A Different Kind of Drug Problem

By Robert Capozzi

Did you know that schools have been allowed to coerce students to take drugs? That’s correct, although in this case we are talking about pharmaceutical, psychotropic drugs.

It’s been an under-the-radar-screen issue for years. The challenge of children who behave in a disruptive, unruly manner is not new, of course. Gone are the days of the dunce cap and paddle, for the most part.

Instead, in recent years, schools nationwide have resorted to ordering parents to medicate children they considered to be behavioral problems. Of course, in theory, a disruptive child in the classroom comes at the expense of other children’s education, so it’s reasonable that schools have techniques at their disposal to correct misbehavior. Ordering them to take drugs, however, strains our sense of fairness.

So says Congressman John Kline (R-MN). Schools, he says, “are not precluded” from going to the parents and suggest that they may “want to consider” psychiatric counseling and possibly psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin and anti-depressants. However, Kline asserts, his legislation, Child Medication Safety Act of 2005 (HR 1790), is designed to prevent schools from making medication a “pre-requisite for coming to school.”

Congress thought this problem was solved in 2003. Then, by a vote of 425 to 1, the Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 passed the House of Representatives, and was later enacted into law. However, the legislation was written in such a way that some classes of psychotropic drugs – including anti-depressants – could still be coercively required for continued school attendance. Kline notes that anti-depressants have been linked to suicidal thinking and behavior, making their use by children a particular concern.

Kline -- whose previous career was as a military aide for both Presidents Carter and Reagan, where his duties included carrying the nuclear “football” -- is experienced with challenging situations. He believes that the new, broader language captures all drugs that are intended to alter a child’s emotions or behavior.

Asked why he’s taken on this issue, Kline notes that he had been a co-sponsor of the 2003 act. Organizations from his home state of Minnesota came to him, noting that the law had loopholes. So he has taken a leadership role this year, with the plan to more definitively establish in the law that schools may not force these sorts of drugs on children.

Various government child-mental-health programs have been initiated in recent years, including the Department of Education’s “Mental Health Integration in Schools.” While this sounds benign, government at various levels have been enabling forced medication of children. When asked whether this was an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, Kline says, that that law “is alive and well. . . . This is an undreamed-of consequence.”

As for the prospects for HR 1790’s passage, Kline says he “pretty confident. We have pushed very hard” for this legislation.

Robert Capozzi is an associate editor of The Free Liberal and works during the day as a private investor. He has been an investor relations executive, a policy analyst, and a registered lobbyist.