Press release

January 23, 2005

Contact:

Sheila Matthews, National Vice President

(203) 966-8419

 

CONNECTICUT IN THE LEAD AGAIN WITH BILL TO EXPAND ACCESS FOR INFORMED CONSENT REGARDING PSYCHIATRIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

 

Hartford – State Representative John Hetherington (R-New Canaan), introduced landmark legislation that will expand procedural safeguards regarding a parent’s right to full informed consent procedures and will reinforce a parent’s fundamental right to refuse psychiatric or psychological testing and/or mental evaluations on their child.

           

CT House Bill 5328, if enacted, will require the Department of Education to include in their publication, “Steps to Protect a Child’s Right to Special Education: Procedural Safeguards,” the statement that neither the state or federal departments of education endorses or recommends any "mental health" checklist, particular form of assessment, or evaluation for psychiatric disorders.  It would also require that parents receive a copy of the federal code for “Protection of Pupil Rights”, and a copy of the Hatch Amendment to the General Education Act, which became effective in November of 1984. The Hatch Amendment is a parental rights tool, in the form of a letter, that can be placed into their child’s record ensuring a parents right to decline particular programs within the education system that do not coincide with their belief systems or values.

           

In 2001, Connecticut was the first State in the nation to pass legislation prohibiting schools from recommending the use of a psychotropic drug for any child. Introduced by Representative Lenny Winkler (R-Groton), this law received international attention. Six other states then followed suit with similar laws, and on December 3rd, 2004, President Bush signed the landmark “Prohibition on Mandatory Medication Amendment”, a Federal law stating that schools cannot demand that a child take a controlled substance in order to remain in school. 

 

 “Children are labeled with stigmatizing mental ‘disorders’ based on a checklist of behaviors, not on scientific or medical evidence,” said Noelle Talevi, Executive Director of the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights of Connecticut (CCHR), an international, human rights organization which investigates and exposes  psychiatric violations of human rights. “Parents are too frequently faced with having no choice but to have their child evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist in order to get services in school, thus opening them up to subjective, unscientific labels and possible drug “treatments”, without being given all of the facts.   They are not warned that the diagnoses are not based on medical testing, but are completely subjective, and that their child can be diagnosed and referred for drug treatment, based solely on a checklist of behaviors. HB 5328 is another great step toward giving control back to parents in regards to their child’s education”.

 

Ablechild is a national parent organization that works with parents, as well as human and civil rights groups, in order to safeguard, and protect both parental and children's rights.

 

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