Activist courts protect mental health screening of children in public schools

[Guest guest]

Copley News Service

November 15, 2005

Activist courts protect mental health screening of children in public schools

By Phyllis Schlafly

The recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that parents' rights over

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

has 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, 9th Circuit 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 the late S.I. Hayakawa, R-Calif., 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 the 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 Web site 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. "

SAMHSA's lawyers must have sanitized its Web site to have bureaucrats deny that

the plan is universal or mandatory, but it's difficult to see how else they can

achieve their national goal of " transformation. "

TeenScreen, a mental-health screening questionnaire that has been used in 43

states, is supposed to enable school administrators to judge mental illness on

the basis of such questions as:

- " Have you ever had sex (with women, men or both)? "

- " Do you ever wonder if you are, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender? "

- " Have you ever had thoughts about killing yourself? "

In a Mishawaka, Ind., high school, student Chelsea Rhoades, 15, was given a

TeenScreen exam, after which she was diagnosed as suffering from

obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder. This diagnosis was

based on her responses that she liked to help clean the house and she didn't

like to " party. "

Chelsea's parents are suing the school, and we hope they don't end up in the

court of a judge like Reinhardt's. According to Chelsea, a majority of the

students who took the TeenScreen exam were told they suffered from some sort of

mental or social disorder.

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-Wis., 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.

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and the author of

" The Supremacists. "

[Guest guest]

Copley News Service

November 15, 2005

Activist courts protect mental health screening of children in public schools

By Phyllis Schlafly

The recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that parents' rights over

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

has 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, 9th Circuit 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 the late S.I. Hayakawa, R-Calif., 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 the 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 Web site 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. "

SAMHSA's lawyers must have sanitized its Web site to have bureaucrats deny that

the plan is universal or mandatory, but it's difficult to see how else they can

achieve their national goal of " transformation. "

TeenScreen, a mental-health screening questionnaire that has been used in 43

states, is supposed to enable school administrators to judge mental illness on

the basis of such questions as:

- " Have you ever had sex (with women, men or both)? "

- " Do you ever wonder if you are, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender? "

- " Have you ever had thoughts about killing yourself? "

In a Mishawaka, Ind., high school, student Chelsea Rhoades, 15, was given a

TeenScreen exam, after which she was diagnosed as suffering from

obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder. This diagnosis was

based on her responses that she liked to help clean the house and she didn't

like to " party. "

Chelsea's parents are suing the school, and we hope they don't end up in the

court of a judge like Reinhardt's. According to Chelsea, a majority of the

students who took the TeenScreen exam were told they suffered from some sort of

mental or social disorder.

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-Wis., 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.

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and the author of

" The Supremacists. "