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CT State Police Appeal Freedom of Information Ruling for Lanza Documents

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Commission ruled Connecticut State Police must release personal documents seized from Adam Lanza’s home during the course of the investigation into the 2012 killings of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The Connecticut State Police appealed that decision, which is pending.

Certainly there are several key documents of great interest to Ablechild such as Nancy Lanza’s journal, Adam Lanza’s psychiatric billing and educational records, and the GPS of Nancy Lanza’s car.

AbleChild has always maintained the position that it is critical for the taxpayers to understand all the facts in the mass murder in Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut in order to understand and participate in the legislation that has come out of the incident.

Within hours of the closing of the 2012 legislative session and despite the fact lawmakers did not have access to the final police investigation, PA 13-3 was passed.  There was no public hearing held on PA 13-3, it was passed under a rare legislative “emergency ruling.”

This legislation allocated millions of taxpayer funds to more mental health services and severe gun control measures.

AbleChild filed a FOI request immediately following the killings in Newtown for similar documents, AbleChild vs. Chief Medical Examiner.

AbleChild represented the public’s right to obtain all the information that may have impacted Lanza’s decision.  During that same time, the New York Times ran an article making claims that Adam Lanza lacked mental health treatment. This is impossible to know without all the information being released for public review.

With billions of taxpayer dollars at stake and public safety hanging in the balance, the public continues to be denied basic information. This is unacceptable.

AbleChild Participates in Gun Violence Roundtable in Bridgeport, Connecticut

Written by Sheila Matthews on . Posted in Sandy Hook, Violence.

On June 29, 2015, AbleChild was one of two organizations that participated in an important Roundtable on gun violence, held in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  Mayor Bill Finch, Senator Richard Blumenthal, and Bridgeport Police Chief, Joseph Gaudett Jr., hosted the event in response to yet another community rocked by an attempted mass killing in Bridgeport, Connecticut that took the life of one and injured eight others.

Kenny Jackson of Street Safe, an organization that mentors young people, told the group, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” referring to Senator Blumenthal’s attempt to sue gun manufacturers, go after the NRA, and ban “illegal” weapons.  Jackson illustrated that it is the human element that his organization’s mission focuses on, including increased parental involvement and mentoring programs.

Jackson introduced several of his staff members who shared their stories about their own journeys through the criminal justice system. AbleChild is in agreement with one of the member’s experiences with a child he mentored in the Bridgeport public school system. The Street Safe member said the student was misdiagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, ADHD, and thought there was great need for increase numbers of parent advocates for families meeting in Individual Education Plans (IEP).

Mayor Finch indicated that over-diagnosing may be due to “cultural differences” and that this was not the first time he had heard of psychiatric misdiagnosing.  AbleChild believes over-diagnosing is the product of mass marketing of psychiatric drugs and the lack of informed consent.

AbleChild’s mission is informed consent regarding psychiatric diagnosing and the potentially deadly “treatment” that is recommended.  The DEA classifies many of the mind-altering psychiatric drugs as “controlled substances.”  The “treatments” are associated with increased risk of suicide and violence according to the Food & Drug Admistration’s Black box warning on the drug packaging.

Senator Blumenthal, one of the sponsors of the roundtable, explained his desire to propose legislation to ban the use of illegal guns termed straw purchases. AbleChild does not understand how Senator Blumenthal believes a ban on an already illegal process would reduce gun violence.

AbleChild pointed out the recent indictment of several Newtown police officers who were reportedly involved in the distribution of controlled substances and “illegal” guns (4 long guns), exactly what Senator Blumenthal is trying to ban.

Furthermore, on November 26, 2013, one day after the release of the report of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Senator Blumenthal held a roundtable discussion in Bridgeport with the intent to reduce gun violence .  According to Senator Blumenthal, “The report on the Newtown tragedy revived the memories of what gun violence did not only to the Newtown community but to all communities.”

So it appears to be the same old, same old.  It is all about guns and no personal responsibility. Despite the fact these roundtables have been held on several occasions, lawmakers and law enforcement refuse to look outside the possibilities that something or someone is responsible other than a gun.  And the violence will continue.

 

 

 

28 Months Later, Silence on Evidence in Sandy Hook Police Report & Gratitude for the Hartford Courant

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook, Violence.

With $2.3 billion in mental health legislation being pushed off the backs of some of the Sandy Hook victim’s families and funds being collected by political action groups, AbleChild would like to thank the Hartford Courant for finally arriving at the decision to run a news article on the Sandy Hook State Police Investigation.  After 28 months of complete silence on what appears to be a 6,700 page data dump that includes disturbing evidence that has been ignored by the State, AbleChild has gratitude for the Courant’s action.  It is a bit puzzling as to why now?   Nevertheless, we welcome an open discussion.

AbleChild was alarmed to learn that Adam Lanza’s treating psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Fox, was having sex with his patients, destroyed documents, and left the Country. It was approximately 12 months before the treating psychiatrist’s name would be released to the public.  This shocking information was met with complete silence by State officials who continued to advocate for more spending on mental health services.   This is indicative of current state policies in mental health services.

Record Yale Child Study Center AL

The key document above in the State Police investigation illustrated a relationship with Yale Child Study Center, Dr. Robert King, and a Kathleen Koenig with Nancy Lanza regarding Adam Lanza’s mental health “treatment” and an adverse drug reaction, termed an ADR.

The Yale child study team labeled Nancy Lanza, as non-compliant and failed to alert Nancy to the MedWatch reporting system. Instead of the State taking an open-minded approach to this document and trying to improve the communication with mental health clients and providers, the State decided to completely disregard the document.  Why?

It is simply amazing where we are after 28 months.  In AbleChild vs. Chief Medical Examiner before the Freedom of Information Commission, the State quickly used the Hartford Courant article to make claims that autopsy report had been released to the public. AbleChild wants to clarify that the complete autopsy was never released to the public, only a cover sheet, no lab reports.

In closing, AbleChild also wants to express our outrage regarding the recent defeat of the Dyslexia funding bill to illustrate a comparison of approaches.  Some lawmakers propose $2.3 billion in teacher training for social engineering to spot “subjective” mental illnesses in the wake of Sandy Hook that would continue to funnel children into the unregulated field of psychiatry and dangerous use of psychiatric drugs via the public school.  Others believe that $2.3 billion would be ideal to train teachers in proven language-based methods to teach children to read and write, children that have been educationally neglected and abused by the current system.

The Bizarre War & Silent Drama of the Sandy Hook Murder Investigation

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

It is only fair to check out the other side of Wolfgang Halbig after posting his video yesterday. Let’s take a look at “a continuing research project” by who knows who.

AbleChild has interest in the Sandy Hook Murder Investigation and how it impacts public policy and parent’s rights. Our mission statement can be found on our homepage. We can’t resist the opportunity to share our thoughts on this ongoing drama.

AbleChild had to ban a person using the name CW Wade from our website, after repeated threatening and bizarre postings. Some how, this person claiming to be a, CD Wade, was able to bypass our security and post after we blocked him. This concerned us.

We also received postings from Lenny Pozner around the same time. We encouraged Mr. Pozner to continue to question the police investigation and seek the mental health records. We even wrote a story after Mr. Pozner’s posting on our website.

AbleChild parents know loss. Many of our original founders lost their children to psychiatric drugs without informed consent. We encourage you to read the “Vickie Dunkle” case on our website.

The fact is the state police report is sloppy, not indexed, and is a classic “data dump” often used in drug litigation. The victim’s families of Sandy Hook should wonder if they have been used to push dangerous policies on all of our children to cover up product liability issues.

We do have a right to be heard and question these policies. AbleChild has been denied access to these hearings where third party vendors, some which actually “treated” Adam Lanza have been allowed to give input and have escaped questions of their own involvement and conflicts of interest.

We will be blunt here, we are talking about Yale Child Study Center and the hearings held almost every week in the aftermath of the mass murders called the “Sandy Hook Advisory Commission,” under the chairmanship of former Mayor of Hamden and all appointed by Governor Malloy.

Politics can be pretty dirty. AbleChild knows this first hand, by the dirt we had to wipe away in order to find our public testimony that suddenly went missing up at the Hartford Capitol in the public safety committee. That action took us multiple phone calls, public postings on our website and a call to our attorney.

If anyone has a case against the State of Connecticut, it would be AbleChild on behalf of the people under the 14th Amendment. But, as AbleChild quickly learned during our FOI hearing, the state can bankrupt your efforts. We represented the public in our efforts, so the public should be aware by denying us access to key documents, they said “the public doesn’t have the right to know.”

As for Wolfgang Halbig, we are going to be blunt here as well. AbleChild reached out to him in full disclosure. His police background, experience, and sense of “something isn’t right here,” are dead on.

Do we agree with everything he says or his “theory” of no children died at Sandy Hook, No. We also expressed our knowledge directly to him that the Sandy Hook elementary school was an active, open school at the time of the event. Our take on this man is that he means no harm, but feels compelled to help the people sort some of these very conflicting and bizarre crime scene accounts of what happened and is out to protect public safety.

AbleChild has been pretty public with our “theory” based on our analysis of the 6,700, page police report. Actually there is more than enough evidence for the State to evaluate the case to determine if there is a product liability issues as the root cause.

Will the Attorney General or the State’s Attorney take this action? No. They are to deep into a bias political fight to force mandated mental health treatments and ban guns using the mass murder to achieve their political agenda.

Sadly, they have contempt prior to investigation and their politics void their objectivity. The State made it clear in AbleChild vs. The Chief Medical Examiner, “drug safety” is not legitimate.

Newtown Panel to Deliver Final Report Friday, March 6, 2015

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

In the immediate weeks after the mass murder and suicide at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 first graders and seven adults dead, Governor Malloy selected 16 experts to make recommendations, many of whom have ties with the behavioral health industry and Yale Child Study Center, the last place Adam Lanza was treated.

Their task according to the New York Times article, Members of Newtown Shootings Panel Recall Toll Their Work Took, by Kristin Hussey, published on March 3, 2005, was “to examine the event.”

The two years of 29 closed sessions to the public were televised where selective “stakeholders” were invited to participate. The carefully scripted agenda did not focus on any material or physical evidence.

The first guest speaker invited by the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission (SHAC) was Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.  Governor Ritter did not discuss the mental health records of 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold who killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves in the Columbine High School massacre, a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine.

Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox.  Klebold’s medical records remain sealed.  Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling.  Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting. Source: Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights.

The state police report, toxicology, autopsy, ballistics reports, and educational records were not incorporated within the hearings or incorporated in the recommendations.  The public was denied access to this critical information.

The public only had access to a fragmented 6,700 page police report that is often referred to in pharmaceutical litigation as a “data dump.”

The Sandy Hook Commission at one point criticized the State Police Report in the Connecticut Post.

“But there is one problem: the recently released State Police report the panel must rely on to understand the crime is all but indecipherable, some members of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission say. Indeed, the report is so disorganized that the commission has sought the help of a Hartford law firm to turn the 6,700 page file — an online collection of hundreds of individual documents, without a table of contents or index — into a searchable database. “I think all of us have gone into the document pages and were just never quite sure whether we missed something or have gotten to the thing that matters most to us,” said Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, chairman of the commission.”

The 6,700 pages were never indexed or placed in a searchable database as promised by the Commission.  In fact, AbleChild had to pressure the Governor’s office to release the name of the legal firm that offered it’s services pro-bono.

Furthermore, according to the New York Times article, “The Sandy Hook experts were struck by a common denominator in mass shootings:  the killer’s lack of social connectedness.”

It is easy to illustrate the common denominator with the material evidence that has been disclosed for multiple school shootings, which is more likely the mental health “treatment” itself, the mind-altering drugs.

According to the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights who published documents showing between 1988 and January, 2013, there have been at least 31 school-related acts of violence committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulting in 162 wounded and 72 killed.

The Newtown Panel is expected to deliver their final report to the Governor, Friday, March 6, 2015.  We know from the New York Times article, that one panel member took a trip to Japan to deal with producing the long awaited report, while another panel member compared Adam Lanza and all children’s lack of social connectedness and isolation, as serious as taking a lethal dose of heroin in their bedrooms.  Very dramatic! Where are the facts to support such a comparison?  This type of “expert” authoritarian fear tactics erode informed consent protections for parents.

AbleChild has joined forces with 8 other parent right organizations to oppose these bizarre recommendations  given without supporting documentation.

In addition, AbleChild wants to clarify that PA 13-3 was passed before the state police report was released to the lawmakers as well as to the general public.

Within PA 13-3 legislation is a program called  “mental health first aid.” Mental health first aid provides training to teachers to screen and identify children without parental consent or the right to refuse.  This legislation was passed without open public meetings and is funded by a Presidential Executive Order.  In addition within that legislation was a mandate for a “taskforce” that believes the state policy should be just “shy of forced medication.” AbleChild strongly opposes PA 13-3.

AbleChild wants to point out that these screenings are subjective and lack science.  Adam Lanza was identified and screened by Danbury Hospital and released as not a harm to himself or others.  He was also provided “mental health treatment” at Yale Child Study Center. How does one return deadly mental health treatment and get a refund?

Sandy Hook Advisory Member tells Associated Press “There’s been a misunderstanding”

Written by Sheila Matthews on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

BREAKING TODAY:

Associated Press filed its story on the press conference held on February 23, 2015 by 9 different parental rights groups who joined forces to oppose the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Recommendations in the aftermath of the mass murder and suicide in Newtown, Connecticut.

AbleChild joined the newly formed “CT Parental Rights Coalition” and participated in the Press Conference along with the following organizations:

TEACH CT – The Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers of CT
NHELD-National Home Education Legal Defense
CHN-Connecticut Homeschool Network
Family Institute of Connecticut
Connecticut Against Common Core
Stop Common Core In New Milford
Quiet Corner Parents for Education
AbleChild
Student Data Privacy: A Voice For The Connecticut Children of P20 Win
Joined by Senator Markley

According to the Associated Press article, “Dr. Harold Schwartz, commission member and psychiatrist-in-chief at Hartford Hospital’s Institute for Living, said there’s been a misunderstanding of the report’s recommendations. He said the panel wanted to make sure that if a child was identified as having special needs while in public school, that his or her IEP plan be followed if they become home-schooled.”

According NBC CT  “The commission’s mission has been to change policies and laws in an effort to prevent another violent massacre like the one on Dec. 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown that took the lives of 20 first graders and six staff members.”  The misunderstanding Dr. Schwartz should clear up is how any of these recommendations will “prevent another violent massacre.”

Recall, none of the mental health records have been made public despite multiple news organizations and AbleChild petitions via the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA) Commission.  In the case of AbleChild, the FOI Commission deferred our argument to the court system; we declined that expensive course of action.

There is another  “misunderstanding” regarding the conflicting data released by the Child Advocate’s office and the Newtown Bee’s account of Adam Lanza’s school years at Newtown High School.  Clearly the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission (SHAC) has not shown any interest in clearly up these critical “misunderstandings.”

AbleChild would like to point out, the 10 bullet pointed recommendations in the NBC referenced article (linked above)  used the following language: Expand, Increase, Implement, Build, Identify.  These recommendations come with a very large price tag for taxpayers for subjective, dangerous screening methods that clearly missed Adam Lanza.

The Associated Press report interviewed Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, the commission’s chairman.   “Mayor Jackson hopes the report will encourage homeschooling parents to seek help if their child has behavioral issues.”  “That language is actually intended to say, to remind parents who choose to homeschool, that you can still take advantage of everything that the school system has to offer,” he said. “It’s still a one-way swinging door. If they want it, all they have to do is ask.”

None of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission’s recommendations focus on policies that reflect, “if they want it, all they have to do it ask.”  that would be an “opt in” policy. These mental health screenings are subjective and are conducted without parent consent.  In fact, they fail to meet the standards of an “opt out” policy.

The Commission failed to address the MEDWatch issue raised by Nancy Lanza with Yale Child Study Center in the State Police Report which should have been the focus to protect consumers seeking mental health services.  Remember, Yale Child Study center was the last known “treatment” center for Adam Lanza and they claim that Nancy Lanza was “non compliant” as she tried to report an “adverse drug event.”

Kyle’s Story Featured on Anderson Cooper & Used by the DEA is Now Trapped on a Cocktail of Psychiatric Drugs

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Violence.

Robin Smith’s son, Kyle, was featured on the September of 2013 Anderson Cooper show to illustrate the dangers associated with synthetic marijuana and other street drugs. Robin also met with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and shared Kyle’s story to educate the agency on the crisis facing teenagers today.

The Anderson Cooper report, along with Kyle’s story, helped the DEA enter into a dialogue with the Chinese importers to address the deadly synthetic drugs flooding the US market. Robin’s efforts in sharing Kyle’s experience, clearly had a very powerful impact.

In the aftermath, Robin sought the best mental health care for Kyle for his recovery from the severe adverse reaction experienced from using the synthetic drug. So where is Kyle now and how is he doing? Robin asked AbleChild if she could share Kyle’s “treatment” regiment, which includes multiple psychiatric drugs.

“My name is Robin and I am a Maryland resident. This story is about my nineteen year old son Kyle.

In April 2010 Kyle became sick after ingesting the designer street drug “synthetic marijuana”. He immediately started with psychosis and paranoia. We took him to the local emergency room, where we learned from him what he had done. He was moved to a psychiatric hospital the next day and was started on five different psychiatric medications.

Boy, how I wish I knew then what I know now. I am certain I would not be here telling you of our horrific nightmare. His journey since then has been one that I would not wish on another soul. I watched as the “psychiatric world” turned my once handsome athletic son into one of the sickest persons I have ever known.

This is what has happened to him since…………… To date: He has been hospitalized THIRTY SIX (36) times, with very long stays in inpatient hospitals and Residential Treatment Facilities. Many doctors telling us that he was one of the sickest patients on their unit. He has undergone TWENTY EIGHT (28) ELECTRICAL SHOCK THERAPY PROCEDURES, all because of his body being in delirium from all the heavy dosages of antipsychotic medications. He has tried TEN (10) times in trying to commit suicide, two being almost fatal. He has been on THIRTY PLUS (30) heavy psychotic medications, to many to list.

He has had every psychiatric diagnosis available from Bipolar to schizophrenia. I believe he does not have any of them. He has been looked at, probed, tested, been four point restrained on numerous hospital stays to his bed because of the delirium and their (doctor’s fear) of him hurting himself, banged his head for a solid week on a hospital concrete wall which resulted in frontal lobe damage, was assaulted by other patients and has been asked a thousand questions by at least FORTY psychiatrists. He lost all of his High School years. I didn’t get to see my son graduate or have his senior picture taken.

But the saddest part of this story is watching my once vibrant child turn into a sad, non-functioning person. Our dreams for his future are dulled by the constant reminder of what the psych world has done to him and what he has lost. I live in fear every day that I will get that call that he has finally succeeded in taking his life.

I continue to persevere in advocating for Kyle and my hopes are that I can find the help needed in getting him better and back to living his life. That is my only wish. I welcome any help, questions or words of encouragement. Thank you!”

Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Excludes Nancy Lanza

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

Why is the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission excluding the murder victim, Nancy Lanza, in its “dedication?”

The people deserve a fact-based report on the evidence, not a white-washed narrative to cover up the failures of  the Yale Child Study Center, Dr. Paul Fox, and Dr. Robert King and their involvement with Nancy Lanza.

Likely, the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission believes the taxpayers are not smart enough to understand how this mass murder/suicide has been twisted into a marketing blitz, with a focus on increased mental health services.

Obviously, the state believes it is necessary to pick and choose whom to release information, and doesn’t believe the taxpayer is smart enough to weigh all the facts and come to their own conclusions.

This seems like a waste of time, money, and effort as public safety falls to the side.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Killer-s-mom-not-a-Sandy-Hook-victim-in-6051438.php#photo-7248007

$400 Million in New Mental Health Services, But Still No Accountability

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Lawmaking.

The full-court press is on for increasing mental health services for children in the state, with a price tag of $400 million, so far. Given that there is zero science to support any psychiatric diagnosis being an actual brain abnormality, one can only surmise that mental illness will skyrocket and the $400 million is a drop in the bucket of the actual costs.  This time around will there be any real accountability?

As has become the norm, the Sandy Hook shooting incident is invoked in order to justify the massive increases, despite the public having no documentation to support that Adam Lanza was not receiving, or that he even needed, mental health treatment in the five years leading up to the shooting. To date, no documentation has been made public that would suggest Lanza was, or was not, receiving mental health treatment beyond the brief and unsuccessful stint at the Yale Child Study Center in 2007.

To assume that the children of Connecticut need increased mental health treatment and services, because of what occurred at Sandy Hook, simply is not supported by factual documentation. In fact, because no information about Lanza’s mental health, after 2007, has been made public, why isn’t it just as likely to assume he was receiving the best mental health services money could buy?

More interesting, though, is the fact that the enormous increase in mental health spending does little, to nothing, to provide any accountability of where and how the money will be spent. As far as AbleChild is aware, there is no legislative language that will make any data readily available to taxpayers interested in following the hefty mental health expenditures.

Is it of interest to the taxpayers whether there is a large increase in the number of children being diagnosed with a subjective psychiatric diagnosis? Is it of interest how many of the children newly diagnosed are then prescribed dangerous, even deadly, psychiatric drugs as “treatment?” Furthermore, without some kind of data collection system, how will the state actually know if the funding is going toward the intended purpose?

The state is not known for its willingness to make important information publically available, as is evident in the clamp-down on any specific mental health data relating to Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza. Even when language is written into legislation, mandating data be publically accessible, there is no follow-through.

For example, Public Act 06-196* became effective in June of 2006. The Act mandated that the Department of Children and Families shall, within available resources and with the assistance of the University of Connecticut Health Center:

  • Establish guidelines for the use and management of psychotropic medications with children and youths in the care of the Department of Children and Families.
  • Establish and maintain a database to track the use of psychotropic medications with children and youths committed to the care of the Department of Children and Families.

To date, AbleChild is unaware of any database that would readily provide the information subject to the Act. Why? The public should not have to spend hours, or days, hunting through every state agency to obtain this important information… or whether the database even exists. And this Act has been around for nearly a decade.

Based on what clearly is a failure on the part of state agencies to track this information, what makes taxpayers believe there will be a “better” accounting of the $400 million allocated for new mental health services?

After all, by anyone’s measure, $400 million is a lot of money. Certainly the public deserves some accounting of how the money is spent. Along with all the hype associated with the new mental health services programs, will lawmakers act responsibly and institute a program that will actually track the numbers of children being diagnosed and drugged? And, more importantly, will that information be made publically available on a yearly basis?

Don’t count on it. The state is great at telling the taxpayer what mental health services are needed, but it has a pathetic track record when it comes to accounting for the hundreds-of-millions spent on mental health services.

* Public Act 04-238

An Act Concerning Child Poverty and the Use of Psychotropic Medications with Children and Youth in State Care

Sec. 17a-21a. Guidelines for use and management of psychotropic medications. Database established. The Department of Children and Families shall, within available resources and with the assistance of The University of Connecticut Health Center, (1) establish guidelines for the use and management of psychotropic medications with children and youths in the care of the Department of Children and Families, and (2) establish and maintain a database to track the use of psychotropic medications with children and youths committed to the care of the Department of Children and Families.

(P.A. 04-238, S. 2; P.A. 06-196, S. 112.)

History: P.A. 06-196 made technical changes, effective June 7, 2006.

 

 

 

 

Sandy Hook Commission Remedy Misfires & Injures Taxpayers and Children

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Lawmaking, Sandy Hook.

The good news is that the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission’s report finally will be released sometime in February. The bad news is that one can only wonder, after more than two years of considering “all” of the data, what additional information about Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, can be withheld from the people of Connecticut.

So far Lanza’s complete autopsy, medical and toxicology reports have been withheld from public review, as have his school and mental health records. Sure, the State Police released its report, which provides zero information about Lanza’s mental health history for the five years leading up to the shooting, and the public also has been provided a “story,” albeit confused and incomplete, by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate (OCA). But the only thing these reports have in common is the deliberate withholding of actual documentation to support the conclusions.

Now the Sandy Hook Commission intends to sell some narrative of events that “was really, really hard work,” that apparently will justify recommendations for massive increases in mental illness identification and treatment that, according to Commission Chairman, Jackson, “frankly will take a lot of effort and money to implement.”

Let’s not kid ourselves; the focus of the Commission always has been to recommend increased screening to identify mental illness in the schools. And, apparently, the Commission will recommend school-based psychological and social work teams that can recognize and react to mental health needs in children. In short, that equates to mental illness diagnosing and drugging.

This despite the fact that there is absolutely no data provided to the public that Adam Lanza had any mental health needs in the five years leading up to the shooting and, if he did, it certainly wasn’t the responsibility of the Connecticut school system to track him once he left the system.

In fact, the information provided by the OCA report is so convoluted that it’s difficult to follow, let alone believe. For example, Lanza’s educational and mental health records were reviewed and interviews were conducted with counselors, teachers and even Peter Lanza, yet despite more than a hundred pages of explanations of how the system dropped the ball with Lanza, nowhere does it make mention that despite his paralyzing mental illnesses, Lanza still made the Honor Roll from the eighth through the eleventh grade and graduated a year early.

How is it possible that everyone involved in the OCA report, including Lanza’s father, could miss this important information? Did anyone at the OCA actually review his school records? If the records were reviewed, then one can only surmise there was a deliberate withholding of any mention of Lanza’s superior academic achievements. Why?

But even this missing information is, well, academic. Based on what was provided in the OCA report, one can also assume that the Commission’s recommendations will provide no sanctions or penalties for the newly-formed army of psychologists and social workers who may fail the children and families of Connecticut.

In other words, there is no doubt, according to the OCA report, that the IEP “team” responsible for tracking Adam Lanza’s academic and psychological needs failed in their duties. The “team” did not follow the state statutes already on the books. Will there be some form of disciplinary action taken for such failures moving forward? The OCA made no such recommendations.

More importantly, what recommendations will the Commission provide to protect families from over-reaching and intrusive mental health providers? Given the fact that mental illness diagnosing is not based in science or medicine, making it completely subjective, will the Commission provide the parents of Connecticut some avenue of recourse?

It seems a legitimate recommendation. After all, if the state intends to gouge taxpayers for the mental illness services in its schools, then the state also must be prepared to accept responsibility for its failures. Given the known flaws in psychiatric diagnosing, there will be many.

Thomas Insel, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry’s diagnosing manual, said “the weakness is its lack of validity” and “at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each.”

Or maybe it was Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry, Duke University, and chairman of the task force to revise the DSM-IV, who said it best. The DSM5 “will dramatically expand the realm of psychiatry and narrow the realm of normality – converting millions more people from being without mental disorders to being psychiatrically sick.”

If the state accepts the Commission’s reported recommendations there is little doubt that the number of school children being labeled as mentally ill will skyrocket. This psychiatric onslaught of the state’s children seems odd given the fact that it has yet to be explained how the school system is responsible for the actions of a former student, five years after graduating from the system.