Dear Member of Congress,
We the undersigned individuals and organizations, representing millions of Americans encourage you to support the Paul Amendment to the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations bill that prohibits funds from being used to create or implement any universal mental health screening programs.
Here are a few key reasons out of many that this amendment is so important:
- Children are being coercively screened and medicated and some children have died as a result. Aliah Gleason, a 13 year old African American girl, was forced into a state mental hospital, denied contact with her family for 5 months, restrained more than 26 times, and treated with at least 12 different psychiatric medications, some simultaneously, all as a result of a school mental health screening. Matthew Smith and Shaina Dunkle died of psychiatric medication toxicity after their parents were coerced with threats of child abuse charges by schools if they did not medicate their children.
The poorest and most vulnerable, as well as minority children, will suffer the most without this amendment. Over 60% of foster children in Texas, nearly two-thirds in Massachusetts, and 55% of foster children in Florida are on as many as 16 different psychiatric drugs, starting as young as age 3. The NAACP, in its legislative priorities document, said, "In fact, a recent study in the state of New York showed that ‘minority boys’ are 11 times more likely to be on mind-altering medicines than is the general student body."
Children are already being diagnosed and medicated at alarming rates and at very young ages. More money was spent on psychiatric drugs for children in 2003 than on antibiotics or asthma medication. There was a 300% increase in the psychiatric drugging of two to four year old children between 1991 and 1995. Widespread screening will only increase that problem.
The medications being used in children are both ineffective and dangerous, causing serious, sometimes lethal, side effects. The FDA has finally and only recently admitted that these antidepressant drugs are no more effective than a sugar pill in treating pediatric depression and that over two thirds of studies, some kept from physicians and the public for years, show a clear link between these drugs and suicide and violence. Drugs that treat attention deficit disorder have been found by the Surgeon General and leading textbooks to have no long-term beneficial effect on academic achievement or social skills and are linked to psychosis, liver and cognitive toxicity. Antipsychotic drugs have been linked to obesity and diabetes.
Detailed quotes and references substantiating all of these points in written Congressional testimony and congressional staff briefing documents by Dr. Karen Effrem are available at http://icspp.org/content/view/69/44/ and http://edaction.org/2005/021405.htm.
Thank you again for your consideration of this amendment.
Kind regards,
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Eagle Forum
Free Congress Foundation
The Liberty Committee
Citizen Outreach
Home School Legal Defense Association
Libertarian Party
Family Research Council
Fairfax County Privacy Council
American Policy Center
Coalition Against Prosecutorial Abuse
EdWatch
Gun Owners of America
Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics
www.libertycoalition.net
