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(October 1, 2003) - The U.S. Congress is trying to intercede on the hot topic of whether a child should be forced to take Ritalin, and other drugs like it, in order to attend school.
Currently, new legislation on the matter is gaining support in the Senate after passing the House of Representative by a vote of 425 to one.
While the bill does not ban a child from taking Ritalin, it does prevent school officials from demanding a student take the behavioral drugs in order to attend school.
According to some statistics, the issue relates to at least one or two students in just about every classroom across America.
Some students exhibit behavioral problems with the inability to focus on a single topic in addition to other symptoms that would try the patience of even the most experienced teacher.
Frank Smith, of the National Association of School Psychologists, says, "Your child is misbehaving, distracting other students and interfering with education, and something needs to change."
Such a change is increasingly involving medication such as Ritalin and other equivalents. Those include Metadate, Lotemax, Adderall, which are prescribed to treat ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Some health officials estimate that 30 percent of children ages five years old to 19 years old are taking Ritalin. As many as 40 percent -- or between four million and six million children -- are on at least one type of behavioral medication.
Psychologist, Dr. Vance Boddy said, "It basically does calm them, to an extent, as well as allow them to concentrate."
April Brinson is one of a growing number or parents fighting what she and others describe as pressure from schools to medicate their children.
"They saw it as perfect that he was sitting still in the classroom. I felt like they took his personality. They took away who he was," Brinson said.
She says teachers began recommending that her son take medication for his behavior before he started kindergarten. He is no 9 years old.
At the political level, Representative Max Burns, of Georgia's 12th District, is sponsoring legislation to keep schools from coercing parents into placing their children on medication in order to remain in school.
"Children are being required to be medicated in order to receive education services. That's just not right," Burns said. "But, sometimes we want to take medication and use it as a first choice in management and control, as opposed to the last."
Tony Zizza, of the national group AbleChild.org, says he strongly supports the child medication bill. He says he helped wean his stepdaughter from taking Paxil, which is commonly prescribed to treat depression.
"We need alternatives to drugs. We need alternatives to behavioral issues," Zizza said.
Smith said, "This is a bad bill. This is not good lawmaking."
"It will cause educators to clam up about talking to parents about their children's needs -- particularly, mental health needs," he said.
Dr. Boddy, who practices in Atlanta, Georgia, said, "Some of the children who are diagnosed with ADHD are simply energetic."
The doctor has gone as far as to stop prescribing Ritalin and similar drugs for the last few years. He calls it "something so potentially dangerous that the FDA puts in the same class with cocaine and Oxycontin and Percocet."
Instead, Dr. Boddy says he advocates changing a child's diet, getting more sleep and making sure the child has more activity.
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