentiment!

[katinmn]

158. Get out the pitchforks, peasants. We are going to have to fight this.

An amendment requiring parental consent FAILED.

Diest confirmed that Ron Paul's amendment requiring parental consent prior to government psychological testing/mental screening of all school children was not added to the bill.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/brave_new_world/new_fr...

[MountainLaurel]

194. That's a relevant thought

Considering that in Stalin's Soviet Union those who did not agree with the state were considered to be mentally unstable and institutionalized.

[Ms. Clio]

13. This source sounds kind of wacky to me -- ranting about the U.N.

"And there’s more. The U.N. Agenda 21 has also called for total intrusion into schools and children lives. No more religion, no more individuality, no more real education, no more real grades, no more real teaching, no more teacher respect for parents, and no more truth from teachers or principals."

However, I have previously read about the "New Freedom initiative" and do wonder about its current status.

[Mythsaje]

16. Yeah, the anti-UN stuff makes me a bit...

...uncomfortable. I usually associate that stuff with RW nonsense.

But I too remember hearing something about this "initiative" and was wondering about it myself.

[progressivebydesign]

21. No.. this is for real. See my post and Rodeodance's post.

This shit is ON the official whitehouse website, part of Bush's Freedom Commission on Mental Health (freedom?).

[Ms. Clio]

32. Thanks, I had heard of it before

I'm just not convinced by this blog, which seems kind of bizarro to me, with its links to stories about the menace of the U.N. and the "Big Lie" about Lincoln the Empancipator.

But I do agree this "Freedom Commission on Mental Health" is a valid and troubling concern.

[earthboundmisfit]

14. If this is attempted I believe legal ramifications will apply

Need to check with ACLU and see if they've had anything come in on the radar, probably PFAW too. I would also think state & local school boards would be incensed about this!:mad:

[rodeodance]

19. nominated--lets keep this in the ballpark

[progressivebydesign]

20. This is NOT tinfoil stuff.. this is ON the White House website.

I found out about this last year, and researched a link on the White House website. The insidious plan is part of some "Freedom Commission" or somesuch nonsense. I forwarded the link to our local middle school, because they could not believe it was really going to happen. It's a fucking giveaway for the pharmaceutical companies...

[Maestro]

23. I am going to check into this more

But the whole medicating thing makes me wonder strongly. Public Schools can not get into this business. They can not be held responsible for the prescription of drugs. Heck, any drugs used by children for asthma to ADD are meticulously documented and we need written permission from the child's doctor just to give the child his or her medicine in the school clinic.

I wouldn't put it passed * to want to do this, but I hardly see how it can be implemented. Local control issues and worries about lawsuits would cause an uproar even from the most conservative of districts.

[SmokingJacket]

55. My suspicion about this is...

that the schools themselves would not be involved in the prescribing of drugs. What would happen is the schools would screen, just as they screen for vision and hearing, with a recommendation to get further treatment elsewhere.

The problems I see are that schools *might* encourage unnecessary treatment -- perhaps even to the point of refusing to admit children who "fail" the screening and don't get treatment.

We're still a ways from government mandated medication, IMHO. As far as I can tell this is just about screening -- fishing for new consumers of prescription drugs. NOT a good thing -- but still, a step or two from Brave New World.

[Maestro]

63. School must admit all children regardless of mental condition.

Denial of a public school education is against the law. We turn no one away. The screening is already being done, but probably not in such as formal a way as this would suggest. Teachers are constantly monitoring students and if they see anything that might suggest an emotional disturbance, a counselor is called. As far as calling the whole class down to the clinic for "mental" screening, I doubt that would happen.

But again, let me be clear that I don't doubt for a second that * would want this. However, the legal hoops for it would be tremendous and would put too much liability on the shoulders of districts. Even the most neo-conish districts would file lawsuits against this.

[proud2BlibKansan]

120. The liability implications

are just huge.

And I agree that * and his idiotic administration would probably favor a program like this.

But the bottom line, as you and I keep saying, is that we would know something by now. Especially if it is going to start this year. Heck, we would probably be sitting in mandatory training for it right now.

[amazona]

178. public schools turn away kids all the time!

Children are routinely suspended and then expelled from the public schools for behavior problems. Maybe not yet in the numbers they are kicked out of the private schools but it's a regular event.

[Maestro]

215. All children are accepted.

I repeat, we turn no one away. If a child is deemed to be a behavior problem, and this is with an inordinate amount of documentation, the child is referred to an alternative school, but still the child is under the jurisdiction of the school district. Expelling kids rarely happens in my district except in the most extreme of circumstances.

[progressivebydesign]

100. Man, it's already a disgrace all the time they spend on testing..

..now they are asking them to be mental health nannies. I KNOW for a fact that the schools in our area will be extremely angry and resentful about this.

[Maestro]

216. I agree with you on the testing.

We are in the world of absolutes and accountability. That would be fine if our product were uniform, but it is not. Each child is different and each learn at his or her own pace.

[FreedomAngel82]

115. Maybe

they're trying to privitize schools. :shrug: I don't know. But I know a lot of rightwingers who hate public education. Plus, Bush likes to either have everything private or faith-based. That way he doesn't have to worry about giving any government money to these schools and all the money can go to his wars and getting the oil from the middle east.

[frictionlessO]

26. happy I gave this its third nomination... very important. n/t

[frictionlessO]

27. happy I gave this its third nomination... very important. n/t

[LeftCoast]

29. SierraTimes.com seems to have a rather RW slant

This doesn't pass the smell test. If someone would like to 'prove' to me that there is in fact a government initiative to do mental status exams and medicate children without explicit parental approval, I'd love to see it. I'm open minded about this, but so far I've read nothing but accusations without any sort of definitive citations.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

133. I've read the report.

Or at least I've read the relevant sections.
Available here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/

Nobody is proposing mandatory treatment. The idea of "mandatory" screening is addressed only briefly, and it's not even clear if they're actually talking about the screenings being mandatory or widely available. Furthermore, it's not as if this is a proposed piece of legislation. It's just a report wherein some suggestions are made and it's in no way binding and contains a whole plethora of pie-in-the-sky stuff that will never happen for the sheer simple fact that it's too goddamn expensive, or would be misunderstood, or whatever.

I think the furor over this has a lot to do with both a very narrow reading of the report, and a lack of experience in reading reports of this type wherein many strange and unusual suggestions are frequently made.

And sierratimes.com is a crackpot right-wing hate and conspiracy site. See my post downthread for more examples of their insanity.

[katinmn]

180. That's the White House whitewashed PR summary

You need to look at the history, the plan, related legislation, who cooked up the plan, and those few investigative reports that are available to see what's really coming down.

Don't expect truth from the White House web site, ok? They pay highly skilled spinmasters to write text that will calm the masses.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

189. You yourself have cited the text of the report.

You can't discount it any time someone disagrees with you about its implications.

[Name removed]

196. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

200. Deleted.

I refuse to engage in name-calling.

[Maestro]

30. This is typically vague. I'll try to find more.

Outline of the Final Report for
the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Vision Statement

We are committed to a future where recovery is the expected outcome and when mental illness can be prevented or cured. We envision a nation where everyone with a mental illness will have access to early detection and the effective treatment and supports essential to live, work, learn and participate fully in their community.

Goals of Final Report

1. Mental Health is Essential to Health: Every individual, family and community will understand that mental health is an essential part of overall health.
• Everyone takes action to ensure well-being
• Mental health awareness

Recommendations

Advancement and implementation of national strategies for suicide prevention and national campaign to reduce the stigma of seeking care.

Align Federal Policies with Mental Health System Goals

2. Early Mental Health Screening and Treatment in Multiple Settings: Every individual will have the opportunity for early and appropriate mental health screening, assessment, and referral to treatment.

Recommendations

Strengthen early childhood mental health interventions: Implement a national effort to focus on mental health needs of young children and their families that includes screening, assessment, intervention, training, financing of services.

Screening, assessment and treatment for co-occurring disorders will be the expectation in mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, criminal and juvenile justice and primary care settings.

Screening for mental disorders in primary care settings across the life span. Collaborative care models for identification and treatment of mental disorders across the lifespan should be widely implemented in primary care settings and reimbursed by public and private insurers.

Building on “No Child Left Behind Act” and the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), improve and expand mental health programs in schools to ensure that youth with emotional and behavioral disorders succeed and graduate from school.

3. Consumer/Family Centered Care: Consumers and families will have the necessary information and the opportunity to exercise choice over the care decisions that affect them
• Continuous healing relationships will be a key feature of care

Recommendations

States should ensure that each adult with serious mental illness (SMI) and each child with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and his or her family has a single, individualized plan of care.

Create an integrated state plan for treatment and support

Expanding the recovery orientation of the system of care by increasing the opportunities and capacities of consumers to share their inspiration, knowledge, and skills.

Strengthen and expand supported employment

Protect and enhance rights

Expand criminal justice and juvenile justice diversion and re-entry programs.

Medicaid/Medicare/financing reform that includes references to parity, home/community based services, and IMD reform.

Improve access to housing and end chronic homelessness

4. Best Care Science Can Offer: Adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance will have ready access to the best treatments, services, and supports leading to recovery and cure. Accelerate research to enhance prevention of, recovery from and ultimate discovery of cures for mental illnesses.

Recommendations

Accelerate research to cure or prevent mental illness. Continue research to improve mental health outcomes and support recovery.

Expand the knowledge base to inform policy designed to reduce mental heath disparities, long-term effects of medications, and develop process to study crisis interventions and acute care.

Evidence-based practice interventions should be tested in demonstration projects with oversight by a public-private consortium of all stakeholders. The results of those demonstrations should form the basis for directing support of financing, dissemination and workforce development.

Increase and improve a diverse mental health workforce across the country, through public-private partnerships based on multidisciplinary training models.

5. Information Infrastructure: The mental health system will develop and expand its information infrastructure. That infrastructure has many purposes:
• Inform consumers, providers and public policy
• Improve access, quality, accountability

Recommendations

Use information technology to improve care.

Inform policy by expanding the knowledge base

6. Eliminate disparities in mental healthcare: promote well-being for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, language, place of residence, or age and ensure equity of access, delivery of services, and improvement of outcomes for all communities.

Recommendations

Establish funding incentives for recruitment and retention of mental health professionals in rural settings.

Through a public and private partnership develop and implement comprehensive public health policies which reduce barriers to access, improve community outreach and engagement, and ensure development of culturally competent care to racial and ethnic minorities.

[cynatnite]

31. I'm hesitent to by into this diatribe:

I do think screenings in schools are important. They do catch problem areas when it comes to children that could be easily overlooked.

While I am concerned about mental health screenings in our schools I do approve of eye exams and other areas that should be checked so that children don't fall through the cracks.

Didn't Gov. Dean implement some kind of screening program in Vermont to help at risk kids?

Check this article. It sounds more logical than that woman's rant.

http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2927666,00.html

[Maestro]

35. There have been for ages

different screenings for different conditions in public schools, vision, hearing, scoliosis, etc... Our counselors try to deal the best they can with children's mental conditions so that is nothing new. The part I find incredulous is the prescribing of drugs. That just can't be and wouldn't work in any public school system of which I know.

[cynatnite]

52. I'm just not seeing it all that clearly

http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-05.htm

Here are a few snips.

"For consumers of all ages, early detection, assessment, and linkage with treatment and supports can prevent mental health problems from compounding and poor life outcomes from accumulating. Early intervention can have a significant impact on the lives of children and adults who experience mental health problems."

"Schools are in a key position to identify mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services. Every day more than 52 million students attend over 114,000 schools in the U.S. When combined with the six million adults working at those schools, almost one-fifth of the population passes through the Nation's schools on any given weekday.122 Clearly, strong school mental health programs can attend to the health and behavioral concerns of students, reduce unnecessary pain and suffering, and help ensure academic achievement."

I just don't buy into the argument that shrub wants to drug our kids.

[EFerrari]

33. The author sounds like a wingnut and that doesn't preclude

the possibility that this is in the works.

Like all the other initiatives, the New Freedom Initiative will achieve the opposite and equal effect of its stated goals. Our families needing mental health care won't get it, and (I don't even want to go here.)

:nuke:

[rodeodance]

37. article lists Bush family connections to drug companies.

.....However, the New Freedom Initiative and Commission is a political-big pharma marriage. Many companies who supported TMAP were also major contributors to Bush’s re-election funds. For example, Eli Lilly manufactures olanzapine - one of the drugs recommended in the New Freedom plan, and furthermore, George Herbert Walker Bush was once a member of Lilly’s board of directors. Our current President Bush appointed Lilly’s chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, as a member of the Homeland Security Council. Eighty-two percent of Lilly’s $1.6 million in political contributions in 2000 went to Bush and the Republican Party. Do tell…

Texas Algorithm grossed over 4 billion dollars in 2003 and olanzapine is Eli Lilly's top selling drug. A 2003 New York Times article by Gardiner Harris claims that 70 percent of olanzapine sales are paid for by government agencies, such as Medicare and Medicaid. And lo and behold, guess who is now able to bill Medicaid for health services? Public schools, of course, as they are now under the big pharma-political profits/pay-back umbrella once they adopt screening policies. Public schools can now be paid to screen and drug your kids.

Now, if you ever wonder, ever again, if public-private partnerships care about people, then you need a brain transplant. Your children are now the legislated guinea pigs and lab rats for the pharmaceutical companies who bought and paid for our president’s campaign. Favors are now returned to those companies in the form of enforced, juvenile customers, their health, and their future drug addictions.

But wait, there is more. The New Freedom Commission also calls for enforced treatment. That means that parents have no rights to refuse the treatment recommenced by TMAP and other drug dispensing corporate-bureaucratic apparatuses. And as the mental health bureaucracy is also involved in this financial game of insidious cruelty, parents and families are also to be investigated via the result of their children’s screenings in schools. In other words, schools are now the across-the board, or shall I say nation, diagnostic tool for big pharma and child control. ..........

[rodeodance]

42. this is from another DU site--more links

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1527795#1527829

Mon Jun-06-05 05:18 PM
Original message
Mental Illness Affects Many (SETUP for BUSH's New Freedom Commission)


Edited on Mon Jun-06-05 05:21 PM by Angry Girl

If you are a PARENT or TEACHER, this concerns you!

A sweeping look at mental illness in the United States has uncovered a continued high prevalence of psychological disorders, with about half of all chronic cases beginning by the tender age of 14.
<...>
"This new study demonstrates clearly these really are chronic disorders of young people in this country," said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which funded the study.

Forbes.com link

This is nothing more than a setup for Bush's national MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING program, which will include preschoolers and their teachers, then the entire public school system, and then....

According to the British Medical Journal, this is a way to push expensive mind-altering drugs made by Bush's pharmaceutical company friends.
BMJ link

Read the details here at the Online Journal:
Online Journal link

More about it here too:
http://www.beverlye.com/200410131912.html

And here's an activist site for you parents out there!
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/protect-your-childr...


Tue Jun-07-05 12:05 AM

Response to Reply #1
40. Hello, where have you guys been this passed in Dec. as part of the omnibus



spending bill.

Parental consent (HR 181) was voted OUT of the law 312 to 81.

It passed the house and the senate.

here is a petition to add parental consent for testing and treating our children the bill:

http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/pcapetition.htm

[rodeodance]

45. part of the petition.

http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/pcapetition.htm

Petition in Support of
H.R. 181 -- Parental Consent Act of 2005
to
House Speaker Dennis Hastert
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay






The American tradition of parents deciding what is best for
their children is under attack. Powerful corporations,
institutions, and politicians are quietly moving to have the
federal government implement universal mental-health
screening of children. This would likely lead to the forced
drugging of children.

The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (a
presidential commission formed in 2002) is the front group
for this attack on the family. Michael Hogan, chairman of the commission and director of the Ohio Department of Mental
Health, thinks universal screening is a good idea. It's just that
Mr. Hogan fears recommending it now is “a little premature
and probably controversial” although it “might be the right
thing to do.” (Christian Science Monitor, January 20, 2005)......

[EFerrari]

49. Yep. Big Pharma is listed as a coporate connection

also for most of Frat Boy's first Cabinet at www.opensecrets.org; I haven't checked on the new one but expect no surprises.

Here in San Francisco, we're fighting to keep our Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment funding from being cut IN HALF!

That's what I mean. People who really need care will go without at a higher rate, and Big Pharma will make a killing for the foreseeable future.

:nuke:

[savannahana]

47. hi there ;) - please see my #40 below

i realize you're probably schooled already
on Sally Satel, but if by chance you're not,
puh-lease, brace yourself further, and
Google her up.

it ain't just our kids this agenda's about.

it's PNAC crap, & they've been at it for quite awhile.

and most of us are :boring: as per usual
while they get ready to bring it down on us.

as to your specific take, wise-woman,
i'd say you're (most unfortunately) *right-on*

:mad: :scared: :mad:

:nuke:

[EFerrari]

51. Hey you. I think I shut down some time ago and no, don't know

about her.

So, thank you. I will go read.

:hi:

[savannahana]

59. oh man; in that case, i hate to be the bearer of her name....

...but yeah, you *do* need to know all you can dig up
about ms satel - *SS* - her initials tell the story :mad:

like i said, just brace yourself first.

this is gonna run deeper into territory you truly care about,
every next bit you read.


:hi: good to "see" you! :hug:

[EFerrari]

61. Well, it's better to know what we're up against.

I have 28 nevvies, at least half in public school.

[savannahana]

76. absolutely crucial to know what we're up against

(((((((your 28 nevvies, & all the kids & the uncountable too-vulnerable-already-populations-of-all-ages-&-conditions)))))))


(we need a major :outrage: emoticon)

[EFerrari]

79. I always use nuke for that.

And not without reservations.

lol

:hug:

[savannahana]

86. capiche!

but i wonder, who could design us a conceptual-liberal-symbolical

*mushroom cloud* - for use where it's genuinely applicable??

'cause here we *are* talkin' authentic terraist WMD, IMNSHO.

how 'bout a swamprat-toned 'shroom emoticon lol

[EFerrari]

87. SWAMP RAT, PAGING MR. SWAMP RAT to the White Courtesy

Phone.

:)

[savannahana]

89. coulda sworn i saw that astute crittur somewheres 'round here

last night.... reckon a *green* courtesy phone might do it?!?? lol

[EFerrari]

90. (Slaps forehead) Mr. SWAMP RAT, please pick up the

GREEN COURTESY PHONE.

:)

[katinmn]

192. Just PM him. He'll pick up sooner or later.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3891897&mesg_id=3894886

[Gay Green]

97. I found IMO a good outrage emoticon at a right-winged message board...

...it's this one.

[rodeodance]

71. just the summaries on the Goggle search scare me!!

[savannahana]

81. same reaction i had on my first run through this crap

(((( just bear up & keep reading, friend ))))

it'll get your least-motivated, most-ambivalent
socio-political pieces-parts revved up for pitched battle!!

...not that *anybody* in my world has listened much to me
over the last 3 years ;( ...folks in my life who choose the damn
ostrich act, but who oughtta *know better*!

but i've done my share of hammering at their consciousness
and their *conscience*, and they know i won't quit.

GLAD this is coming into full view at DU: it needs EXPOSURE bigtime!

[rodeodance]

85. I actullay looked into it last fall--it has rings to NCLB--expect expanded

to mental health field. I can why it is scary--its neutral language says the gov wants to do a mental health screening--then you come across all these right wing sites opposing it. If the only treatment is drugs--less expensive--then it IS scary--when you think of all the ties of the Bush family with the pharmceutical industry.

[savannahana]

40. please Google "Sally Satel" if you want the background scoop

been freaking out over this for several years now;
none other than :puke:~Mrs. Cheney~:puke:
has been one of its prime-movers from the start.


and *NO*, it is *NOT* a :tinfoilhat: matter!!!


:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[tecelote]

43. I guess all the Republicans died

that believed the government should stay out of our personal lives.

[savannahana]

69. ahh: another person who remembers *that* species of

Republican! ..."fiscal responsibility" rings a distant bell, too, eh??

grrrrrrowwwllll.

the "Grand Old Party" of (roughly) Lincoln through Eisenhower (remember, it was Ike who first warned America against the "military-industrial complex") has become the host-body to the neo-con Nosferatu/parasites

and ~ chango-presto! ~ here we all are.

:nuke:

ps: :hi: tecelote, & welcome to DU!

[tecelote]

74. Oh yes...

Imagine a government that is as fically responsible as it expects it's citizens to be.

What a Grand Party it would be.

[EFerrari]

80. Welcome to DU, tecelote.

:hi:

I miss real Republicans, too.

[rodeodance]

56. thanks i did not know lynn cheney had her 2cents into this issue.

[savannahana]

73. google, read, & weep

it's the usual tangled web,
& the badd news just gets ranker
when you trace the web of players,
& take in the stage-set.

wishing you fortitude!

(& many thanks for your posts here! :hi:)

[mzteris]

78. well - she's not ALL bad.....

The Boston Globe
The medical pot hysteria
By Cathy Young | June 13, 2005

. . . Dr. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes in The New York Times, research on therapeutic uses of marijuana has been held back by ideologically motivated restrictions

. . . Satel believes that marijuana should be treated no differently from alcohol, with generally tougher drunk driving penalties.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/13/the_medical_pot_hysteria/

[ebayfool]

119. "and - she's not ALL good....."

http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/AdvisoryCouncil/minutes/min0904.asp

snip/
Referring to an EBI publication list of reasons why people do not come to care, Dr. Satel stated that she would add the fact that some small numbers of people do not know they are sick. She recommended that SIGs address whether States provide assisted outpatient treatment. Acknowledging her controversial view, she noted that stigma regarding severe mental illness may be addressed by early coercive care that then migrates into other, less coercive systems. She asserted that some people need intrusive, highly paternalistic, life-saving care. Dr. Kelly suggested as an agenda item a presentation on the status of States on outpatient commitment.

(bold emphasis mine)

Dunno, this bugs me ... alot.

edited to add: "Dr. Satel offered to provide contacts for a discussion on involuntary care."

[Maat]

41. It scares me.

Because I was a social worker for seven years, when my daughter came into my life, I determined that she would go strictly to private schools ; I found one that does not believe in medicating children.

I'm concerned about the suicidality that invariably popped up in those using psychotropic medications - of a powerful type, that did not seem connected to any particular series of thoughts or situation.

I was concerned that, at the very same time we were removing children whose parents were addicted to a stimulant, we insisted on habituating children to a powerful stimulant, children whose brains were as yet developing, and those little brains quickly became habituated to Ritalin. Children actually had to be detoxed off of it, when an alternative treatment was recommended. It concerned me.

I declined, as a social worker, to participate in any effort to force a parent to comply with a Ritalin regimen. The parents received intense pressure from school "psychologists" (who are individuals that do NOT have PhD's in Clinical Psychology or Counseling Psychology).

For that reason, I found my private school - because I feel some children just have to be taught how to fit into a social environment. I met very, very few (probably two) that I felt really could not be taught how to function in the school environment.

This concerns me.

[Maestro]

44. That must be a school district decision

to not use the services of a fully trained psychologist. All of our psychologists must be fully licensed to counselor children. Heck our school counselors must have a full certification to counsel children or they will not be hired. And if we can't meet the child's needs we refer families to a myriad of doctors from whom they can choose to receive further treatment for their child under their own volition.

[Maat]

50. That sounds fine.

Well, as it turns out, I'm going to go work for a law firm that defends parents in Dependency Court.

I can research this matter from another angle.

See, what I used to do is give at least a couple of recommendations. There WERE mental health professionals who treated various conditions, including ADD (aks ADHD), without the use of psychotropic medications. There were also more conventional choices. I figured that a parent could defend any treatment decision if they had qualified medical and psychological professionals behind them. I never had a case, as I said, where I played a part in compelling any treatment - with the exception of one case in which I make sure a baby got treatment for her kidney disease.

So, I see hope, but I also think that we should keep our eyes open for any inappropriate shennanigans, applying common sense.

[EFerrari]

54. ADD & ADHD runs in my family. And so does teaching :)

And, my own experience tells me that maybe one in 30 DOCTORS spends an adequate amount of time titrating mental health meds.

This is a recipe for disaster.

Two of my nieces will probably benefit from Ritalin or a related medicine. But, only if their doctor knows what s/he's doing, AND takes the time to do it.

For anyone to try to come up with a depersonalized formula for helping these kids is, in itself, insane.

Good luck to you, Maestro, and to all our DU parents, educators, social workers and mental health professionals.

You keep us updated, okay?

/pronouns, grammar, the enchilada

[Maestro]

65. No problem

I am definitely going to investigate this further.

[rodeodance]

84. block grants --see post number 82

[savannahana]

57. and nominated: thank you, Mythsaje

this matters.

:hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

64. The formal name is New Freedom. Welcome to 1984.

Orwell was just about 20 years off. n/t

[katinmn]

154. yep, just like "Healthy Forests" and "Clean Skies"

[bobbieinok]

77. when this was a concern at DU earlier, someone said that some

states have already set up the procedure to do this......the state law(s)for this was/were posted

I think IL was one of the states

[rodeodance]

82. It is NOT mandatory (see below)--but parental notification stripped from

the bill. This is what people are reacting to in many of the above links-.



http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/22/215244.shtml

The federal bill on its face does not require mandatory mental health testing to be imposed upon states or local schools, explained Serkes.

However, the HHS appropriations bill contains block grant money that will likely be used – as is often the case with block funding – by the various states to implement mandatory psychological testing programs for all students in the school system.

The spending bill has its roots in the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, created by President Bush in 2002 to propose ways of eliminating waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the mental health care delivery system.

Although the report does not specifically recommend screening all students, it does suggest that “schools are in a key position to identify the mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services.”......

[EFerrari]

83. The same way No Child Left Behind has hijacked parents

of soon to be draft age kids.

Motherf#ckers.

[savannahana]

91. you got it.

it's our collective lips welded around the feckin' neocon tailpipe
of their stealth/omnibus legislation tactics

over & over & over
we find out way too late

but by then, we've all "inhaled" :nuke:

:'shroomcloud:


...so how do we make a LOUD "exhaust" issue
of these bully-coward practices, till we create
massive muffler-busting political backfire???

[proud2BlibKansan]

121. People, read the fine print:

the report does not specifically recommend screening all students

[katinmn]

155. Post #146. State by state implementation plan

This is probably an earlier draft.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3891897&mesg_id=3895198

[Window]

92. Dear Lord!

This is insane!

[donco6]

94. This is crap.

Yes we do vision and hearing screenings, and if your kids come to us with an IEP we do a special education evaluation, but WE DO NOT DO PSYCH SCREENINGS! We only have FIVE PSYCHS FOR 6,000 KIDS! This is just more inflammatory RW crap being used to bash public schools.

[undergroundpanther]

95. New freedom My ass

I am with mental health consumer advocacy,and WE knew about it a looong time ago.
Here is something I wrote on Unknown news about it.
http://www.unknownnews.net/040712a-upits.html

And here is more links on it...
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078
http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/New_Freedom_Commission_on_Mental_Health
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=614
http://www.newstarget.com/001688.html
http://curezone.com/forums/m.asp?f=237&i=1861
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031505Pringle/031505pringle.html

And where pray tell where could this line of control lead..?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/19/162516/403
http://www.linkdiscovery.com/christian_counseling.html
http://www.churchangel.com/COUNSEL/northcar.htm

ALASKA Wilderness - East of Anchorage. No roads, Air & Railroad access only. Estimated capacity of 500,000 Elmendorf AFB - Northeast area of Anchorage - far end of base. Garden Plot facility. Ft. Wainwright Southeast of Fairbanks, the largest of these facilities, is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people. Operation Garden Plot facility.
http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/CAMPS.html
http://www.christiananswers.net/prisons/states.html

I shudder to think..But I have seen my share of mental hospital "christian volunteers"..and it's not new on the inside.

And of course there is always jail house minitstries and The Ex gay ministries trying to make gay teens "straight".
http://www.asafeplace.org/
http://www.petertatchell.net/psychiatry/aversion.htm



Some people seek these sorts of jobs in"helping" professions because they get off on domination,gaslighting people for entertainment and having asbsolute power over others lives.Some are true believers doing the work of thier Looord....Sociopaths can fake sanity very well and can look every bit the professional.You know what neighbors always tend to say when interveiwed about serial killers the police caught living nearby them,they all say the killer was such a normal,pleasant,courteous, nice, quiet, person.

Normal isn't always normal.

http://www.radpsynet.org/

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

134. Since when...

...are worldnetdaily and onlinejournal acceptable sources of information here on DU?

[katinmn]

165. There are many reputable journals and media covering this

as well as those that are suspect.

[katinmn]

156. thanks for all the links!

[undergroundpanther]

96. Freedom,my ass

I am with mental health consumer advocacy,and WE knew about it a looong time ago.
Here is something I wrote on Unknown news about it.
http://www.unknownnews.net/040712a-upits.html

And here is more links on it...
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov /
http://www.mindfreedom.org /
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_I...
http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/New_Freedom_Commission...
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&it...
http://www.newstarget.com/001688.html
http://curezone.com/forums/m.asp?f=237&i=1861
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031505Prin...

And where pray tell where could this line of control lead..?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/19/162516/403
http://www.linkdiscovery.com/christian_counseling.html
http://www.churchangel.com/COUNSEL/northcar.htm

ALASKA Wilderness - East of Anchorage. No roads, Air & Railroad access only. Estimated capacity of 500,000 Elmendorf AFB - Northeast area of Anchorage - far end of base. Garden Plot facility. Ft. Wainwright Southeast of Fairbanks, the largest of these facilities, is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people. Operation Garden Plot facility.
http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/CAMPS.html
http://www.christiananswers.net/prisons/states.html

I shudder to think..But I have seen my share of mental hospital "christian volunteers"..and it's not new on the inside.

And of course there is always jail house minitstries and The Ex gay ministries trying to make gay teens "straight".
http://www.asafeplace.org /
http://www.petertatchell.net/psychiatry/aversion.htm



Some people seek these sorts of jobs in"helping" professions because they get off on domination,gaslighting people for entertainment and having asbsolute power over others lives.Some are true believers doing the work of thier Looord....Sociopaths can fake sanity very well and can look every bit the professional.You know what neighbors always tend to say when interveiwed about serial killers the police caught living nearby them,they all say the killer was such a normal,pleasant,courteous, nice, quiet, person.

Normal isn't always normal.

http://www.radpsynet.org/

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." - Robert Heinlein

[EC]

98. Ron Paul has allot about it on his site...

http://www.infowars.com/articles/brave_new_world/new_freedom_paul_amendment.htm


It's part of the NCLB act, I've heard it's already being done in Illinois.

[depakid]

99. So tell me who's going to pay for this treatment?

The Black helicopter types ignore the reality of healthcare economics- just like they pretty much ignore reality in most other ways....

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

136. The UN will pay for it.

With funds derived from its evil wildlife and world heritage site operations.

[depakid]

137. LOL! That's about the long and short of it.

Outside institutions that are compelled by corrupt state legislatures to put wards of the state on expensive TMAP (TIMA) style med algorithms- there's NO WAY money's going to be available for this.

I don't think most people have any idea how much these meds cost- and states are already cutting way back on their medicaid reimbursed outpatient mental health care (those that even have mental hrealth care).

Insurers sure aren't going to pony up- aside from the policies that are covered by fragmented state mental health parity laws- which are often preempted by ERISA- they often exclude or severely restrict mental health coverage.

So, until someone shows me the money, I say this is all a bunch of paranoid, conspiratorial hooey.

[katinmn]

153. Maybe a new national lottery or cigarette tax?

That's how our governor likes to pay for education.

[progressivebydesign]

101. Bet this is why the GOP has been trying to destroy the teacher's union?

I"m thinking.. that might be part of the big plan. Cuz you KNOW the teacher's union and the schools are going to fight this vehemently.

[katinmn]

152. The GOP wants privatized education, have for years

That's why they underfund education and pass all these unfunded mandates like the compulsory federal testing which costs our school districts millions. The money goes from the taxpayers right to the testing companies' pockets.

[NMMNG]

103. And the march of American fascism continues

Want to stamp out dissension? End it before it has a chance to fully take root--when the person is a young child, via behavioral programming and psychotropic drugs. Then you'll have an entire population of easily controlled minions to slave in your factories, fight your never-ending wars, or do whatever you want--all without complaint.

Effing scary :scared:

[donco6]

104. PEOPLE, THIS IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!

52,000,000 students tested? That's flat out IMPOSSIBLE! There aren't enough psychologists in the FUCKING COUNTRY to pull this off! Whoever wrote this crap is a looney tune steering you down the tinfoil pathway. WAKE UP!

[proud2BlibKansan]

123. Thank you

excellent point.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

135. The question with things like this...

...that should always be asked is:

"Who is going to pay for it?"

Can you think of any entity willing to take on what would surely be the most massive expenditure of public money for medical services in our country's history? I can't. Therefor, this is DOA.

[katinmn]

150. School districts are saddled with paying millions for compulsory

overlapping federal testing under NCLB. This has created a wonderful new niche market for testing companies.

Of course taxpayers will pay for it, and Big Pharma will reap the benefits. (For a comparison think of privatized Social Security with diverted funds going to Wall Street.)

It will help hasten the decline of quality public education because more finanical resources will go towards testing and less towards actual teaching.

Y'all know the neocons want public education privatized anyway, right? That's why they stick us with unfunded mandates. They want public schools to fail so they can be managed by "professionals," i.e. businesses.

[proud2BlibKansan]

170. LOL Most schools in the country

don't even have nurses. And the ones that do lose them as soon as budget cuts come in. Nurses, counselors, librarians - they are all unnecessary when the money dries up.

[katinmn]

172. I'm afraid even more money will be siphoned off from teaching

and other basic services in order to pay for this.

Already schools have to pay for NCLB mandatory federal testing, which in Minnesota at least, is doubling up on our own testing. It costs our St. Paul school district about $11 million for the federal achievement tests.

Some of our public schools had to cut their librarians, others have 40+ kids in a classroom.

This kind of stuff continues to harm public schools.

[proud2BlibKansan]

176. In my state (MO)

Medicaid funds are used to pay for school based health care. But our gov has slashed Medicaid so we don't know what the situation will be this coming year.

[katinmn]

181. Our state legislature is in Special Session now because they can't agree

on funding for education and healthcare.

Repubs want to slash funding for healthcare and keep our schools under funded. Our Dem controlled Senate wants to impose higher taxes on the very wealthiest in order to maintain healthcare and increase funding for schools.

The governor is of the no new taxes gang. He loves giving tax breaks to the wealthy while kicking people off sliding fee healthcare. He's Bush's "Mini-Me."

I'm sure he'll veto any plan that raises taxes.

I have heard what's going on in Missouri and also about the legislator who gave up his own health care in protest of the Medicaid cuts. Bless him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

183. Our gov in MO

is a Bush "Mini-Me" also. It's a sickening affliction isn't it?

[donco6]

226. True as well.

Even with the TeenScreen program, which is a referral program for teenagers who might be suffering from mental illness, requires evaluation and diagnosis by a licensed professional. They even warn in their program that there has to be a commitment by the school to provide this person - but most schools won't be able to afford even ONE. And TeenScreen only anticipates about 200 screenings a YEAR.

This is just some whacko.

[ebayfool]

124. Not if they use a computer program to do the testing - they list their

model program here http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-05.htm about 2/3rd down the page (Figure 4.2. Model Program: Screening Program for Youth). It's a comp program to test kids 9-18 to provide the 'referrals' for further diagnosis/treatment - looks like humans aren't much wanted/needed for the testing. It also refers to NCLB.

snip/
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001154 is designed to help all children, including those with serious emotional disturbances reach their optimal potential and achievement. To fulfill the promise of this Act, schools must work to remove the emotional, behavioral, and academic barriers that interfere with student success in school.


If you go to the www.teenscreen.org site it says non-pros can do most of the scoring.

[katinmn]

148. They will probably screen for intelligent, independent thinkers

and refer them on for further evaluation and sedation.

Thanks for the links.

[donco6]

225. Here's some facts:

At the risk of messing up a really good conspiracy, here's one of the proposed programs:

Figure 4.2. Model Program: Screening Program for Youth Program

Columbia University TeenScreen® Program

Goal

To ensure that all youth are *offered* a mental health check-up before graduating from high school. TeenScreen® identifies and refers for treatment those who are at risk for suicide or suffer from an untreated mental illness.

Features

All youngsters in a school, *with parental consent,* are given a computer-based questionnaire that screens them for mental illnesses and suicide risk. At no charge, the Columbia University TeenScreen® Program provides consultation, screening materials, software, training, and technical assistance to qualifying schools and communities. In return, *TeenScreen® partners are expected to screen at least 200 youth per year* and ensure that a licensed mental health professional is on-site to give immediate counseling and referral services for youth at greatest risk. The Columbia TeenScreen® Program is a not-for-profit organization funded solely by foundations. When the program identifies youth needing treatment, their care is paid for depending on the family's health coverage.

Outcomes

The computer-based questionnaire used by TeenScreen® is a valid and reliable screening instrument.151 The vast majority of youth identified through the program as having already made a suicide attempt, or at risk for depression or suicidal thinking, are not in treatment.152 A follow-up study found that screening in high school identified more than 60% of students who, four to six years later, continued to have long-term, recurrent problems with depression and suicidal attempts.153

Biggest challenge

To bridge the gap between schools and local providers of mental health services. Another challenge is to ensure, in times of fiscal austerity, that schools devote a health professional to screening and referral.

How other organizations can adopt


The Columbia University TeenScreen® Program is pilot-testing a shorter questionnaire, which will be less costly and time-consuming for the school to administer. It is also trying to adapt the program to primary care settings.

Website

www.teenscreen.org
Sites where implemented
69 sites (mostly middle schools and high schools) in 27 States


__________

So where's the involuntary screening of 52 million school children? Where's the forced administration of psychotropic drugs?

It's all tinfoil nuttery.

[rman]

125. "Whoever wrote this crap" - the Bush regime did...

"New Freedom Initiative"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/toc-2004.html

Well, you are correct about the "looney tune" part.

[donco6]

224. Is that the right report?

There's nothing in there about psychotropic drugs and psych screenings. Wrong link?

[katinmn]

143. See British Medical Journal article, please

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-06-19-Bush-screen-US-mental-illness.htm

Question: Since when did Bush ever undertake anything that made sense? I'll give you as much time as you need to answer.

[donco6]

227. OK, I did.

Here's a quote from the British "journal" (and I use that term very loosely):

The president's commission found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children. According to the commission, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders." Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

And here's a quote from the actual government report:

Schools are in a key position to identify mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services. Every day more than 52 million students attend over 114,000 schools in the U.S. When combined with the six million adults working at those schools, almost one-fifth of the population passes through the Nation's schools on any given weekday.122 Clearly, strong school mental health programs can attend to the health and behavioral concerns of students, reduce unnecessary pain and suffering, and help ensure academic achievement.

The "journal" is taking something completely out of context and twisting it to imply that the govt is going to test all 52 million children and 6 million employees! It's ludicrous!

Now, yes, Bush is an idiot beyond measure, but let's not let some whackjob get us running after phantoms. This is utterly bogus.

[fortyfeetunder]

223. Insisting on trained psychologists?

Not quite, they'll use volunteers who can spell "sychology"

[nonconformist]

240. Who says actual psychologists will be doing the testing?

And who says that even if qualified psychologists are doing the testing that it will be thorough? If anything, it will be assembly-line and possibly performed by unqualified people - which makes it even more alarming.

But bottom line, if it's mandated, it will be done. Look at NCLB. Most of that crap is either near impossible or flat out unrealistic, but since it's mandated it happens - sometimes in resentful, half-assed ways.

[FreedomAngel82]

106. I read about this last year and

it's sooo dangerous. What if you have a high school kid who is very active in politics and goes against Bush etc? Or what about asking about their life style with their parents or if they have a gay couple? This could be so dangerous. :scared: I'm so glad I'm not in public school anymore but in college.

[Dover]

111. Activism needs to focus on the Corporations who are writing

policies and pulling the strings. It's foolish to waste our time on Bushco and politicians, when they are only the hired hands.

[ngGale]

116. This is disgusting, it's been floating around for...

awhile now. So, next school year is the time to implement this horrid plan. Implants? I dare they!

[redacted]

117. If this is true, then whose gonna pay for all those drugs for the kids who

don't have pres. drug coverage. Those drugs are not cheap. And believe me they won't be pushing generics.

That's why I have a hard time believing it.

Then again, what would be the big surprise of another unfunded educational mandate.

Or course these capsules that automatically deliver the drugs are hard to believe too -- first you'd need parental permission to put them in -- second how do they get "refilled" once the drug has been released. A little sci-fi if you ask me.

But there is nothing wrong with mental health screening. If schools could catch serious mental illness before it manifested itself in a destructive way --everyone would benefit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

122. I agree about the screening

That is a good thing.

But forcing meds on kids? I highly doubt it.

[AgadorSparticus]

130. you think there should be forced screenings?

to add:
I am asking for clarity because I can't imagine kids being forced into mental health screenings without parental consent. I have a problem with this because of errors, lifelong labeling and its ramifications. I certainly don't want my kids tested for anything without my consent because quite frankly, I don't trust the test, the tester, or the force that is driving this policy.

If there are behavioral problems, I want to be notified so that I can deal with it. While I realize that not all parents are willing to accept responsibility for having children, I don't think that parents who do care about theirs should have their parental rights infringed upon.

[proud2BlibKansan]

169. Yes, I agree with this statement

"But there is nothing wrong with mental health screening. If schools could catch serious mental illness before it manifested itself in a destructive way --everyone would benefit."

Parents of course should make the decision about treatment. THAT should not be forced.

The problem we have (to a minor degree) is that the children like yours, who have parents who DO take responsibility for their children, are indeed affected by the kids whose parents are in denial and refuse to seek help for their children who need it. I dealt with one this past school year. Her son disrupted class daily. He had a 30 second attention span. He sexually harrassed classmates. He took 90% of the teacher's time and attention in every class he attended. He was suspended and his mother sent him to school anyway. She refused to meet with us to discuss strategies to help her child. Perhaps if a mental health professional had been able to talk with her and discuss what really was wrong with her child and how it indeed could be treated, then maybe she would have consented to the help her child so obviously needed. But instead, our hands were tied, classes were disrupted, and a child who was in pain got no help at all.

[AgadorSparticus]

213. absolutely and I am well aware of that disruptive minority and I truly

feel for the educators and the other children subjected to those behaviors. seriously, I have often wondered if we shouldn't have written laws on what behavior is acceptable in class with group review. those children in need of help need to be removed from class with certain behaviors giving teachers, counselors, and therapists room to address the extreme behaviors.

I guess the issue I have would be what is involved in screenings. Again, I would rather be made aware of a behaviors instead of just bypassing me and going straight to screening. While I ultimately have the last say in treatment, there is still the issue of labeling that is involved. What if my child or any child, is labeled incorrectly? I don't like the idea of the parent not being involved every step of the process.

Now, when parents are notified repeatedly (and not just by sending home a note, but by documented face to face contact), and the parents refuse to do anything about it, then that is an entirely different situation.

When there is the issue of extreme behavior as the ones you've mentioned, it's easy to discern. I'm concerned with the more subjective behaviors and the prejudices and pettiness that are inherent in some people.

I am also concerned with the issue of money and how kids can get lost in something like this. I don't want to see kids getting labeled incorrectly so that districts can get more funding for special education per student. Also, I would hate to see these same kids get on the corresponding medications. While I believe the SSRI's and the rest of the behavioral meds have its place in mental health, I am seeing too much abuse of it already. And it seems the only people benefitting from it are the pharmaceutical companies.

I guess maybe I just don't think that mandatory mass screenings are the answers to the problems facing education. Maybe we can't control the parents. But we should be able to control the evironment in which we educate our kids and set up a loose set of standards.

[redacted]

222. I agree with both of you. I would like to someday see a world where

mental illness is treated like a learning disability or the flu. Not really a big deal.


But my statement was for "serious mental illness," I am not talking about Suzie being a little passive aggressive toward the teacher's favorite. I am talking about major depression, bi-polar disorder, OCD, substance abuse, etc..... These kinds of illnesses are serious and have pretty solid standards for diagnosis.

I think (maybe I am wrong) that schools might pick up on these things before parents do. Right now if I teacher has an inkling -- I am not sure they can do anything about it in most (many) states except talk to the possibly-in-denial parents.

Many serious mental illnesses manifest themselves in adolescence and I think that catching them early can really help the patient.

Now about the drugs -- well, in individual cases it is warranted, but I have concerns that many psych medications have not been tested on younger children and so I would hesitate to accept drugs that have NOT been established as effective and safe for kids.

I worked for a large prestigious university. Kids came in with serious mental illnesses. These kids had all the privileges in the world, and yet no one had picked up (or was willing to treat because of denial) these illnesses. The stress of beginning college would cause the symptoms to worsen in many cases. The Univ had to wait for the kids to basically implode to do anything -- by that time alot of damage had been done. Kids were self medicating with drugs and alcohol, they would become injured do to impulsive behavior, there GPA's and self-esteem were ruined.

It was hard to watch.

[katinmn]

231. Let's go after the Root Causes of behavioral problems.

Drugs are a band-aide to cover up growing problems in our society.

I sympathize with teachers and administrators that have to deal with kids with mental health problems.

I worry about my daughter who has to face an environment like this every day in order to learn.

But there are better longer-term solutions than medicating all but a few who can't be helped any other way.

Deal with poverty through job training and liveable wages, make higher eduction accessible, provide affordable healthcare for everyone.

The behavioral problems are rising as the above have declined.

[proud2BlibKansan]

237. Excellent points

Lots to think about.

As far as identifying kids as special needs to get money, that is a myth. The feds only fund 16% of special ed costs. July 1 their portion will go up (to I think 40%) and it was a 30 year battle to get that increase.

So special ed costs districts money, it is not a revenue enhancer. I know several years ago, an administrator told me the federal funding our district gets didn't even cover salaries of teachers in special ed, so it wasn't enough for any other expenses and they are massive.

[donco6]

243. In our district,

federal funding comes to about 4% of our total revenue. But it requires about 50% of our paperwork and evaluation time. Every kid id'ed as special ed costs us money.

Mental health issues are beyond the scope of what we can address in schools. As I mentioned before, we don't expect schools to extract teeth or perform heart surgery, but for some reason they see us as the solution for mental health problems? Go figger.

[Lars39]

159. Government assistance, with private companies benefitting.

It's another way to siphon money from the federal government to Bushco's cronies.

[katinmn]

163. I agree. Another Scocial Security privitization type scheme

[Kool Kitty]

126. The government wants to start mental health screenings?

Great. Start with a screening of that delusional SOB in the White House.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

132. Consider the source.

Let's take a look at some of the other choice bits of information provided by sierratimes.com

Here we have an article detailing the UN's plans for domination of the US, written by someone cleverly calling himself Paul "Revere" Crawford:

For many decades concerned Americans have been trying to warn their fellow citizens about the potential dangers posed to U.S. sovereignty by the United Nations. Some have even suggested the possibility that United Nation troops would be brought to American to aid in “peacekeeping” operations in a not too distant America torn apart at the seams by violence and ethnic conflict. For the most part, these voices in the wilderness have been scoffed at and most of them have been branded by the uninformed as “kooks” and “conspiracy nuts.”
http://www.sierratimes.com/05/06/18/Crawford.htm

And here we have some lovely support for the Minuteman project:


I am proud of what the Minuteman Project has done. Not only have the Minutemen peacefully volunteered their services to help solve one of our Nation’s biggest problems, they have made more Americans aware of the need for stricter enforcement of illegal immigration.
http://www.sierratimes.com/05/06/09/duncan.htm

And here's what they think of homosexuals:



Hordes of self-absorbed deviants, some of them teachers, and others waving the rainbow flags of GLSEN, PFLAG and GSA, have streamed into tax-payer financed indoctrination camps aka public schools and are busily seducing and disordering the minds of America's children and teens. They are there to isolate children from their parents, to stamp out fixed sexual distinctions and to see those replaced with a multitude of depraved orientations. All in the name of egalitarian 'fairness' for narcissistic deviants.
http://www.sierratimes.com/05/05/20/209_240_205_63_88271.htm

And this speaks for itself:


Alas, America is no longer a shining city on the hill because under the influence of militant atheism and transnational socialism fueled by Darwin’s theory of evolution, she has been turning her back on God and the Judao-Christian moral principles upon which she was founded. As a result, our once decent, orderly civilization has regressed to a state of ‘almost anything goes’ permissiveness and outright barbarianism where the common good has been displaced by the demands and desires of the few. Human life is no longer sacred and is now liberally aborted away even as militant atheist bio-ethicists are busily seducing Americans, to accept the idea of euthanasia, under the guise of quality of life.
http://www.sierratimes.com/05/05/26/63_27_24_94_27113.htm

I could go on, but I value my sanity far too much to continue reading from a right-wing hate site.

[depakid]

138. These threads turn up about once a month

and sometimes they cite other- slightly more credible sources than Sierra Times. The message is invariably the same though- somehow, the states and Feds are going to come up with billions and billions of dollars to put all our kids on psychoactive drugs....

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

139. Yes, it's funny.

Paranoid delusional people ranting about the government coming to put them on drugs that will stop them from being paranoid and delusional. :)

[donco6]

235. I feel like I'm beating my head against a tree.

Why are people so willing to believe this garbage? They seem to be willing to believe that schools will participate in just about anything. I just don't get it. Any other topic generates lots of healthy skepticism, but talk about schools, and there's no brickbat left unthrown.

[katinmn]

142. The British Medical Journal is a highly reputable source

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-06-19-Bush-screen-US-mental-illness.htm

And the National Institutes of Health alrady received grant money to conduct the screenings:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/molecularlibraries.cfm

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

161. And?

The BMJ article actually is ages old and completely misrepresents the legal consequences of the report, while actually giving a reasonable account of the situation in Texas whilst failing to explain its relevance to the report, which doesn't necessarily suggest that the Texas plan is the way to go, and then your second link says this:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced it is awarding $88.9 million in grants to nine institutions over three years to establish a collaborative research network that will use high-tech screening methods to identify small molecules that can be used as research tools.

Which has no relation to this whatsoever other than that it contains the word "screening."

[katinmn]

164. Pull your head out of the sand.

Right Wingers call the DSM "old news," too, just because we were not privy to the 2002 documents until last month.

And the NIH article is significant. I followed a link from BushCo's plan. This is part of the implementation process.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

166. Explain how microbiology research...

...has anything to do with screening highschoolers.

[katinmn]

171. This deals with the screening of all Americans, including students

which is part of the "New Freedom for Mental Health" commission that Bush created by executive order in 2002.

I apologize for the one in my previous post.

I think past complacency and disbelief that the neocons wanted to remake our government and our society is what got us into the present mess.

[converted_democrat]

149. This is real, check out my links....Forced drugging has already started...

This is very real, and it's very scary. Look at my links. They are already doing it in Texas. Read all my links. The first link explains what the commission is. The second link is a story about the forced drugging.
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/


http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_aliah.html

[katinmn]

151. "Medicating Aliah" in Mother Jones

Great article. Thanks for the links!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

162. This says a lot more about what's wrong with CPS...

...than with mental health screenings. I can give you a hundred similar examples that DON'T involve mental health screenings.

[converted_democrat]

167. I'm having a hard time understanding your position.

The freedom commission is real. I gave you an example of a forced drugging, and how this program is touted as a "good example" for the rest of the country. Do you just not want to believe it? Please let me understand your position. I'm sure I'm not understanding your position because it seems your being provided info and your choosing to bury your head in the sand.

[Deja Q]

141. *'s plan, let * pay for it out of his pocket, not ours... but we are dead:

Do they summarily inject the expensive capsule that the patient has to pay? Or do they TEST the patient with the drug first?

This could become the ultimate in legalized quackary.

What is going on is the pinnacle of immorality and the zenith of unethical behavior. You can't sew a patch over a problem, the problemn will eat away at the patch. Fix the problem, don't stylishly hide the symptom. Our society is wrong, not the people in it. That's incorrect; the people in it are a problem too: We/they/we condone it by doing nothing. To fit in instead of viewing the world and thinking of ways to resolve problems. Which means the corporate plutocrats and oligarchic vermin have already won.

Still, as long as we have our jobs, nobody's going to care enough to do anything about it. And as everyone tells us "How are you going to pay the bills?", we are compelled to work in the system.

Humanity has made its own fate. I already know mine.

[kiki]

145. I've known two people on Prozac.

One of them began stalking the girl with whom he was only mildly obsessed before. The other threw himself in front of a train. My advice is always, for the love of God, seek alternatives to Prozac if you can. I believe it even has (or used to have) "suicidal or homicidal feelings" listed among the possible side effects on the packaging.

While I have no more idea than anyone else whether the "New Freedom Initiative" is bullshit or not, I can't believe people are saying they've never heard of it before. It was all over the place for a week or so last year. Even the lunatics at the Other Website were crying "fascism".

[katinmn]

174. We need a Congressional leader to take this on and bring it into

the public conciousness.

John Conyers has his hands full and we don't want him distracted from the wonderful job he is doing.

But we need a Congessional advocate/watchdog/leader/motivator to take this on as the anti-Bush.

Do you think John Kerry or Ted Ked Kennedy could pull this into the mainstream? Or perhaps Rep. Paul since he is on top of this. I think the Dems would have a problem getting behind him but I wouldn't.

This needs wide public discussion ASAP.

[Finder]

186. The commission has closed down

If we are talking about the executive order from 2002.
The final report can be found here.

http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/mission.html

[Finder]

185. Just part of the propaganda to eliminate the Dept of Education

This terrifies the right wing christians since they see psychologists as being anti-christian for the most part.

This week is the Fundy convention where they are going to attempt to vote that all Christians need to remove their children from Public Schools--It failed last year but propaganda like this may be the fire they need.

Let's not be "useful idiots" here,

[ElectroPrincess]

187. Understood! Now where did I misplace my "soma" pills? LOL /eom

[katinmn]

191. I hope the fundies do pull their kids out. They already have a new

flag and the Christian Coalition already has a new Fundie Constitution.

I hope they also withdraw from our school boards; local, state and federal governments, and our businesses.

I'm tired of paying for their dogma.

[shadowknows69]

197. Parents, you need to fight this shit now

These people will turn all your kids into zoloft munching zombies. mark my words. this has to be a pharmecutical industry thing.

[amazona]

205. they won't -- see my previous post

Parents are in favor of it. Talk to parents of children who have a diagnosis of ADD. Good luck prying the Ritalin and Adderal out of their cold dead hands! The world has moved on, and giving drugs to children is not only not considered wrong, it is considered good parenting.

[snot]

229. kick! nt

[mountainvue]

230. I have never regretted my decision to put my daughter in

private school. This reinforces my decision that much more. She graduates next year. Thank God.

[Deja Q]

236. Ah, in other words a ploy by * to nix public schools altogther...

Only the wealthy can afford schooling, how very 1638 of them...

[bunny planet]

232. Randi Rhodes talked all day about this initiative a few of months ago

when it was going to be passed. One Republican Senator from Texas was fighting to add wording that would require parental consent for these kids to be tested for 'emotional wellness' with an opt out for parents who didn't want it. He got shot down (not literally) and the bill passed without parental notification. I tried to tell lots of parents about it but they just thought I must be loopy or something. 'That will never happen.' I've learned never to say never with this administration.

Pretty fucking scary huh?

[friesianrider]

246. Freaking out now.

I'm sure they'll have just the right drug to fix your low "happiness indicators" too.