Articles Archives - Page 14 of 17

A Miracle at Wisconsin High

Written by AbleChild on October 21, 2013. Posted in Articles.

October 2002

APPLETON, Wisconsin —

A revolution has occurred. It’s taken place in the Central Alternative High School. The kids now behave. The hallways aren’t frantic. Even the teachers are happy. The school used to be out of control. Kids packed weapons. Discipline problems swamped the principal’s office. But not since 1997.

What happened? Did they line every inch of space with cops? Did they spray valium gas in the classrooms? Did they install metal detectors in the bathrooms? Did they build holding cells in the gym?

Afraid not. In 1997, a private group called Natural Ovens began installing a healthy lunch program. Huh? Fast-food burgers, fries, and burritos gave way to fresh salads, vegetables “prepared with old-fashioned recipes,” and whole grain bread. Fresh fruits were added to the menu. Good drinking water arrived. Vending machines were removed.

As reported in a newsletter called Pure Facts, “Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.” Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin, has turned in some staggering figures since 1997. Drop-outs? Students expelled? Students discovered to be using drugs? Carrying weapons? Committing suicide? Every category has come up ZERO. Every year. Mary Bruyette, a teacher, states, “I don’t have to deal with daily discipline issues. I don’t have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program.” One student asserted, “Now that I can concentrate I think it’s easier to get along with people”

What a concept—eating healthier food increases concentration. Principal Coenen sums it up: “I can’t buy the argument that it’s too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost will reduce another. I don’t have the vandalism. I don’t have the litter. I don’t have the need for high security.” At a nearby middle school, the new food program is catching on. A teacher there, Dennis Abram, reports, “I’ve taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year and basically I’ve decided to teach another year — I’m having too much fun!”

Pure Facts, the newsletter that ran this story, is published by a non-profit organization called The Feingold Association, which has existed since 1976. Part of its mission is to “generate public awareness of the potential role of foods and synthetic additives in behavior, learning and health problems. The [Feingold] program is based on a diet eliminating synthetic colors, synthetic flavors, and the preservatives BHA, BHT, and TBHQ.” Thirty years ago there was a Dr. Feingold. His breakthrough work proved the connection between these negative factors in food and the lives of children. Hailed as a revolutionary advance, Feingold’s findings were soon trashed by the medical cartel, since those findings threatened the drugs-for-everything, disease-model concept of modern healthcare. But Feingold’s followers have kept his work alive.

If what happened in Appleton, Wisconsin, takes hold in many other communities across America, perhaps the ravenous corporations who invade school space with their vending machines and junk food will be tossed out on their behinds. It could happen. And perhaps ADHD will become a dinosaur. A non-disease that was once attributed to errant brain chemistry. And perhaps Ritalin will be seen as just another toxic chemical that was added to the bodies of kids in a crazed attempt to put a lid on behavior that, in part, was the result of a subversion of the food supply.

For those readers who ask me about solutions to the problems we face — here is a real solution. Help these groups. Get involved. Step into the fray. Stand up and be counted. The drug companies aren’t going to do it. They’re busy estimating the size of their potential markets. They’re building their chemical pipelines into the minds and bodies of the young. Every great revolution starts with a foothold. Sounds like Natural Ovens and The Feingold Association have made strong cuts into the big rock of ignorance and greed.

Keep your ADHD Label, Teach Writing.

Written by Able Child on September 5, 2011. Posted in Articles.

Over the years, Ablechild.org has gone directly to the pipeline of ADHD, and has informed parents of the misleading information they are receiving through the public school system and the media relating to the label ADHD and the dangerous mind altering drugs that are recommended as the solution.

Writing is the latest link the drug manufacturers and psychiatric gatekeepers plan on using to lure families into psychiatric drug use. Perfect timing as children start school. Tuesday, August 23 (HealthDay News) reports that Children diagnosed with ADHD have a much higher risk of developing written language disorder, a new study indicates. The findings don’t eliminate the ADHD label or give way to the fact that millions of children have been misdiagnosed with ADHD that had underlying writing issues. The study wants to ensure children are Co-labeled.

What you will find with any ADHD study, the ADHD label is often linked with human actions, i.e., walking, talking, listening, eating, sleeping, crying, laughing and now writing. To validate the label they take those actions and link it to “a much higher risk of developing” problems and across it over to whatever obtains them more clientele. For example, Monday, July 25, 2011 big news (Reuters Health) reported that Children with ADHD are more likely to misjudge risk of walking across the street. The findings, researchers say it may explain why children with the disorder have a higher than average risk of being hit by a car. This approach to taking a verb and associating it with risk and linking with your child becomes alarming. Simple tasks become a concern, something for you to look for to become proactive about. This has created an industry that feeds off our children’s behaviors. Giving cause to analyse it all and cure it. OMG!

As school starts, know the facts and stay in the solution. Writing problems exist, but they can be solved without a ADHD Label or drugs. The recommendation should not be to Co-label a child with ADHD and a writing disorder, but to look at ensuring that schools continue to focus on the connection between writing and the development of the brain.. Thus the research they are not providing to you or mentioning in this breaking news study is a key ingredient for you to make an informed decision. Ablechild gives you a battling study for your review and a breaking news story that illustrates the failure to teach writing at the important developmental ages.

Research.

News Coverage

Stay in touch with your own reality, not what the psychiatric and drug companies want your reality to be for your child. Visit us at www.ablechild.org and let us provide you with more information so that you may make an informed decision relating to your child’s health and well-being.

Have a great start to the new school year!

Sheila Matthews
Cofounder www.ablechild.org

Chairman Sensenbrenner Backs Majority Leader DeLay on the Importance of Parental Rights

Written by Sheila Matthews on August 1, 2005. Posted in Articles, Lawmaking.

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

Congressman James Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has weighed in on the importance of maintaining parental consent rights. These parental rights are now in jeopardy if H.R. 181, The Parental Consent Act of 2005 dies in committee.

Congressman Sensenbrenner has emphatically stated, “It is not, and should not be, the role of government to subject children to arbitrary mental health screenings without the consent of their parents. Parents, children, and their private doctors should determine whether a child has mental health problems, not government bureaucrats.”

His statement comes just after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stood up for parental rights and released this statement last week. “In the wake of the creation of psychiatric labels, every parent should be wary of relinquishing their responsibility to the government to define and assess their child’s mental health status.”

The highly controversial issue of mandatory mental health screening programs of American school children initiated by the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health is the subject of widespread debate. This debate arises due to the use of subjective, unscientific psychological testing methods used for screening children for mental illness without the provision of full parental informed consent in place. This “testing” is currently awaiting federal funds to expand the implementation of screening programs nationwide.

“If H.R. 181 is passed it will prevent wasteful and potentially devastating federal funding while safeguarding the informed consent rights of all parents in what is a most serious matter, their children’s health and safety”, says Patricia Weathers President and co-founder of AbleChild.org a national non-profit group of parents committed to ensuring that the issue of informed consent and an individual’s right to “opt out” of psychological testing is a national priority.

Dr. Grace Jackson, a board certified psychiatrist since 1996 recently stated, “Contrary to the reports which have been emphasized by the major news outlets, there is no evidence to justify the claim that psychiatric disorders arise from anatomic or physiological abnormalities in the brain. Based upon a variety of theoretical and practical limitations, the functional imaging technologies cannot identify the origin of mental phenomena.”

In light of such growing controversial fervor and obvious lack of agreement on the issue of psychiatric diagnoses within the medical establishment itself, any promotion or implementation of mandated, which is equivalent to forced, screening methods should be viewed as a national threat to public health, and should be challenged by the American public.

For more information on mental health screening programs, psychiatric drug risks, and the FDA’s warnings regarding psychiatric drugs, please visit www.ablechild.org .

Mental Health, Education and Social Control, Part 17

Written by Able Child on July 25, 2005. Posted in Articles.

By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., NewsWithViews.com

Ablechild is an organization of parents for label and drug free education. And in their press release of July 19, 2005, one learns that according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, “Every indicator available, including scientific abuse liability studies, actual abuse, paucity of scientific studies on possible adverse effects associated with long-term use of stimulants, divergent prescribing practices of U.S. physicians, and lack of concurrent medical treatment and follow-up, urge greater caution and more restrictive use of Methylphenidate (Ritalin).” The press release also quoted U.S. House of Representatives majority leader Rep. Tom DeLay as proclaiming that “the federal government should become advocates in strengthening American famililes and encouraging parental participation in decisions that directly effect their children’s health and overall well-being. In the wake of the creation of psychiatric labels, every parent should be wary of relinquishing their responsibility to the government to define and assess their child’s mental health status.”

Dr. Peter Breggin: Thanks Tom Cruise

Written by Able Child on July 17, 2005. Posted in Articles.

Dr. Peter Breggin, Huffington Post

On June 25, 2005 Tom Cruise did the unthinkable on TV. Actually, he did several “unthinkables” in a filmed interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer for the Today Show.

First, Tom stopped smiling. He deprived us of that multi-million dollar grin and got serious. For a star to do this to the American public was unthinkable.

Second, Tom pointed out that Matt Lauer actually was very “glib” (shallow) and didn’t know what he was talking about. He also urged Matt to be “more responsible” and to learn something about psychiatry before touting it. For a star to do this to a media personality was unthinkable. Since nearly all of them are shallow, this was a threat of potentially epidemic proportions. Suppose other guests began pointing out that media hosts don’t know what they are talking about and are shallow?

Inquest hears of teenager’s SSRI use

Written by Able Child on July 15, 2005. Posted in Articles.

CBC News

A coroner’s inquest in Fredericton was told Tuesday that a 16-year-old foster child may have stopped taking an anti-depressant medication just weeks before she killed herself in November 2003. The year after Heather White’s death, Health Canada issued a warning about the class of drug Heather’s family doctor had been prescribed to deal with her depression. She was taking a medication called Celexa, a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI).

INDEPTH: Depression medications

The warnings advised doctors to carefully monitor patients of all ages for suicidal thoughts, especially in the early stages of taking SSRIs. Health Canada also warned patients to tell their doctors before changing the dosage or stopping the medication entirely.

Sainsbury Backs Tom Cruise

Written by Able Child on July 15, 2005. Posted in Articles.

John Mappin, United Newspapers

(PRWEB) July 15, 2005 — Following Tom Cruise’s campaign over the past two weeks, Sebastian Sainsbury of the prestigious Sainsbury family issues a strong warning in Britain and an alert to all UK parents.

Speaking to United National Newspapers today, Sebastian Sainsbury stated the following this morning.

“As a parent of two young children, I hold an inherently responsible position for the welfare of my children. Following some of the recent media and speaking with other parents, I feel the need to extend that responsibility to encompass a wider sphere by informing parents of a situation that could potentially affect all children.”

PARENTS’ GROUP REQUESTS MEETING WITH FDA HEAD TO ENACT STRONGER DRUG WARNINGS FOR KIDS

Written by Sheila Matthews on July 14, 2005. Posted in Articles.

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

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

Parents say psychiatric drugs are making children violent and suicidal and FDA must act.

The national parents’ group, AbleChild: Parents for a Label and Drug-Free Education, has asked the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Acting Commissioner, Lester Crawford, for a private meeting to discuss additional advertising warnings for psychiatric drugs. The request for a meeting comes on the heels of a joint letter signed by actors Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston along with medical doctors demanding stronger warnings.

“Celebrities, physicians and parents have been asking for full disclosure of the dangerous side effects of psychiatric drugs for years which the FDA has recently begun investigating. They are now warning that stimulant drugs, like antidepressants, can cause suicide and violence,” stated Mrs. Sheila Matthews, Vice President of the group, also known for its website, www.ablechild.org.

The group represents more than a thousand parents who have been coerced into putting their children on a psychiatric drug and who lobbied for passage of a federal law, signed by President Bush last December that now prohibits such coercion in schools. For some of the parents, the law came too late: coroners determined their children died from the psychiatric drug they were forced onto.

Mrs. Matthews said their letter to Commissioner Crawford stated that not only do the drug warnings need to be strengthened, but the way manufacturers and the American Psychiatric Association promote the drugs as necessary to “balance” out a “chemical imbalance” or “neurobiological disorder” is misleading and must change.

“While studies may suggest brain differences or ‘chemical imbalances’, there is no conclusive evidence, as the APA and manufacturers’ websites imply”, Mrs. Matthews said. “This violates the informed consent rights of parents. The risks could be reduced if the public was provided with accurate and complete information, not just with what ‘sells’, which only protects a multi-billion drug industry”, she added.

Additionally, “Ms. Preston and Ms. Alley have a long history of speaking out on this issue as a voice for parents and children—ever since the Columbine high school shooting when it was determined ringleader Eric Harris was taking an antidepressant known to cause violent mania. I think they could help us present information to the FDA which would be of immense benefit to all.”

Protecting Parental Rights in Florida: AbleChild Chapter Formed in Miami

Written by Sheila Matthews on July 12, 2005. Posted in Articles.

Luisa Arostegui
Vice President State of Florida
www.ablechild.org
(305) 283-6603

Helping to stem the tide of children being put onto psychotropic drugs, on Tuesday, July the 12th at 2pm, State Representative Gus Barriero joined dozens of concerned parents to help launch the Florida Chapter of AbleChild at the steps of the Miami Court House at 73 West Flagler, in Miami.

Luisa Arostegui, the Vice President of the Florida Chapter of AbleChild, welcomed the attendees and spoke of the group’s purpose – to educate parents so that they know that they have choices in dealing with their children. As the mother of five children, Arostegui knows for herself the damage caused when the school system or arrogant medical practitioners dictate mental health “treatment”.

Her fourth child, whom she adopted, was on psychotropic drugs and she feels strongly that if he had not been weaned from them, their detrimental effect on his young liver would have resulted in his death.

She told the group, “No parent should be pressured into either putting their child on a drug or keeping their child on a drug. The solutions that are routinely given by psychiatry – Ritalin, Paxil, Adderall and others – are not scientifically based solutions.”

“I found out about AbleChild and I wanted to help. I could not just stand by and watch other parents go through what my child and my family went through.”

“AbleChild exists to get real information to parents and caregivers so that they know that they do have choices. Your child does not have to take psychotropic drugs.”

“I am very excited about the start of our own chapter of AbleChild in the State of Florida. With a quarter of Florida’s population under the age of 18, we must do all we can to protect them, the future of our state.”

Representative Barriero echoed these sentiments.

“I am very honored to be here for this historic occasion. AbleChild is important to this State as it educates parents so they can make their own decision.

“The pharmaceutical companies are getting rich by “treating” a disease that has no medical tests to prove that it is a valid illness – there are no blood tests or other objective scientific tests that diagnose ADD or ADHD.

“I applaud actor Tom Cruise for standing up and telling the public the truth about these drugs. His actions and those actions taken by groups like AbleChild will safeguard our future generations.

“I wholeheartedly welcome AbleChild to my State and my city.

AbleChild.org provides a wealth of information to parents looking for alternatives to putting their children on Ritalin, Adderall, or a host of other drugs.

AbleChild is a national organization founded in 2001, incorporated in New York, and established as a 501(C)(3) not for profit entity in 2005.

If you would like more information about AbleChild, or you would like to get involved in this powerful movement, please call Luisa Arostegui at (305) 283-6603. You can also check out AbleChild on line at www.ablechild.org.

Family Advocate Opposes Illinois’ Plan for Mandatory Mental Health Screening

Written by Able Child on July 12, 2005. Posted in Articles.

By Jim Brown, AgapePress

An Illinois pro-family activist is urging parents to find out what stage their state is at in implementing President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health — and to strongly oppose the plan.

On June 30, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich received a final proposal from the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership. Two years ago, the state Legislature charged the Partnership with crafting a plan to reform Illinois’ mental health system. The plan calls for the screening of all Illinois children ages zero to 18 and pregnant women for mental health problems.