19 May 2003

Dr. Marcia Kraft Goin

President Elect

American Psychiatric Association

1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825

Arlington, VA 22209-3901

Dear Dr. Goin,

As the incoming president of the American Psychiatric Association, we are appealing to you to listen and respond to the growing number of parents who have been coerced and threatened into placing their children on psychiatric drugs through schools.

As an organization that represents hundreds of parents faced with this predicament, we are at a loss as to why the APA would oppose federal bill H.R. 1170, The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003, and the H.R. 1350 amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), that would prohibit school personnel from forcing parents to drug their children as a requisite for attending school.

It seems contradictory when, on September 26, 2002, Dr. David Fassler, a trustee of the APA, testified before the U.S. Government Reform Committee Hearing on “Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders---Are We Over-Medicating Our Children?,” stating that “schools should not be making diagnoses and they should not be dictating treatment.”

Four states have already passed laws and another 16 have introduced bills this year that prohibit school personnel from making such “diagnoses” or assumptions in the classroom. This in turn, has led to parents being threatened with their child’s dismissal from school unless the child takes a psychiatric drug. The school personnel have included school psychologists and social workers, and members of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) teams under Special Education.

The APA has claimed that the federal legislation could “effect communications between teachers and parents.” This is a red herring. We can assure you that the many parents who have lived the terror of coercive interference in their child’s education vehemently disagree. On the contrary, these bills would prevent parents from being terrorized because they choose to have a drug-free child or do not accept a psychiatric label for educational problems. Most importantly, it will save young lives and save families-a factor, I am sure that we can all agree upon.

Consider that at least four of the signatures of this letter to you are from parents who have lost children to psychiatric drugs that school personnel and, subsequently psychiatrists, pressured them to put their children on. Mr. Lawrence Smith was threatened with criminal charges if he refused to drug his son, Matthew.

In 2000, a Michigan coroner determined that 14-year-old Matthew’s tragic death was caused by Ritalin forced on him through his school.

The coroner’s decision about Ritalin causing an enlargement of the heart leading to Mathew’s death made international news. The APA did not seem to listen, ignoring the medical examiner’s damning evidence and, thereby, forcing Mr. Smith to take this issue to legislators to seek the protections that the APA is now unconscionably opposing.

Mr. and Mrs. Dunkle were pressured by a school psychologist to seek out drug treatment for their daughter Shaina, and referred her to a psychiatrist who, after a 30-minute evaluation with no tests or physical exams, diagnosed her with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed her an antidepressant. On February 26, 2001, at age 10, Shaina died due to toxic effects of the drug prescribed, according to a coroner’s determination.

These are not isolated incidents, Dr. Goin. That would be naïve, if not negligent, to believe so. There are hundreds of parents who have responded to our website and media covering this issue, who have reported similar stories, including child deaths.

While we and the APA may disagree about the scientific validity of mental disorders such as ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and “learning disorders,” and the dangers of the drugs used to treat them, I am sure we can all agree that no parent should be threatened with their child’s removal from their home or prevented from placing their child in school because they refuse to give or choose to safely take their child off a psychiatric drug. To support such coercion would be totalitarian and in a democratic country such as ours, where parents should have the right to decide their child’s education and medical needs.

No medical doctor can force a patient to undergo cancer surgery or to accept medication against his or her will and, faced with refusal, incarcerate the person and forcibly operate or medicate, then bill the person’s insurance company. Why do psychiatrists presume to have this right?

No medical doctor would diagnose diabetes, cancer or common ills based solely on a subjective observation and without physical tests. Yet parents are virtually being ordered to accept the belief that ADHD is a neurobiological disorder when even the Surgeon General’s 1999 report on mental health could not confirm this.

You have spoken about “decreasing the stigma associated with mental illnesses.” What about the stigma of children being fraudulently labeled as having ADHD or a “learning disorder” when they simply have never been taught phonics or to read, or who have, as Dr. David Fassler pointed out, “hearing and vision problems” or “toxicity with heavy metals” that “can all present with signs and symptoms which look similar to ADHD….” Surely, the federal legislative initiatives would help prevent misdiagnosis and stigma.

You have also spoken about teen suicide, yet according to the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, edition three revised (DSM-IIIR), suicide is a major complication of withdrawal from Ritalin and similar amphetamine-like drugs for “ADHD” and “learning disorders.” Why then would the APA oppose laws that would prevent such potentially dangerous drugs being forced onto schoolchildren?

Our concern is that the APA is willfully ignoring the needs of parents throughout this country and acting against their best interests and the interests of their children by opposing the federal bill and amendment.

Our organization, Parents for Label and Drug Free Education, (ABLECHILD.ORG) is a nationwide organization of parents concerned with parents’ rights to “informed consent.” We monitor websites and resource centers and are concerned about misinformation given to parents regarding mental health issues. We have been featured in major national media exposes, including TIME Magazine, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, the Today Show, Hannity & Colmes, and many others. Our members have testified before state and Congressional hearings about misleading information given to parents regarding the psychiatric diagnosing and drugging of children that constitutes a violation of informed consent.

We request that as the incoming president, you show support for parental and children’s rights by withdrawing the APA’s opposition to H.R. 1170 and H.R. 1350, section on Prohibition of Psychotropic Medications, thereby ensuring that coercive psychiatric drugging of children is stopped in the true spirit of medicine and the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.”

Sincerely,

Mrs.Patricia Weathers

President and Founder, State of New York

Mrs. Sheila Mathews

Vice President, State of Connecticut

Mrs. Vicky Dunkle & Mr. Steven Dunkle

Vice President, State of Pennsylvania

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