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Our
Schools Are Turning Into Mental
Institutions
When my son was in second grade I attended the end of the year parent /teacher conference. I walked into the classroom to find not only the teacher, but also the school psychologist and one of the teachers from the special education department. They informed me that my son had attention problems and that there was “medication” like Ritalin that could help him. I was given videotape on ADHD to view at home and a checklist called the Conner’s Rating Scale to complete. (I should have been informed that by completing this checklist I would be participating in a survey and would not be allowed a copy because it would be under copyright law). I asked how they came to their diagnosis of ADHD. They informed me that the school psychologist observed my son while the class was in session. (I never gave the school written consent for their psychologist to observe my son in class). I then asked the psychologist how long he observed my son in the classroom. He said “about 5 minutes”. They asked me who my pediatrician was and I told them. They told us to contact him. We made an appointment with our pediatrician and told him the schools concern about our son. He said we would watch him in the coming year and for us to inform him of any concerns.
In third grade my husband and I began to notice staring episodes with our son. They wouldn’t last very long and as fast as the episode came on they would subside. We would ask him if he was okay and he would respond that he was. Our son’s 3rd grade teacher brought the same staring episodes to our attention. We contacted our pediatrician and he made an appointment for us at the local hospital to have an EEG done to rule out Epilepsy. The EEG result was negative but he continued to have the staring spells. There must be seizure activity during the EEG and since this test was performed for only 30 minutes the odds of our son having a seizure during the test was very low. His condition was later confirmed by a neurologist as Petite Mal Seizures.
During his 3rd grade school year, we were being pressured by our son’s teacher to “medicate” him. She informed us that our time was running out and that we should attend the local CHADD meetings to learn more about ADHD. She insisted that our son be tested. I asked if the school could test him, to which she replied that they could but there was a long waiting list and that we didn’t have time to waste. So we spent $1,600.00 and had him tested by a psychologist who diagnosed our son as being ADHD and recommended a trial run of Ritalin. He also stated in his evaluation that our son should be examined by an occupational therapist because he had concerns about his writing. Our son, at this point in his education, was having difficulty with reading, decoding words and when writing he would reverse letters like b and d. Although he was able to spell a word correctly from his head, he would scramble the letters when he wrote them on paper. He didn’t like to read, but he enjoyed being read to. We found it very puzzling being told that our son did not have an attention span, yet, we could read to him for hours and he would sit and listen! He always had an amazing memory and could retain incredible information well advanced for his age. We could not understand how a child of his intelligence would have a problem with reading and writing. We scheduled a meeting with the school to review the results of the tests. The school categorized him as “not learning disabled”. They came up with an accommodation plan under Section 504, allowed for his grades to be modified and granted him un-timed testing. This made it able for the school to advance our son from grade to grade.
Throughout his 3rd grade year when the class was asked to perform written assignments or reading in class, our son would take out his favorite Matchbox car and play with it in his desk. It was obvious that he was not able to read or write like his peers. Instead of addressing his needs, his teacher put a desk in the classroom closet and would make our son go in there and do his work. If the class was going to view a video she would make him go in the closet and close the door. We had no knowledge of this abuse that our son was experiencing. It’s no wonder that he started to become very frustrated and withdrawn. With his grades being modified he was advanced to the 4th grade.
In fourth grade his teacher asked if we would consider placing him in the ILC (Individual Learning Center). He explained that our son would get the help that he needed. Hoping that he would get the help that he needed, we agreed. In the ILC, his dyslexia and dysgraphia should have been identified and an appropriate program should have been incorporated to accommodate his needs. With no concern for his difficulty in reading and seeing that his writing was a great weakness for him, they had him dictate his work to an aid and she would do the writing for him. There was never any concern from anyone about his reversal of letters and the inability to write. Still with his grades modified and testing un-timed he was advanced into 5th grade.
In fifth grade, he continued to spend most of his school day in the ILC, but was mainstreamed for Science and Social Studies. He hated being kept away from his classmates, which made it very hard for him to make friends. I would express my concerns about how he was not progressing; they said it was the un-medicated ADHD. Although he struggled through the year he was advanced into the 6th grade.
The 6th grade is the first year of Junior High School in our school district. He went through the school year being harassed by various students, chased through the halls, bullied and teased about the way that he read. Kids would tell him “3 words, Hooked on Phonics”. Through the course of the year, I would raise my concern with various teachers and faculty about my son having the knowledge in his head but not being able to express it on paper. The assistant principal told me, if I would only “medicate” my son he would benefit. At the end of his sixth grade year, after reviewing our son’s report card and state testing which stated that his reading and writing needed to be addressed and noticing no advancement in his education, we realized we had no alternative but to hire a special education attorney.
Our attorney scheduled a meeting with the school and requested that the school conduct an independent evaluation on our son. They agreed and gave us a list of psychologists to pick from. A neuropsychological evaluation was done on our son; it revealed that he was Dyslexic, Dysgraphic and ADHD. We met with this psychologist to review her results and she insisted that our sons ADHD be “medicated”. We asked her if the drug she recommended, Ritalin, was safe. She stated that it was. At that point we asked her to put it in writing to which she refused. With our concern for our son being sensitive to seizures we chose not to drug him with a Schedule II, highly addictive, amphetamine like drug. According to the Physicians Desk Reference it states that the use of Ritalin by anyone with a seizure disorder is not recommended. (We felt that this psychologist did not perform a thorough evaluation on our son by requesting to see his medical records, which would have revealed suspicion of seizures in our son. We believe that she operated without any concern for his health and well being by prescribing a drug that would have been detrimental to his health. At this time, we are currently having her investigated by the Public Health Department. If they find that she is in violation she could loose her license to practice in the state of Connecticut.)
After submitting the results of the test to the school, we had another meeting, in which the school came up with a new plan for the coming school year that was still not appropriate for our sons needs. We asked for residential placement at the Kildonan School in Amenia, NY, which specializes in educating dyslexic children. They refused, stating that according to the Guidelines for Identifying Children with Learning Disabilities and that the State of Connecticut Department of Education had developed and promulgated in 1999 directs school districts such as the Board that “although a learning disability may certainly occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions, student should be classified as learning disabled only when the learning disability is the student‘s primary problem. If medical conditions like Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity disorder are present the PPT needs to consider the impact or causation these conditions have on the students learning problem”. They claimed that because my son was labeled ADHD he did not qualify for a “Learning Disabled” label that would allow him to be placed out of district.
Our attorney filed due process in which the hearings went for almost one full year. During the course of the hearings, the school insisted that our son have an emotional evaluation done by one of their psychiatrists. He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood and a Learning Disorder NOS (Not Otherwise Specified). She suggested the use of an antidepressant such as Wellbutrin, rather than Ritalin or Dexedrine, because of the continuity of action, safe side effect profile, and benefit on anxiety and mood. We met with this doctor to review the results of her evaluation. She informed us that our son has an incurable disease that needed to be treated with medication. We asked how long he should be “medicated”. She said for the rest of his life. She also stated that if we did not “medicate” our son he would kill himself one day, either by driving a car and getting into an accident or by drug addiction. She stated that not “medicating” ADHD is like denying your diabetic child from insulin. At our hearing much later, this same psychiatrist told the hearing officer and the board of education, that ADHD is a disease, which has been confirmed by a PET scan on the brain, which we know now is simply not the case. These are only some of the misleading and false information that we were given regarding my son and the subjective diagnosis ADHD/ADD. We stated our concerns about our son’s history of possible Petite Mal seizures. She told us to put him on Dilantin and then put him on Wellbutrin. In the Physicians Desk Reference it states under side effects for Wellbutrin, “seizures are perhaps the most worrisome side effect”. She suggested that we give a drug to control the seizures (Dilatin) and then give him a drug that would bring on seizures (Wellbutrin). We considered this toxic pharmacology. With this in mind, we continued to do what we felt was best for our son’s health and well-being, and refused to drug him.
After a grueling year of hearings, the hearing officer made her decision in our favor. She granted our son residential placement in the Kildonan School, to address his learning disability. She also ordered that he be tested by an Occupational Therapist that confirmed he needed therapy to address his writing (dysgraphia). She also granted that our son have counseling incorporated into his program. Last but not least, she stated in her Final Decision and Order referring to the case of Valerie J v. Derry Co-operative School District which reminds us that Parents, not schools, are responsible for making medical decisions about their children. Unless the school is contemplating reporting a case of suspected medical neglect, which is not the issue in this case, the school must address a student’s needs whether or not parents comply with suggestions that medication might be of assistance.”
The school district appealed the decision, and our case is currently pending in Federal Court. They based their case on an un-medicated condition of ADHD and within one of their counts they quoted the psychiatrist who stated, “Not “medicating” our son almost rises to a form of negligence and abuse”.
We had our son independently evaluated by a Neurologist. In his evaluation, he stated that our son given his history of Petite Mal Seizures should never be given any medications that might lower seizure threshold. He also stated that he found our son to be neurologically intact and without any manifestations of hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Disorder.
My concerns: a) Our schools are turning into mental institutions with the teachers as the diagnosticians.
b) The drugs being prescribed for these children are in the very least dangerous and highly addictive. According to the Physicians Desk Reference, Ritalin is classified as a Schedule II drug, in the same category as Opium and Cocaine, which means it, is highly addictive. These drugs are being made into a patch so it can be released into the child’s body without any concern for taking a pill at school.
c) The testing for ADHD is subjective, it varies, and there is not a valid test to identify this so called disorder as a true disease. Schools are using these subjective ADHD scales (Conner’s’ Rating Scales) to profile any child that is inattentive and hyperactive.
d) Schools are receiving funds from the state and federal government for every child that is labeled ADD/ADHD and drugged.
e) Schools are using tax dollars to pay for their legal fees from their budgets to fight parents that are representing their children that they feel have been denied proper education. There are laws being implemented that will prevent parents from receiving reimbursement for their legal fees if the case is granted in their favor. This will discourage parents from taking legal action against their school districts.
f) According to the National Institute of Mental Health and American Psychiatric Association both state that the evaluator needs to review the child’s medical records in order to rule out any underlying medical conditions like, Petite Mal seizures, chronic middle ear infection, poor vision etc. (Not one of the evaluators that examined our son asked to review his medical records).
g) There are millions of children that fall into the category of ADHD and there are thousands of valid medical conditions that could cause or mimic inattentiveness and hyperactivity in children. They could have an underlying learning issue that has not been identified. If not properly diagnosed the drugs that are being prescribed could be detrimental to a Childs health and well being. Unfortunately the psychiatric and pediatric profession, are all too anxious to prescribe a drug before properly identifying and diagnosing what may well be a real medical or learning condition.
h) Parents are not being informed of the documented side effect and risks of these drugs or given other alternatives to treating attentional/behavioral concerns. Without receiving this information, we as parents cannot make an educated decision in regards to what we feel is best for our child.
I) Like so many other parents; we were never informed that ADHD/ADD is classified as a mental illness. We would never have subjected our child to being “labeled” with a mental disorder if we had known that it was a subjective diagnosis.
J) Labeling children subjectively, by characteristics is causing them undue harm. They in a sense “wear” the labels assigned to them and view them negatively, as if they themselves are bad, broken, or defective in some way. In my son’s case, when he was officially labeled learning disabled he was very upset. He repeatedly said that he wasn't disabled and that he could learn. He said he felt like he was square peg in a round hole.
Children today are more sophisticated. They are exposed from their early childhood to advanced technologies i.e. computer, computerized games, television etc…. The conventional way of education is not stimulating their desire to learn. There should be more creative teaching and hands on education. The idea of expecting a child to sit for hours is unrealistic. There should be implemented in every school an appropriate program that is able to identify learning concerns or issues in their early stages, which would avoid the frustration that children have to endure not having a learning issue properly identified. Truly, it is not the child that needs to be modified, but the technique of teaching, the way our education system is viewed and the way in which it is viewing our children. Last but not least, our medical profession should be held responsible for allowing our children to be drugged and labeled with mental disorders that many medical professionals do not validate as true medical conditions.
On April 15, 2003, our story was featured on the Montel Williams Show.
Patrica Mark, Vice President, State of Connecticut
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