The Harms of Psychiatric Drugs in Public Schools

 (2002)

G. Stolyarov II

See Mr. Stolyarov's Index of Selected Writings, Originally Published on Associated Content / Yahoo! Voices.
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Note from the Author: This essay was originally written in 2002 and published in two parts on Associated Content (subsequently, Yahoo! Voices) in 2007, where it received over 400 page views. To preserve a record of my writings following the shutdown of Yahoo! Voices in 2014, I have given this article a permanent presence on this page.

~ G. Stolyarov II, July 29, 2014

The prescription of mind-altering drugs to children has often occurred in public schools without the consent of either the children or the parents on whom such drugs have been imposed. This is not only a blatant violation of the students' liberty; it has also been shown to augment the children's emotional problems and lead to violent acts which would have been hardly conceivable in the absence of such drugs.

This is an excerpt from a report by the "Forensics Quarterly" magazine, which in its first 2002 edition featured the mental illness debate in the United States and expressed both sides of the controversy: "Following the school shootings at Columbine High School, Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton organized a White House conference designed to call attention to the need for greater access to mental health services for American teenagers. The implication was that school violence occurs because our society fails to pay attention to the mental health care needs of students. The White House conference ended with a pledge that the federal government would spearhead 'a program to train teachers and school counselors in how to identify troubled children and get them mental health services' [Pasker-Tursman, 1999, p. A1]." ("The Forensics Quarterly" Vol. 76, No. 1, 2002, p. 30)

The suggestion presented by Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore is the "precautionary" designation of particular students subjectively perceived to be "prone" to conducting a shooting and the infliction of various medicines and therapies upon them which have been shown to possess only negative consequences for the patient's mind.

Leticia Diaz gives evidence which suggests that the mental illness treatment is what encourages school violence in the first place!

"Columbine killer Eric Harris massacred his fellow students and snickered while he did it. Fifteen-year-old Kip Kinkel killed both of his parents, slept next to their dead bodies, and went on to kill two students and wound twenty-five others at school the next morning. Thirteen-year-old Chris Fetters killed her favorite Aunt. Are these just wicked and unruly juveniles, or is there a common denominator correlating these and other similar adolescent violent acts? Interestingly, all three of these youths were taking some form of Prozac, an anti-depressant belonging to the class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Although these drugs and their long-term effects are not fully understood, they are nonetheless being prescribed to millions of children. In fact, 1,664,000 antidepressant prescriptions for children were dispensed in 1998 alone. Currently about six million children in the United States are on some type of psychotropic medication." (Leticia Diaz, "2001 Seton Hall Legislative Journal", p. 84)

The proposed "treatments" had been prescribed to future school shooters to no avail, possibly augmenting the lack of conscience and destructive urges preceding their commission of such abominable crimes.

The American people are not learning the lessons of history on this issue, while politicians, especially within the Democratic Party, seek to "increase the availability of these treatments" which have to date yielded no positive effects.

About six million children are in greater danger of mental instability and harmful acts because their minds had been warped and "tranquilized" with drugs such as Prozac. SSRIs are, of course, not the sole dangerous brand of psychiatric medicine. Another variety is spreading at a significantly more alarming rate.

"Especially controversial is methylphenidate- trade name Ritalin- which is the drug typically used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The use of Ritalin among American school children has gone up 700% since 1990 as an increasing number of students are diagnosed with ADHD." (Colgan, 2001. p. 60)

Scientific tests have discovered a correlation between Ritalin use and future drug addictions. "But researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say their continuing study, tracking ADHD youths into adulthood, has found a connection between Ritalin use and later abuse of tobacco, cocaine, and other stimulants. A yet-to-be-published animal study at the Finch University of Health Sciences/the Chicago Medical School found that adolescent rats given repeated doses of Ritalin proportionate to those of children are likelier to self-administer cocaine as adults. The results suggest that Ritalin is 'likely to make [kids] more sensitive to cocaine if they ever decide to try that illicit drug later in life', said Francis White, chairman of the school's cellular and molecular pharmacology department." (Donohue, December 26, 2000. "Minneapolis Star Tribune", p. 1A)

These so-called "medicines" present a repulsive menace to a child's life, threatening to transform it into a life of crime and self-debasement. Nevertheless, the schools of today increasingly mandate their consumption with criminal charges against non-compliant parents.

"Some public schools are accusing parents of child abuse when they balk at giving their kids drugs such as Ritalin, and as judges begin to agree, some parents are medicating their children for fear of having them hauled away by authorities. It's an emerging twist in the growing debate about diagnosing and medicating children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). An Albany, N.Y., couple put their 7-year-old son back on Ritalin after a family court ruled that they must continue medicating him for ADD. Child protective services visited another New York couple to check out anonymous allegations of 'medical neglect' after they took their son off Ritalin and other drugs because of side effects, the couple says." (Thomas, 2000, p. 1D)

Adherents of the coerced-drugging paradigm in educational institutions, urged on by publicity grabbers, such as Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore, and psychologists with an authoritarian slant, such as Dr. Ralph Slovenko, are heedlessly bombarding mental patients in general, but youths in particular, with poisons that they must introduce into their systems without their own consent or that of their parents.

It has been mentioned that "trained teachers and counselors" would assume responsibility for the detection and "reforming" of "mentally ill" students. Their methods, already in the process of implementation, are far from humane. "Federal grants have provided millions of dollars to fund a variety of early warning systems designed to identify students who may be at risk for violence or suicide. These systems include anonymous e-mail reporting, student questionnaires, teacher observation checklists, and direct psychological screening by trained counselors. These instruments are designed to identify students who are in need of mental health services." ("The Forensics Quarterly" Vol. 76, No. 1, 2002, p. 30)

Monitoring of these individuals may be initiated from an immense variety of highly efficient sources, a system similar to that employed by the Party in George Orwell's 1984 to hold its citizens in check and spot the minutest signs of "thoughtcrime."

It is imperative to preserve America's children from the devastating effects, not of mental illness, but of the mental poisons they are forced to take to "combat" it. The violation of liberty implicit in the forced taking of such substances, as well as the violence they lead to, are grounds enough to keep their use out of places of learning.

Gennady Stolyarov II (G. Stolyarov II) is an actuary, science-fiction novelist, independent philosophical essayist, poet, amateur mathematician, composer, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles of reason, rights, and progress. 

In December 2013, Mr. Stolyarov published Death is Wrong, an ambitious children’s book on life extension illustrated by his wife Wendy. Death is Wrong can be found on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.

Mr. Stolyarov has contributed articles to the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), The Wave Chronicle, Le Quebecois Libre, Brighter Brains Institute, Immortal Life, Enter Stage RightRebirth of Reason, The Liberal Institute, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

In an effort to assist the spread of rational ideas, Mr. Stolyarov published his articles on Associated Content (subsequently the Yahoo! Contributor Network and Yahoo! Voices) from 2007 until Yahoo! closed this venue in 2014. Mr. Stolyarov held the highest Clout Level (10) possible on the Yahoo! Contributor Network and was one of its Page View Millionaires, with over 3,175,000 views. Mr. Stolyarov’s selected writings from that era have been preserved on this page.

Mr. Stolyarov holds the professional insurance designations of Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA), Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS), Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Associate in Regulation and Compliance (ARC), Associate in Personal Insurance (API), Associate in Insurance Services (AIS), Accredited Insurance Examiner (AIE), and Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance (AIAF).

Mr. Stolyarov has written a science fiction novel, Eden against the Colossus, a philosophical treatise, A Rational Cosmology,  a play, Implied Consent, and a free self-help treatise, The Best Self-Help is Free. You can watch his YouTube Videos.Mr. Stolyarov can be contacted at gennadystolyarovii@gmail.com.

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Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here.

Read Mr. Stolyarov's new comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, here.

Read Mr. Stolyarov's new four-act play, Implied Consent, a futuristic intellectual drama on the sanctity of human life, here.