What to do if the school board says:
"you have to put your ADD child on drugs."

1. Get them to put it in writing and sign it. (They are prescribing drugs without a license.) Do not be intimidated by the school board, and always remember that they work for you. Treat them as "your" employee and hold them accountable. They do not know what is best for your child, you do. You are the parent. Parents raise kids. School boards only run schools.



2. If they tell you "The law says if your child is disruptive in class you have to put the child on Ritalin," ask them to show you the law in writing. The law will usually say that if your child is physically endangering other children, then you must seek medical help or special classes. Remind them that medical help doesn’t always mean drugs.



3. If they tell you to sign a release for your child’s medical records because it’s the law, again ask to see the law in writing. You are the parent, you raise kids, they are the school board, and they deal in education.



4. Whenever you go before a review board or conference regarding your child, record the meeting on a tape recorder. Not hidden but in plain sight. Explain that you can’t take notes and you want to remember every word they say. If they say the meeting is private and confidential and can’t be recorded, ask them to put that in writing. Remember, confidentiality is your child’s right, not the school board’s. You never need to be in a closed-door session regarding your children.



5. According to every book on the market, ADD/ADHD children usually have a higher I.Q. than most normal school children, so ask them why they have such a hard time teaching the smartest kids in school.



6. Ask the board if they are aware that if your child takes Ritalin past the age of 12, according to the 1999 Military Recruitment Manual, that child may not join the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines untill after a doctor has signed a paper stating that the person has been off Ritalin for four years. Because the child is a class 2 drug user.



7. Ask the board if they were aware that if your child uses Ritalin, the State or Federal Government could not hire him or her if the job involves state secrets or national security, because your child is a class 2 drug user. (They can run for office, but they can’t be hired.)



8. Ask the board if they were aware that if your child uses Ritalin, some insurance companies will turn down that child, or even your entire family, for being a class 2 drug user. Others will raise your rates and write in a pre-existing condition clause, excluding some coverage for your child.



9. Ask the board how much money they get if your child goes on Ritalin and has to attend the special education class for learning disabilities. If they say they don’t know, tell them to go find out because someone turns in those forms every month. Check under the Individual Development Education Assistance Act of 1985. The government allotted over $2 billion for this program.



10. Ask what percentage of kids in this school district are on Ritalin. (Anything over 5% is suspicious.)



11. Ask if they know that according to the DEA, Ritalin is the number 2 drug illegally sold on the playground. (Kids grind it up and snort it, which according to doctors is worse than cocaine because Ritalin is made to be taken orally and will destroy the nasal passages.)



12. Ask if they know why the side effects of Ritalin and Cocaine are almost identical. (It’s because the two are almost identical in chemical compounds.)

Testimony of Bruce Wiseman - Presented to The Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 20,1999

Bruce Wiseman is National President of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) and opposes the use of psychiatric medications.

These graphs show the alarming increase in the production of Ritalin from 1985 to 1995 as well as the number of ADD/ADHD diagnoses from 1988 to 1997. Bearing these in mind, consider the events of the last two years alone:

1. On May 25, 1997 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old African American girl in Las Vegas, Nevada. Strohmeyer had been diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Dexedrine, a Ritalin-like drug, immediately prior to the killing.

2. On October 1st, 1997, in Pearl Mississippi, 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed his mother--50-year-old Mary Woodham--to death and then went to his high school where he shot nine people killing two teenage girls and wounding seven others. Published reports say he was on Prozac.

3. Exactly two months later on Dec 1, 1997, Michael Carneal, a 14-year-old opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded, one of whom was paralyzed. Carneal was reportedly on Ritalin.

4. Then in February, 1998 a young man in Huntsville, Alabama on Ritalin went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

5. On March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot 15 people killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others. According to one report, the boys were believed to be on Ritalin.

6. Two months later another grisly school massacre occurred. On May 21, 1998 15-year-old Kip Kinkel of Springfield, Oregon murdered his parents and proceeded to his high school where he went on a rampage killing two students and wounding 22 others. Kinkel had been prescribed both Prozac and Ritalin.

7. On April 16th, 1999, 15-year-old Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho took a 12-guage shot gun to school and started firing, injuring one student and holding the school hostage for about 20 minutes. Terrified students ran for their lives, some barricading themselves in classrooms. Cooper had been taking Ritalin when he fired the shotgun's rounds.

8. The incident in Idaho did not make the national press (no one, thank God, was killed). But all that changed four days later when 18-year-old Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School before killing himself. Harris was on one of the SSRI anti-depressants called Luvox.

9. One month later to the day, on May 20th of this year TJ Solomon, a 15-year-old high school student in Conyers, Georgia on Ritalin opened fire on and wounded six of his class mates. Thankfully, none were killed.

10. Then there's 14-year-old Rod Mathews who had been prescribed Ritalin since the third grade and beat a classmate to death with a bat.19 And 19-year-old James Wilson who had been on psychiatric drugs for 5 years and took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school in Breenwood, South Carolina killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two teachers!

11. Secondly, as also mentioned previously, testing revealed that Eric Harris one of the dead suspects in the Columbine, Colorado incident, had therapeutic levels of the anti-depressant Luvox in his blood.