Special Ed Law Encourages 'Psychiatric Drugging' of Kids, Say Critics
(CNSNews.com) - With Congress scheduled to debate a controversial special education law this year, a California group and a handful of celebrity activists are pointing to what they see as the law's incentives for the "psychiatric drugging of children."
"Why are we pouring billions of dollars in here to label kids as mental disordered simply because they may not have been taught to read?" asks Marla Filidei, vice president of the Los Angeles-based Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a group affiliated with the Church of Scientology.
Filidei counts actresses Anne Archer, Priscilla Presley and Kirsty Alley as allies in the fight against giving children mood or personality-altering prescription drugs like Prozac and Ritalin.
Because of federal incentives, school systems are diagnosing kids with "subjective" disabilities that have no relation to any identifiable physical disability or impediment,...
In my recent failed effort to submit a comment I stressed that the public (including journalists) need to know some basic differences between psychologists and psychiatrists - especially relative, here, to prescription medications for school students. A psychiatrist is first of all an MD and can prescribe prescriptive medications - including ritalin, etc. A psychologist cannot order or direct a student to take ritalin and cannot write a prescription for any medication. At most, the psychologist may make a suggestion for the use of ritalin, and the parents can accept or reject its use. Dave D. (M.Ed. in LD)
For those of you who want to explore this subject further, I highly recommend a book called "Toxic Psychiatry." In it, the case is made that the actual point of psychiatric drugs is control, not cure. It's pretty well documented as well, so you can go as deep as you wish.
As one who was diagnosed with learning disorders as a child, I'm really glad that nobody drugged me.
I was just finishing my comment when my server zapped my comment and disconnected my connection. I didn't get to the point of "clicking" the "submit comment." Sincerely, Dave Dorsett
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3/6/02 1:23 AM
john uk from wales: "
lurker
apparently i have a reading comprehension problem..."
