Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

The Dispatch's February 4th ''Another safety net'' editorial is an example of the triumph of PR over facts. Schools evaluate the health of students' vision, hearing and curvature of the spine to compare to defined standards, and the treatments for deviations from normal are straightforward and proven to work. This is not the case for mental illness.

Definitions for mental illness and mental health are subjective, and identification for both is at the discretion of the evaluator. Treatments are trial and error, many of them being no better than placebo. Many are far worse. The Dispatch gives a nod to the black-box warning the FDA requires on the labels of antidepressants, citing an increase in suicidal thoughts. The reality is that these drugs have severe side effects, and most school shooters were on psychiatric medications that the time of the crime. Couldn't the treatment, then, be considered worse than the disease?

The Dispatch also acknowledges that the suicide rate among teens is dropping. Any healer worth his or her salt would say, ''if it ain't broke, don't fix it''.

Yes, depression and anxiety occur among teens as well as adults. No one should have to suffer, and it is tragic when the suffering results in the loss of human life. But what are the facts behind TeenScreen's mental health screening program in schools? Is it scientific? Has it been tested rigorously? Do teens who have taken the survey have better outcomes than teens who haven't? The answers appear to be no, no, and not necessarily, in that order.

The editorial also mentions some TeenScreens allow passive consent from the parents, which requires the parents to specifically opt out, rather than active consent, which requires parents to sign a form giving the school permission to test their child. Not only has the passive consent method invited criticism, it has fueled lawsuits in Indiana and Michigan.

According to TeenScreen, approximately one-third of students taking the test will score ''positive'' for mental illness. Up to 84% of those ''positives'' will end up being ''false positives''. Imagine being a teen and being told by a professional that you may have a mental illness, but after further evaluation, oops, that was a mistake. Talk about depressing!

So what happens if a teen tests ''positive'' for a mental illness and the parent disagrees and refuses treatment? The path forward is up to the TeenScreen administrator. Maybe nothing happens, and everybody goes home. That's not likely, though. Because there would be ''evidence'' that the teen is a potential danger to himself or someone else, the more likely scenario would be some action taken, which could include intervention by government authorities and even removal of the child from the home.

Is screening for mental illness necessary in the schools? Don't we already know who the ''at-risk'' kids are? Don't parents/teachers/administrators know who has falling grades, who is skipping class, who is doing drugs, who doesn't have friends, who is bullying other kids and who is being bullied? Do we need a computerized test to tell us who these kids are?

Yes, high school is tough enough for healthy kids. It's even tougher when pressured to reveal personal thoughts to a computer and then having to discuss them later with an authority figure. Schools want to help kids, but good intentions do not necessarily equal good policy. Parents and teens should be wary.

Teen Emotional Problems

I don't want to undertake the defense of TeenScreen programs, or even to dispute the questions you raise about modern psychiatry. All of them, I think, are legitimate.

Kids are overmedicated; it is very hard to tell the difference between attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and what used to be called simply neurosis; some of the drugs people take for these conditions have terrible side-effects, often producing the same symptoms they are intended to relieve; and we are still struggling for answers.

But I have personally witnessed kids' lives fall apart due to the onset of the overwhelming emotional and psychological problems that sometimes come with puberty. I do not know whether I would call them ''illnesses,'' and I also know for a fact that a kid can't just take a pill for them and get better. There is much more to these problems than that.

I do believe, however, that these problems, whatever one may choose to call them, may be evident to well-trained school personnel long before they are evident to parents. I also think that a kid's teacher or counseler may be very helpful in overcoming the denial that may be a parent's first response to the suggestion that a kid has such a problem.

I know for a fact that there are effective ways to deal with these problems, though it is always a struggle, and it is very hard to find the right guidance. And I think it is vital that, where possible, these problems be discovered and addressed early in life, before they become encrusted with multiple layers of ego defenses and self-medications.

These problems can lead to alcoholism and drug addiction, and to crime to support costly drug habits. Bright, promising kids -- your kids and mine -- can experience one failure after another, and even wind up spending their lives in prison, if they life long enough.

So, if TeenScreen isn't a solution, we need to find one. These problems are far more widespread, even in this small community, than you may realize. And, believe me, they are a nightmare for the kids who experience them and their parents.

By Sympathetic Reader

Being a parent

OK, I am going to go way out on a limb here. First let me tell you that I have a child who is diagnosed with a problem. The schools were helpful up to a point but the only relief came from constant parental involvement with the child and school and seeking multiple professional diagnoses until we settled on treatment. The school (and I won?’t separate this body into teacher/principal/counselor because they acted pretty much in unison) was quick to offer recommendations for medication and offered special education classes. Mind you, this entire school intervention was based on one incident within the first two weeks of the school year. I can trust our educators?’ opinions in that they have seen a lot of things in their days, but medical professionals they are not. They were quite put out when I refused their medication recommendations and offered special education classes as an alternative. Before you ever agree to special education classes, please visit one of their classes and keep in mind that the schools have a vested financial interest in placing children in special education. That is not an accusation that they place kids in there to meet a quota, it is simply a fact that they are subsidized for special education.

Fortunately I was able to be involved entirely in this process. It frightens me that the potential exists for passivity. I don?’t want to worry about opting out of something. I want all the information brought to me beforehand, like the Teen Screen stuff. My kid doesn?’t always bring all paperwork received home to me and missing something as apparently controversial as Teen Screen would have been upsetting. We opted out of Teen Screen after coming to many of the same conclusions that Katelyn has researched and posted here in this forum.

Why does every kid have to be branded? What have we come to that every kid has to be branded as ?“normal?”, ?“ADD?”, ?“ADHD?”, ?“Bipolar?”, ?“Manic Depressive?”, ?“OCD?”, or others? Is it necessary to be categorized to receive an education? I would like to see some statistics like how many suicides are there a year in PLSD? How many kids are currently on some psychotic medication? What is the potential for the side effects of these medications to lead to other effects?

I am no mental health professional. I am a parent and I take that role seriously. I understand that the schools are simply a tool in my arsenal to educate my kid. I am an active parent, not a friend, pal, buddy to my kid. I make hard decisions for them every day. Many are not popular, like who they hang out with and what parties they go to and do not go to. We eat dinner together 7 nights a week mostly. We talk about things. We listen to each other. We support each other. We respect each other. We try to put each other before ourselves. In other words, we are pretty much a family. We are getting pretty good at solving problems at home. It isn?’t always perfect but we try and we keep trying.

I don?’t need the schools to screen my kids. I do that daily. I think a lot of what the schools are trying to accomplish by listening to all these ?“professionals?” and reading ?“studies?” and what they pick up at ?“conferences?” can be better accomplished if more parents just started fulfilling their roles. Being a parent is much more that having a smaller model of yourself with your genetic characteristics running around your house. Parenting is a tough job and requires 24 hours a day of effort to practice towards perfection.
I can offer more of my experiences with the PLSD and their involvement in my kid?’s education but since people so often get slammed in this website, I?’ll see who slams me before I continue.

No Slams from Me

You'll get no slams from me for sharing your experiences with the rest of us.

I agree with you -- the PLSD should not be prescribing medications or treatments. The most they can do is alert parents to these problems, and let parents know that there are resources available.

If your kids have these problems, it can be a struggle to find the right help. It always helps, however, to know that you are not alone, and to be in touch with other parents with whom you can share experiences and suggestions.

I wish you the best.

By Sympathetic Reader