Bureaucrats and children's mental health

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views January 31, 2005]

It just doesn't stop. In past reports (11/1/04; 11/29/04), we told of the presidential initiative called the "New Freedom Commission on Mental Health." The Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly, along with the Free Congress Foundation's Stephen Lilienthal, and the Rutherford Institute's John Whitehead, all spoke to the urgent need to do away with this creepy proposal to subject the country's school children to "psychiatric screening," without parental approval. The program promises to be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry.

Congressman Ron Paul, who has twice introduced legislation in the House to eliminate or, at least, to limit the power of the bureaucrats who will run this Kafkaesque program, is still doing his best to arouse the public. "In "Don't Let Congress Fund Orwellian Psychiatric Screening of Kids," on his website, he offers information about his latest bill:

Forced mental health screening simply has no place in a free or decent society. The government does not own you or your kids, and it has no legitimate authority to interfere in your family’s intimate health matters. Psychiatric diagnoses are inherently subjective, and the drugs regularly prescribed produce serious side effects, especially in children’s developing brains. The bottom line is that mental health issues are a matter for parents, children, and their doctors, not government.

Unfortunately, however, the mental health screening initiative received funding from House and Senate appropriators in the 2005 federal budget. This funding allows states to create or expand mental health screening programs with your tax dollars. More importantly, the commission recommends a broader federal program in the near future.

Last fall I introduced an amendment to eliminate any funding for the proposal in a year-end spending bill. Although the amendment failed, the response to my office was overwhelming and highly supportive. The notion of federal bureaucrats ordering potentially millions of youngsters to take psychotropic drugs like Ritalin strikes an emotional chord with American parents, who are sick of relinquishing more and more parental control to government.

Accordingly, the first bill I introduced this year forbids federal funds from being used for any mental-health screening of students without the express, written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents. The bill is known as "The Parental Consent Act of 2005," or HR 181. This legislation strikes a vital blow for parents who oppose government interference with their parental authority, and strengthens the fundamental right of parents to direct and control the upbringing and education of their children.

It is important to understand that powerful interests, namely federal bureaucrats and pharmaceutical lobbies, are behind the push for mental health screening in schools. There is no end to the bureaucratic appetite to run our lives, and the pharmaceutical industry is eager to sell psychotropic drugs to millions of new customers in American schools. Only tremendous public opposition will suffice to overcome the lobbying and bureaucratic power behind the president’s New Freedom Commission.

For more details about HR 181, visit Rep. Ron Paul's website at: http://www.house.gov/paul/

See also update on this subject.

Copyright © 2008 Issues & Views