Access Denied to Parents in Public Schools – A National Crisis on Informed Consent

Patricia Weathers
President
www.ablechild.org
(845) 677-8115

Sheila Matthews
National Vice President
www.ablechild.org
(203) 966-8419

 May 19, 2004, a national news story ran out of Connecticut regarding a 7-year-old child that attacked a teacher, after he would not stop tapping his pencil. The school called in the police to subdue the child. The fact is, that this isn’t the first problem Stratford Elementary School has had with its teaching style and psychological services.

On February 12, 2004, Connecticut Stratford Police were called to Nichols Elementary School when a mother of an 8-year-old boy told police that the school administrators physically abused her son who had been diagnosed with the subjective label “ADHD”.

Ablechild.org contacted both the elementary school and the Stratford police department to request that information on the current federal Investigation into the use of behavioral drugs for children, be provided to both parents with children involved in the recent acts occurring at the school. Ablechild.org stressed to the police department the importance of providing this information to the parents to ensure that they were given proper informed consent. The Stratford Police department, though sympathetic to our request, referred us to the board of education, which outright refused our organization’s request. We strongly urged the board to provide information to the parents on the current federal investigation into the dangerous drug ‘treatment” for the controversial label “ADHD” to comply with full informed consent.

This raises serious questions regarding the lack of information parents are receiving about the label “ADHD”, behavioral drugs linked to bizarre behaviors, and suicide ideations in children that are currently under review on the Federal level.

On May 17, 2004 CBS 11 out of DALLAS-FORT WORTH Report By Investigator Ginger Allen and Producer/Photojournalist Dave Manoucheri revealed that, “Medicating children to control behavior has become a trend over the last decade, but now drug manufacturers and even the U.S. government are in the hot seat, questioned about a potentially deadly side-effect of what is supposed to be a life-saver.”

Informed consent is such an important part of the decision making process for all parents. This is a national crisis when 7 and 8 year olds need to be restrained by the police. It is time we look at the psychological programs at these elementary schools to ensure that proper informed consent is occurring.