Press Release

September 10, 2003

Contact information: Sheila Matthews

National Vice President, 203-966-8419

Parents for Label & Drug Free Education

www.ablechild.org

Death of Daughter Drives Parents to Washington D.C. , Seeking Senate support of “The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003”

          On February 26, 2001 , at the age of 10 years old, Shaina Louise Dunkle died within minutes in her mom’s arms, due to toxic levels of the psychiatric drug prescribed her.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunkle never wanted to drug their daughter, but continued pressure from school personnel to have their daughter diagnosed for "ADHD" led to them to accede to the pressure.   

        Mr and Mrs. Dunkle are now passionately campaigning for safeguards against coercive tactics in public schools, that pressure parents to have their children diagnosed for "mental disorders" and seek out drug treatment.  They are bringing their own tragic story to members of the U.S. Senate, in an effort to illustrate the need for federal safeguards to protect other parents across the U.S. from being coerced, pressured or forced into administering potentially addictive, dangerous and even life-threatening psychiatric drugs to children.

            According to Mrs. Vicky Dunkle,"Parents are being misled into believing they are doing right by their children when agreeing to administer psychiatric drugs to them. They do not realize that they are harming them. The fact that school personnel can coerce parents into administering these dangerous drugs to children has got to stop.  Schools are supposed to be the place that we, as parents, feel our children will be safe from harm.  Our daughter’s death has not only left us to deal with the guilt of believing in the so-called professional system, but anger that we were not warned properly about the subjective label and the risks of the 'treatment' associated with it.”

        Mrs. Vicky Dunkle is now the Vice President for the state of Pennsylvania of Parents for Label and Drug Free Education, www.ablechild.org, a national grassroots parent’s organization that fights for a parent’s inalienable right to raise their children drug free.  The group has over 350 signatures on their website from parents across the nation who have been coerced, and or pressured by school personnel to drug their children.  She and her husband Steve Dunkle are in Washington D.C. this week, speaking out on behalf of the hundreds of other parents who support the The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003, Senate Bill 1390.

          With recent headlines alerting the Nation of the banning and warnings regarding the drug Paxil for its potential for causing suicidal ideation in children, the makers of the drug Efferxor, have now admitted that their drug has similar deadly risks for our children. This new evidence highlights the urgent need for both a federal response and immediate action in what is a serious threat to children’s safety.   

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