JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

Since I read Rayne’s post Absolutely NOT Negotiable I haven’t stopped thinking about it. She quoted Congress Funds Psychological Tests for Kids

The federal bill on its face does not require mandatory mental health testing to be imposed upon states or local schools, explained Serkes.

However, the HHS appropriations bill contains block grant money that will likely be used – as is often the case with block funding – by the various states to implement mandatory psychological testing programs for all students in the school system.

Rayne listed other links at the bottom of her post including one to Rep Ron Paul MD (Texas – R): The Therapeutic Nanny State.

Last week I wrote about a presidential initiative called the “New Freedom Commission on Mental Health,” which issued a report calling for the mandatory mental health screening of American schoolchildren. This new proposal threatens to force millions of kids to undergo psychiatric screening, whether their parents consent or not. At issue is the fundamental right of parents to decide what medical treatment is appropriate for their children.

I introduced an amendment to eliminate any funding for the proposal in a Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services spending bill. Although the amendment failed, the response to my office has been 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.

I was surprised that I had not heard about this earlier this year or on other blogs.
In the comments on a second post of Rayne’s Finally: Consensus , Dave Pollard pointed out that he posted about this in June.

Bush wants all Americans, including pre-school children, to be examined by armies of psychiatrists and those showing signs of potential “disruptive or aggressive behaviours and emotional disorders”, and treated with a range of new, expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs available exclusively from — surprise! — pharmaceutical companies that have contributed three times as much to Bush as to Kerry.

I don’t often write about Congressional legislation on this blog. But the possibility that my children and all children in America would be subjected to mandatory psychological testing, diagnosis and medical treatment (pharmaceuticals) upset me enough that I wanted to post this.

Here’s how to contact Senators….