Activist Court Protects Mental Screening Of Kids

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http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/nov05/05-11-23.html

Eagle Forum

Activist Court Protects Mental Screening Of Kids

by Phyllis Schlafly

The recent Ninth Circuit decision proclaiming that parents' rights over the

education of their children terminate at " the threshold of the school door " has

understandably stirred up a tremendous backlash. But in asserting the public

schools' right to overrule parents, the decision in Fields v. Palmdale School

District is much broader than the matter of a nosy questionnaire interrogating

elementary schoolchildren about their assumed sexual activities.

The decision appears to be inventing a judicial argument for the new federally

proposed mental health screening of all schoolchildren. In dicta wholly

unnecessary to the decision, Judge Reinhardt casually asserted that the

school's power extends to " protecting the mental health of children. "

The school had sent a letter to parents stating that if a child felt

uncomfortable about answering nosy questions, the school would assist in

" locating a therapist for further psychological help. " First, third and

fifth-grade children would be provided with therapists to enable them to cope

with a classroom activity.

An activist court has thus brought out in the open a trend that started years

ago. When Hayakawa was a U.S. Senator urging passage of the Protection of

Pupil Rights Amendment in 1978, he predicted that the schools were succumbing to

" a heresy that rejects the idea of education as the acquisition of knowledge and

skills . . . [and] regards the fundamental task in education as therapy. "

One of W. Bush's first initiatives upon becoming President was to create

the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The Commission issued its report in

2003 and it is being implemented by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse & Mental Health

Services Administration).

SAMHSA proudly asserts that its goal is a " fundamental transformation " of the

mental health system. SAMHSA says that " the word transformation was chosen

carefully " because it empowers new federal action in " policy, funding, and

practice, as well as for attitudes and beliefs. "

The federally funded activities announced on SAMHSA's website are awesomely

comprehensive and expensive. SAMHSA is planning " a national effort focused on

the mental health needs of children and early intervention for children

identified to be at risk for mental disorders. "

Ask yourself: How are these federal bureaucrats going to " identify " children at

risk, and where will " early intervention " take place? The original report of the

New Freedom Commission was blunt in stating that the plan is to make the public

schools " partners, " and conduct " routine and comprehensive " mental health

examinations linked with " state-of-the-art treatments " using " specific

medications. "

As a result of grassroots opposition, SAMHSA now denies that the plan is

universal or mandatory, but it's difficult to see how else they can achieve

their national goal of " transformation. "

A study by Harvard University and the National Institute of Mental Health

released in August claims that 46 percent of all Americans will, at some point

in their lives, develop a mental disorder. Such an extraordinary statement by

so-called experts indicates that mental diagnoses are unscientific, and the

people pushing screening of all schoolchildren are, well, probably crazy -- or

are shilling for the manufacturers of the psychotropic drugs that will be

prescribed for kids who flunk the TeenScreen test.

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which was reaffirmed in the No Child

Left Behind Act, prohibits schools from interrogating students about " mental or

psychological problems " without prior informed written parental consent. The

Department of Education has sent a letter to every school superintendent setting

forth the school's obligations.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) emphatically

stated, " It is not, and should not be, the role of government to subject

children to arbitrary mental health screenings without the consent of their

parents. " Right on, Rep. Sensenbrenner!

Congress should make compliance with the law about parents' rights a condition

of federal funding to schools just like other civil rights requirements.