Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

But Can You

But can you reject Teen Screen recommendations? Or does it constitute grounds for the schools to medicate you child? I've encountered other school systems where a diagnosis by an elementary school teacher makes medication mandatory. No kidding. All the school had to do was say the child was disruptive and they wouldn't accept him. It took my brother $200,000, three years, two criminal investigations for practising medicine without a licence, and a Federal grand jury on civil rights violations to convince the school they were wrong.

Yes and No

Good for your brother for rejecting the school's ''diagnosis'' and protecting his child! It's too bad it took so much time and money - not everyone has that much time, money or motivation.

Currently there are only verbal reassurances from school personnel that it's fine for a parent to reject TeenScreen's conclusions and carry on as if the test never happened. However, based on reports from around the country, your brother's experience is more typical. As a result, in November 2005 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, the Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1790) by a vote of 407 vs. 12 votes. The law, which still needs to be introduced in and approved by the Senate, would protect children from being forced to take mind altering drugs just to attend school.

A similar bill was stalled in the Senate in 2004.

So that was the long way to say there is currently no legal recourse if the school ''diagnoses'' your child and you disagree.

For me, this isn't the scariest situation, frightening though it may be. I fear that if a child tests ''positive'' and the parents don't do as they're told by TeenScreen, Children's Services will be called. Again, there are verbal reassurances that this will not happen, but you know what they say - they're as good as the paper they're written on!

I agree, too

I agree, too. Jim, I'm curious to know what state it was where your brother's child was forced to be medicated. I've never heard of this. That's terrible!

Oklahoma

This happened in southwestern Oklahom, however Colorado has a ''must medicate'' law and Kansas has a policy very similar to OK's. Luckily most of Colorado outside of the Ft Collins-Denver corridor largely ignores the state government.

I did fudge a bit in the tale though. What actually got the school board's attention was my brother's (ex Okla State Linebacker, MA Range Management and DVM) calling the superintendent onto main street at high noon. That will get a pudgy little clerk-type's attention faster than a Federal restraining order obtained by your brother the Dallas lawyer. There still are places like that where bureaucracy is a dirty word and ''Walker Texas Ranger'' is still the man.