Contact information:

Sheila Matthews                                        Patricia Weathers
National Vice President                             National President
www.ablechild.org                                    www.ablechild.org
203-966-8419                                           845-677-8115

Today marks the anniversary of the 1987 signing of the Declaration at the International Conference against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking. As Kofi Anna, Secretary-General of the United Nations notes in his remarks commemorating today’s important milestone, “Let’s talk about drugs… ” Underlines the need for children, families, peers, teachers and communities to talk about drug abuse, admit that it is a problem, and take responsibility for doing something about it.”

With this important event in mind, our organization is pleased with the Food and Drug Administration’s recent action regarding issuing a statement that the drug Paxil should not be used on children because of the increase risk of suicidal impulses. This recent announcement comes nine days after Great Britain issued a similar ban of the drug known as Seroxat (another name for Paxil) for children.

The growing number of behavioral drugs used on school-aged children is at an alarming level. Our organization is concerned with the rise in the use of these drugs as well as the fact that parents are not being provided with all information regarding the many dangerous side effects that the drugs have. This clearly is in violation of parent’s informed consent rights and disables a parent’s ability to make an educated, sound decision. This announcement reinforces the fact that Federal laws are needed to protect our children’s health and safety.

The recent Paxil finding is just one example of the broader issue, which is selling drugs to our children without disclosing risks. The selective distribution of deceptive marketing materials to parents demonstrates the immediate need for federal policies and an investigation into the mental health and drug industries marketing campaign targeting our children. With profit as a common factor and billions hanging on the line, it is little wonder that Paxil’s manufacturer failed to disclose certain clinical trials and the potential risks involved while taking their drug. The fact that the pharmaceutical industry has a tight grip on the American public and is a billion dollar industry should raise the question to many: “What other information is being withheld from parents and consumers regarding the many behavioral drugs being prescribed to our children today?”

Pending Legal Cases: www.sskrplaw.com

New Canaan Advertiser

By Sara Poirier

Thursday, April 29, 2003

Doctor tells parents about alternatives to “drugging” hyper children

A psychologist from Texas told a group of mothers, grandmothers, child advocates that protecting one’s children, and transforming oneself is an alternative to drugging children who are deemed hyperactive with attention deficit disorder, at a lecture sponsored by AbleChild.org on Friday, April 23, at New Canaan Library.

Dr. John Breeding is the author of “True Nature and Great Misunderstandings”; a book that tells its readers how they understand the world revolves around how they see it.

“We think it was a big success and we’re glad that we’re getting the information out to parents”, Sheila Matthews, national vice president of Ablechild, said Monday, April 26. “We were glad that the New Canaan (Department of Youth Services) came.”

Ms. Matthews is a New Canaan resident, and her organization- which donated “True Nature” and his previous book, “The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses,” to the library after lecture – is run by parents advocating informed consent and the right to refuse medication. (See related article.)

Dr Breeding said all children have what he calls a “true nature: where they exhibit brilliant intelligence, have an abundant amount of energy, are intensely relational with much self-determination, and have strength and uniqueness.

“Children are born with all these tremendous qualities but they’re also totally vulnerable,” he said. “The unfair use of rank causes revenge.”

Dr. Breeding also contended that there is no evidence that attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder exists.

He added that emotional expression is part of younger children, part of their natural healing process. He also said that among false assumptions about biological psychiatry are that adjusting to school is good, failure to adjust is the result of a “mental illness”, that a “mental illness: is a medical disease and that a “mental illness” is the result of a biological and/or genetic defect.

Also, he said that people falsely think that “mental illness” is chronic, progressive and basically incurable, that it can and must be controlled by drugs, and is sever cases by electroshock, and that people with it are irrational and unable to make responsible decisions, making coercion necessary and justified.

Dr. Breeding cited State legislation in Connecticut (An Act Concerning Recommendations for and Refusals of the Use of Psychotropic Drugs by Children) that is in line with the Federal Child Medication Safety Act. The Federal law, which is before the Senate, would prohibit school personnel from requiring the use of psychotropic drugs in children in order for them to return to school.

The Connecticut law says that parents cannot be arrested for not giving drugs to their children diagnosed with attention/deficit/hyperactivity disorder, something some members of Ablechild present at the lecture said happened to them.

“You can go a long way if you just protect your children from the craziness and destruction of the world.” Dr. Breeding said. He added that doing that would bring out a child’s true nature.

“Parental hell is when you have banished painful feelings into your unconscious and you are projecting them into your child,” he said. “Parental Heaven is when you see your child through the eyes of delight.”

Dr. Breeding said he agrees that some children have issues that need to be dealt with, but that “blaming and drugging them is not the approach.”

www.ablechild.org

Patricia Weathers, President
Sheila Mathews, Vice President
Vicky Dunkle, Vice President

Will be featured on

The Montel William’s Show
April 15, 2003

“A Parent’s Right To Choose”

In Memory of Shaina Dunkle and the Many Other Children that have Lost their Lives due to Behavioral Drugs. Our organization urges you to speak out and support H.R. 1170.

“Shaina looked into my eyes as her life ended and I could do nothing to save her. Believe me, it is a nightmare no parent should ever have to live with.”

Little Shaina Dunkle’s story began in 1999, when her school complained to her mother that Shaina couldn’t stay focused and talked out of turn. The school psychologist stated that she believed Shaina suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and the pressure to drug her child began. Though Vicky Dunkle did not want to drug her daughter, the school pressured her continually by isolating Shaina in the hallway to do her work, and dumping out her desk in front of the class in mock humiliation. “We refused to drug her at first but we finally gave in because Shaina was being made to feel different,” said Mrs. Dunkle.

The Dunkle’s say it was pressure from the school psychologist that made them give in, and Shaina was subsequently diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed the drug Desipramine. Two years later, Mrs, Dunkle held her 10-year-old daughter in her arms as she died. The Coroner ruled the girls death was due to Desipramine toxicity. “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 drug side effects,” said Mrs. Dunkle.

“As a parent, I believe that the issue of informed consent is crucial to safeguard not only our parental rights but those rights governing our children’s health and well being. The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 includes the stimulants that are regularly being forced on parents, but there are many other drugs being pushed on children, including the drug that took my daughter’s life,” says Mrs. Dunkle. “I strongly urge Congress to recognize this and include a broader range of drugs being promoted to parents, as they all have dangerous and even lethal side effects. It’s been two years since my daugter’s death, yet I relive those last few minutes of her life every day. If I had listened to my heart instead of the advice of the school and the so-called professionals who thought they knew my daughter better than I did, my precious Shaina would be alive now.”

For more information on the Child Medication Safety Act 2003, click here

Vicky Dunkle is Vice President of Parents for Label and Drug Free Education in the State of Pennsylvania. She speaks out against the issue of coercion to drug children in our public schools. She continues to demand accountability and informed consent rights regarding the subjective diagnosis ADHD and drug “treatment”.