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Tag: mental health treatment

Is the 14-Year-Old Shooting Suspect in West Oak Middle School, SC Another Failed Outcome of Mental Health Treatment?

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Violence.

The 14-year old suspect in the Townville Elementary School shooting was expelled from West-Oak Middle School after bringing a hatchet to school last year, according to news reports.

West Oak Middle School expulsion policy requires the school to refer the student to the department of juvenile justice based on the fact he brought a weapon to school. The DJJ process clearly indicates the suspect would have undergone a mental health evaluation and had plenty of access to mental health treatment prior to the shooting.

What’s not clear, did the suspect receive mental health services and psychiatric drug treatment prior to the Hatchet incident at school? It is often difficult to gain access to early mental health treatment records. However, the public did gain access to the Sandy Hook mass shooter’s early mental health treatment records through the Child Advocate’s report, but didn’t gain access to the last five years leading up to the mass murder at Sandy Hook.  The State is still withholding those records.

Lanza’s primary treating psychiatrist, Paul Fox, who surrendered his license to practice is now facing felon charges for sexual abuse of a former patient. Fox told police during the Sandy Hook police investigation he still retains the billing records, but destroyed the actual mental health records of Lanza.  Fox failed to follow record retention law and public notification law that he was no longer practicing.  Connecticut didn’t enforce either one of those laws.

The Child Advocate’s report on Lanza actually showed he had plenty of access to mental health and participated in the birth to three mental health programs.  In addition, Lanza was home bound through Newtown public school system and under the care of discredited psychiatrist Fox at that time.  Dr. Robert King of Yale Child Study Center also treated Adam Lanza.  Dr. King is heavily involved in landmark mental health research that involves FDA approval.

The public would benefit from mental health billing information, the Yale file, and the diary of the mother, Nancy Lanza, found at the crime scene.

Dr. Robert King and Nancy Koenig of Yale claimed that Nancy Lanza refused treatment for her son; however, the police report indicates that Nancy Lanza reported an adverse drug event to Yale’s Koenig and Dr. King.  There was no indication that Dr. King or Koenig advised Nancy Lanza to report the adverse drug event to the FDA, instead Dr. King and Koenig of Yale labeled Nancy Lanza as noncompliant.

Time again the school shootings are linked to mental health “treatment” and deadly outcomes. This is an excellent time to question the condition of the mental health system, and ask two fundamental questions. Is the policies pushed in the aftermath of Sandy Hook of aggressive outpatient services, and “shy of forced medication” actually increasing our mental health crisis and the deadly outcomes?  The second question, Are public health departments, like Connecticut, protecting behavioral health vendors, bad psychiatrists, and covering up dangerous, experimental mental health treatment on children in crisis?

AbleChild contacted the SC Anderson County Sheriff’s office to encourage them to explore the psychiatric drug link, question the treating psychiatrist, and investigate any behavioral health vendor involvement.  AbleChild also asked if the suspect’s blood was taken at time of arrest.  The Sheriff’s office thanked AbleChild for our suggestions and didn’t have the information on the blood work up at this time.

Milford, CT School Sued for Student’s Mental Health Treatment Prior to Murder

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Violence.

According to the Newtown Patch, a recently filed lawsuit, regarding the stabbing of Maren Sanchez alleges that “Maren reported to the high school guidance department her concern that Christopher Plaskon was emotionally disturbed and was threatening to commit suicide or acts of serious self-harm by cutting himself with a knife, and that she believed it was important for high school personnel to help Plaskon, then 16, to prevent him from engaging in potentially violent conduct dangerous to himself or to others.”

With the ever-increasing number of school shootings across the nation, one must wonder if this lawsuit may be the tipping point for a national discussion on schools involvement in arbitrarily identifying students with alleged psychiatric disorders and recommending mental health “treatments,” known to be associated with an increased risks of suicide and violence?

The National Association of School Psychology, NASP, is responsible for the information that is supplied to the school psychologists that function within the school and evaluates and identifies students for eligibility for special education.  A common factor in all mass shootings and stabbings committed by students is the failure of the school system or institution to release the mental health records of the perpetrator.

The mental health records, which would reveal whether psychiatric drugs were involved during the incident, more than the choice of weapon, is the critical information needed to identify contributing factors that may help to eliminate this massive public health crisis.  Without the information contained within the mental health records, the public, as well as our lawmakers, cannot write effective legislation to protect students, families, as well as all consumers.

Is the NASP a monopoly with strong conflicts of interests that relies on privacy to shield their role in the increased risks of violence and suicide plaguing our education system?

According to the NASP services listed below, and their claim regarding the school psychologists’ unique qualifier, this lawsuit provides the public with a unique opportunity to initiate a conversation about how much power this association is given and the risks it creates for our children. After all, even NASP knows there is no known abnormality in the brain that is any alleged psychiatric disorder, making these diagnoses suspect.

Nevertheless, the NASP writes, “School psychologists are uniquely qualified members of school teams that support students’ ability to learn and teachers’ ability to teach. They apply expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior, to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally.”   So, the NASP basically does it all.

Data collection and analysis
Assessment
Progress monitoring
School-wide practices to promote learning
Resilience and risk factors
Consultation and collaboration
Academic/learning interventions
Mental health interventions
Behavioral interventions
Instructional support
Prevention and intervention services
Special education services
Crisis preparedness, response, and recovery
Family-school-community collaboration
Diversity in development and learning
Research and program evaluation
Professional ethics, school law, and systems”

Is this safe? After all, it is near impossible to eliminate their involvement with a student who attends the public education system.  The NASP political influence on lawmaking only grows stronger each year.  A student has a very difficult time to refuse psychiatric evaluations and still receive special education help and is not provided informed consent on the subjective nature of their assessment tools – basically opinions of behavior.

The Milford Lawsuit is interesting in that the family seems to have chosen the right target – the school’s involvement with the perpetrator’s mental health treatment.

The State missed this opportunity in the Sandy Hook mass murder to investigate the link between mental health “treatment” and the mass shooting and to hold those treating Lanza accountable. In fact, the State used the killings to push for more mental health “treatment,” based on no evidence that Adam Lanza lacked access to school-based or community-based mental health services or that those services were not the best that money could buy. The mental health billing records, autopsy, and toxicology of Adam Lanza were never released to the public, despite AbleChild vs. Chief Medical Examiner Freedom of Information request.