More Lost Rights for Parents

The Fresno Bee has a nice piece discussing Ritalin and school aged children. Sadly California legislators just defeated a bill in committee that would have freed parents of some of the strangeholds the public school system has on them. From the article:

"AB 1424, defeated in committee, would have provided that parents cannot be charged with abuse or neglect of their children if they refuse the administration of psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs, including Ritalin, to their children. While AB 1424 was but a small step, it would have represented a break in the stranglehold that the psychiatric/ pharmaceutical industry has on the treatment of so-called attention-deficit disorders.

The diagnostic process often begins in the schools because teachers, administrators and psychologists have been seduced by the industry's propaganda, legitimized by the media, that ADD/ADHD is a biological disease. Too often the first identification of an ADD/ADHD child comes from a classroom teacher. Finding a doctor who will prescribe Ritalin is easy since most have bought into the neurobiological lie."

..."Parents are not told that the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies Ritalin as a Schedule II drug in the same category as cocaine. Nor are parents informed of the side effects of Ritalin, including loss of appetite, sleeplessness, tics, growth inhibition, brain shrinkage and depression."

To think that parents can give up so much control to schools without even knowing it is frightening to me. It is sad that this measure lost. Another reason to be glad we homeschool. To read the whole article visit The Fresno Bee.

Peace,
Tenn