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Today's
Stories
December 30,2005
T.W. Croft
The
Wind Has Changed: Gulf Storms, Fables of Reconstruction and Hard
Times for the Big Easy
Website of
the Day
Images
of Mass Consumption
December 29,
2005
Norman Solomon
Journalists
Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them
Missy Comley
Beattie
Christmas
Without Chase
Dave Zirin
Over the Edge: the Year in Sports
Kevin Zeese
Top
10 Antiwar Stories of 2005
Derrick O'Keefe
Bolivia and Venezuela Offer an Alternative to Neo-Liberalism
Sam Bahour
Turning the Page in Palestine, Again
Macdonald Stainsby
What's Behind Paul Martin's Broadside Against Bush?
Bill &
Kathleen Christison
Let's Stop a US/Israel War on Iran
Website of the Day
Deconstructing the Democrats
December 28,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life?
Lila Rajiva
Operation Romeo: Lessons on Terror Laws from India
Amira Hass
The Humanitarian Lie
Joshua Frank
Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan
David Swanson
Leaking Top Secret Lies
Richard Thieme
High Time for Torture
Paul Craig
Roberts
Three
Books to Wake You Up
Website of the Day
Conyers Report: "Constitution in Crisis"
December 27,
2005
Evan Jones
Whither
the National Guard?
Uri Avnery
The Peretz Shuffle
Mike Whitney
Pop Goes the Bubble!
Gideon Levy
Dusty Trail to Death
David Swanson
Kurt Vonnegut: a Man Without a Country
Norman Solomon
NSA Spied on UN Diplomats During Push for Invasion of Iraq
December 26,
2005
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The
Usurpers of Our Freedoms
Lance Olsen
The Toughest Challenge for Intelligent Design
Ben Terrall
No Holiday Compassion for Haiti's Political Prisoners
Scott Boehm
Santa Drove a Bulldozer
Charlie Ehlen
A Vietnam Vet's Appraisal of Bush
Tom Kerr
The Atheist Dad at Christmas
December 24/25,
2005
Aleander Cockburn
The
Year of Vanished Credibility
James Petras
Iran in the Crosshairs: Israel's Deadline
Ralph Nader
Talkin'
About the "I"-Word
Lila Rajiva
Horowitz's New Project: Begging for Brownshirts
Fred Gardner
Dialogue with the DEA
Ron Jacobs
When Impeachment was Taken Seriously
Dave Lindorff
Xmas Games for a Gitmo World
Gary Leupp
Happy Birthday Mithras!: the True Meaning of December 25th
Saul Landau
Bush's Year in Review: a Report Card from Santa
John Chuckman
A Christmas Tale for Bushtime
Dr. Susan Block
Merry XXX-mas!
St. Clair / Vest / Pollack
/ Donnelly
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Holt, Jones, Landau, Ross and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Merry Xmas, From the Beatles
December 23,
2005
John Ross
The
Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty
Chris Floyd
Gospel
Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie
Lawrence Mishel
/ Ross Eisenbrey
The
Economy in a Nutshell
Joanne Mariner
Bringing
Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill
Eric Johnson-Debaufre
The Trew Law of Free Democracies?
Ray McGovern
Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward
J. L. Chestnut,
Jr.
What
White America Doesn't Hear
Website of
the Day
BB King: What I've Learned This Year
December 22,
2005
Ingmar Lee
The
Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion
Elisa Salasin
Classrooms
in Cages
Christopher
Brauchli
Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution
of the United States"
Robin Blackburn
Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist
Evelyn Pringle
Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal
Amira Hass
A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me"
Francis A.
Boyle
Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant"
Stew Albert
The
Spies Who Thought We Were Messy
Website of
the Day
How to Reach a Human Voice
December 21,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
One
Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty
Lila Rajiva
A Short History of Radio Free Iraq
Joshua Frank
Nancy Pelosi's Truth
Dave Zirin
The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano
Ramzy Baroud
US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media
Sonia Nettnin
Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo
Ben Saul
Torture as Calculated Policy
Jonathan Cronin
Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
Election Spells Total Defeat for US
Website of
the Day
Nixon on Presidential Power
December 20,
2005
Jackie Corr
Natural
Gas: a Montana Tragedy
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Nothing
New About NSA Spying on Americans
Michael Donnelly
"Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono?
Gian Paulo
Accardo
Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler
Pierre Tristam
Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution
Norman Solomon
The Foulest Media Performances of the Year
Sen. Robert Byrd
No President is Above the Law
Dave Lindorff
Missing
Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by
NTSB, Concealed by FBI
Website of the Day
FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?
December 19,
2005
Mike Marqusee
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Gary Leupp
Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?"
Ron Jacobs
The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld
John Blair
Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience
Gideon Levy
Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint
Kevin Zeese
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Missy Comley Beattie
Warnings from a Military Man and Dad
Don Santina
Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency
Website of the Day
A Call for Justice in Palestine
December 17
/ 18, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Time-Delayed
Journalism: the NYT and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation
Gabriel Kolko
The
Decline of the American Empire
Susan Alcorn
Texas: Three Days and Two Nights
Werther
The Democrats are an Impotent and Tolerated Opposition Party
Ralph Nader
The Senator Without Guile: Proxmire of Wisconsin
Patrick Cockburn
Counting Ballots and Bodies in Baghdad
Fred Gardner
When Prosecutors Deceive: Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis?
Dave Lindorff
Spy Scandal Far Larger Than Just NSA
Ned Sublette
Essence is Gasoline
Lee Sustar
The Class War Economy
Jason Leopold
Did Karl Rove Destroy Evidence in Plame Case?
Laura Carlsen
Report from Hong Kong: Deciphering the Language of Globalization
Jeff White
Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?
Ray McGovern
Torture Between the Lines
Chris Floyd
Pale Fire: the White Death of Fallujah
William Loren Katz
Remembering the First Quagmire at Xmastime: Zachary Taylor vs.
the Seminoles
Rose Miriam
Elizalde
Mashenka and the Bear: a Tale for Our Time
Greg Moses
Pinter's Provocation: Self Love in America
Heather Gray
Privatizing the Social Contract
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience: the Sequel
St Clair /
Walker / Pollack
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Albert
Website of
the Day
At Least Homeland Security Believes that Mao Still Matters
December 16,
2005
Tom Kerr
CNN's
Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace?
Mark Engler
The
WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty?
John Bomar
When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Votes; Now What?
Pierre Tristam
Iraq, Ourselves
William S. Lind
The Fine Art of Withdrawal
Cyril Neville
Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans
Robert Jensen
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design
Saul Landau
Bolivian
Democracy and the US: a History Lesson
Website
CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies
December 15,
2005
Oren Ben-Dor
The
Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine
Stan Cox
"Agroterrorists"
Needn't Bother
Joshua Frank
Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics
Ben Terrall
Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals
Patrick Cockburn
Silence Descends on Baghdad
Monica Benderman
What Peace Needs
Walter A. Davis
Fear and Loathing in San Quentin
Vijay Prashad
Our
Torture Problem
Website of
the Day
Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery"
December 14, 2005
Patrick Cockburn
Iran
Poised to Win Iraqi Elections
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lethal
Developments
Lawrence R. Velvel
A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward
Wayne Garcia
The Summer of Sami
John Sugg
Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors
Gary Leupp
Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper"
Ray McGovern
Torture: a Defining Moment
Alan Maass
They Murdered a Peacemaker
April Hurley, MD
NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Richard Pryor's Mirror on America
December 13,
2005
Stephen T.
Banko, III
Heroes
Patrick Cockburn
America's
War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong
Laura Carlsen
What's at Play at the WTO
Karl Grossman
Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Original Sin
Kevin Zeese
Report from the International Peace Conference in London
Norman Solomon
At the Gates of San Quentin
Michael G.
Smith
Ending the Death Penalty
Stew Albert
California Killers
Bob Dylan
Song for Tookie: George Jackson
Phil Gasper
California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin
Website of
the Day
Boot Hill
December 12,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Defenders of Torture
Lawrence R.
Velvel
George the Disconnected
Jessica Stewart
My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo
George Bisharat
Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds
Nate Mezmer
Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does
It Make a Sound?
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience
Seth Sandronsky
Thank You, Richard Pryor
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq:
the Beginning of the End
Website of
the Day
Wrestling for Peace
December 10 / 11, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
All
the News That's Fit to Buy
Landau / Hassen
The Condemned of Nablus
Ralph Nader
The
Widening Wasteland of American Media
Linn Washington, Jr
The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore
Bill Christison
Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day
Mike Ferner
The Courage of Jim Loney
Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion and the Bush Court
Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner
Murder in Jerusalem
Linda S. Heard
Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd
Ingmar Lee
A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest
Ray McGovern
Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice
John Chuckman
Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice
John Ryan
An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and
US Foreign Policy
Dick J. Reavis
From Waco to Baghdad
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Hired Pens
Behzad Yaghmaian
Trapped at the Gates of the European Union
Aseem Shrivastava
The Winter in Delhi, 1984
John Ross
Bushlandia in Black and White
Ben Tripp
War, What is It Good For?
St. Clair / Pollack / Vest
/ Despair
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel
Website of the Week
Burn a Brick for Bush
December 9,
2005
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Roots
of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home
Dave Zirin
/ Mike Stark
On
Seeing Wesley Baker Die
Patrick Cockburn
Blair
Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft
Alexander Cockburn
Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush
Lila Rajiva
Shooting the Mentally Ill
Gary Leupp
White House Liars on the Defensive
Jason Leopold
Rove Running Out of Answers, Time
Bruce K. Gagnon
So These Are the Democrats?
Andrew Cockburn
Meet
Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper
Website of the Day
"X-mas Time for Visa"
December 8,
2005
Kathy Kelly
Blessed
are the Merciful in Baghdad
James Petras
The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again)
William S.
Lind
Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory
Laura Carlsen
The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico
Justin Akers
Bush's Border War
Thomas Graham, Jr
A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space?
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam
Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn
The
Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
Pigs at the Trough of War
December 7,
2005
John Ryan
Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate
Gary Leupp
Suicide
Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
Fran Quigley
How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith
Bush
War Crimes: the Posse Gathers
Joshua Frank
Bird Dogging Hillary
William W.
Morgan
Rendition, Torture and Democracy
Dave Lindorff
A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage"
Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture
Website of
the Day
Witnesses to Torture
December 6,
2005
Ron Jacobs
No
One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel
Patrick Cockburn
Inside
Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder
Yifat Susskind
Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's
AIDS Policy
Mike Whitney
How Greenspan Skewered America
Pat Williams
Public Land Should Stay Public
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
to Europe: Trust Us
Website of
the Day
Debunking Woodward
December 5,
2005
John Walsh
The
Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did
They Know It?
Brian Cloughley
The Poor Dead: the Relative
Value of Human Lives
Mokhiber /
Weissman
The Corporate Crime Quiz
Robert Jensen
How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment
Norman Solomon
Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan
Peter Rost, MD
An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated
Federal Laws When They Fired Me
Lila Rajiva
The
Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons
Website of the Day
National Day of Counter-Recruitment
December 3 / 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Rev. William Alberts
The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig
Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Remembering the 60s
St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
|
December
30, 2005
The Making of Mental Patients
Inside TeenScreen
By SANDRA LUCAS
In October, 2004, after taking TeenScreen,
a 10-minute computer test developed in the psychiatric department
of Columbia University, 16-year-old Chelsea Rhoades of Indiana
was told she had two mental health problems, obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder. The diagnoses were
based upon Chelsea's responses that she liked to help clean the
house and didn't "party" much.
Chelsea is one of countless children who get labeled with fraudulent
diagnoses every day. The difference in her case is that her parents,
who were unaware that TeenScreen had infiltrated their daughter's
school and had not given permission for the screening, reacted
quickly. They filed a lawsuit against the officials of the high
school who allowed the test to be administered and the TeenScreen
program. In doing so, the Rhoades took a stand for all parents
across the nation.
The unscientific nature of psychiatric labeling was admitted
to by the American Psychiatric Association's own president, Steven
Sharfstein, when he stated on June 27, 2005, during an interview
on the Today Show, "We do not have a clean cut lab
test [for diagnosing mental illness or chemical imbalance of
the brain.]"
His admission was quickly followed by another similar statement
from psychiatrist Mark Graff, Chairman of the American Psychiatric
Association Committee of Public Affairs, "Chemical imbalance:
it's a shorthand term really, it's probably drug industry derived.
We don't have tests because to do it, you'd probably have to
take a chunk of brain out of someone - not a good idea."
Graff did more than admit to there being no science behind the
chemical imbalance theory. He also pointed out the incestuous
relationship between the drug industries and psychiatry.
TeenScreen is definitely a child born of that union, nothing
more than an unscientific written mental health survey which
professes to discover "mental illnesses", but in fact
trolls for lifelong psychiatric patients in our schools.
TeenScreen has been cleverly sold to numerous schools across
the country as a suicide prevention program with no scientific
evidence backing up the claim. The 1996 U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force found no evidence that screening for suicide risk
reduces suicide attempts or mortality.
The individuals pushing TeenScreen make every effort to hide
evidence that mental health screening is of no use in combating
teen suicide. In order to gain wide acceptance in our nation's
schools they paint youth suicide as an epidemic and their program
as the cure-all.
According to the latest Census Bureau information, gathered in
2000, the U.S. population of 14-19 year olds was around 19,800,000
and suicide for that year accounted for 0.0008% of the total
teen population. Each teen suicide is an unfathomable tragedy,
yet the actual numbers prove that suicide is not an epidemic.
In fact, suicide among American youth fell 25 percent in the
last decade.
TeenScreen's executives are well aware of the actual situation.
Rob Caruano, former TeenScreen director, was quoted in the
South Bend Tribune on December 22, 2004, "Teen Suicides,
while tragic, are so rare that [any] study would have to be impossibly
huge to show a meaningful difference in mortality between screened
and unscreened students. You'd have to be screening almost the
whole country to reach statistical significance."
TeenScreen is far from being the solution. In fact, some experts
agree that widespread screening will increase the number of teen
suicides. Jane Pearson, PhD. who chairs the National Institute
of Mental Health Suicide Research Consortium said, " ...
a prevention program designed for high-school aged youth found
that participants were more likely to consider suicide a solution
to a problem after the program than prior to the program..."
She also stated, " ... suicide is a very rare occurrence
compared to other causes of deaths. ... when researchers have
tried to predict suicide using as many known risk factors as
possible, they are still unable to predict who will and who
will not commit this act."
The TeenScreen test is a 14-item,
self-completion questionnaire. It usually takes 10 minutes to
complete and is used to screen youths from ages 11 to 18 who
read at a 6th grade level. It asks questions such as "have
you often felt very nervous when you've had to do things in front
of people?", or, "Are you the kind of person who is
often very tense, and finds it very hard to relax?", or,
"Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and
you just weren't interested in anything?"
One would be hard pressed to find a teenager who wouldn't at
one time or another answer yes to those sorts of questions. TeenScreen
refuses to release copies of the questionnaire, even to parents
and elected officials who have requested to see the test.
TeenScreen, in an effort to make the program appear innocuous,
claims that it does not recommend or endorse any particular kind
of treatment for the youth who are identified by the screening.
But, in one of many conflicting statements Laurie Flynn, TeenScreen's
director, reveals that the long-term goal of TeenScreen is not
just identification, but treatment for those in need, and that
parents of youths found to be at possible risk a re notified
and helped in identifying and connecting to local mental health
services.
Particularly distressing is the data released by a recent survey,
printed in JAM Academy Adolescent Psychiatry 2002, showing
that nine out of ten children who see a psychiatrist are given
psychiatric drugs.
A recent survey showed that between 1995 and 1999, the use of
antidepressants increased 151% for 7 to 12 year olds and 580%
for children under six. Between 1998 and 2003, there was another
49% increase in children taking antidepressants. Sales of the
drugs have now reached more than $13 billion a year.
To make matters worse, on September 15, 2004, the FDA stated
that a causal role for antidepressants in inducing suicidality
had been established in pediatric patients, and that children
given psychiatric dru gs were twice as likely to commit suicide
as those given a placebo. As a result of this finding, the FDA
ordered drug manufacturers to place a Black-Box warning on all
antidepressant labels. The Black-Box warning is the most serious
measure that the FDA can take regarding a prescription medication,
short of an outright ban. That initial Black-Box warning label
requirement has since been followed by 15 more official warnings
on psychiatric drugs.
Eileen Dannemann of the National Coalition of Organized Women
describes the TeenScreen approach as a telling omission. "We've
got eight million American kids on psychiatric drugs," she
said. "While TeenScreen asks the kids if they are usin g
street drugs, they omit to find out about the use of psych drugs.
Antidepressants play a major role in youth suicide. If [TeenScreen]
really wanted to help they would worry about that. The fact that
they don't shows their real intention."
It becomes obvious that teens will not benefit from TeenScreen.
The question that begs to be asked is "Who will benefit?"
Psychologist, author and director of Texans for Safe Education,
John Breeding, doesn't mince words, "TeenScreen is nothing
more than a government sponsored marketing tool created to serve
the interests of the corporate pharmaceutical industry and psychiatrists.
It is a shame and a disgrace that the United States is putting
millions of children on psychiatric drugs today. This is obviously
not enough to satisfy the insatiable greed of big pharma. We
must stop TeenScreen and protect our children from more deadly
poisoning."
TeenScreen is the brainchild of psychiatrist David Shaffer of
Columbia University. Shaffer is a paid consultant for pharmaceutical
companies Hoffman la Roche, Wyeth, and GlaxoSmithKline. Shaffer
is also the director of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the
New York State Psychiatric Institute. A New York Post article
dated January 31, 1999, State Testing Prozac on 6-Year olds;
Parents Not Told About Risks Including Suicide and Mania,
read, "The New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan
is performing little-known but extensive Prozac experimentation
on troubled kids as young as 6 years old, according to internal
records. While the potentially deadly danger was cited in the
researchers' documents, it was not included in the consent forms
given to children and their parents to read and sign."
Laurie Flynn, the current director of TeenScreen is also the
former director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI). While Flynn was the director of NAMI, a group that bills
itself as "a grassroots organization of individuals with
brain disorders and their family members", NAMI received
$11.72 million from various drug companies between 1996 and mid-1999.
One drug company went as far as "loaning" one of its
executives to NAMI, still paying for his salary while he worked
at NAMI's headquarters.
In view of Flynn's cozy relationships with drug companies, officials
of the program are working hard at minimizing any link to the
drug companies by saying that they are not funded by drug money.
Yet, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental
Disabilities newsletter, Update - May/June 2002, revealed
that a recent local TeenScreen survey was partly funded by pharmaceutical
giant, Eli Lilly.
The goal of TeenScreen is one item they are not afraid to reveal:
to provide mental health screening for every single American
teen. If TeenScreen' s goal is achieved, all 19,800,000 youths
will receive a "mental health checkup". Considering
that 71% of teens who were screened in Colorado were labeled
with a mental disorder, should TeenScreen succeed in its goal,
it is possible that 71% of our teens would end up being labeled.
This means that no less than 14,058,000 American youth would
end up labeled mentally ill. Since nine out of ten children who
receive "treatment" are given mind-altering psychiatric
drugs, the inevitable conclusion is that 12,652,200 would be
drugged.
The average price of a prescription for psychiatric drugs is
$102 per month. TeenScreen's endeavors would increase the pharmaceutical
companies' monthly revenues by $1,290,524,400.
To ensure success, TeenScreen officials prefer the Passive Consent
form which requires parents to return a form to the school only
if they do not want their child to participate in the screening.
Flynn is quick to deny promoting the use of Passive Consent to
schools. However, Flynn's statement, like many others, is far
removed from the truth. Numerous high schools only use Passive
Consent forms and, as in the case of Flager Palm Coast High School
in Florida, the passive acceptance style was discussed by school
officials to increase the numbers of participants from 50% for
Active Consent to near 95% for Passive.
Incentives such as pizza or movie coupons are distributed to
the kids because, as TeenScreen co-director, Leslie McGuire,
said during a national conference, "Getting the kids to
buy-in is such an essential thing because for the most part,
you're distributing the consent forms to the kids to bring home
to their parents and bring them back. So you have to get their
buy-in, you have to get them interested."
TeenScreen goes as far as to advise local schools on how to circumvent
federal law. The Protection of Pupil Rights Act (PPRA)
protects the rights of parents by making instructional materials
available for their inspection if the materials are to be used
in connection with a survey, analysis, or evaluation in which
their child is participating. It also requires written parental
consent before minors are required to take part in such a survey,
analysis, or evaluation.
The TeenScreen News (Fall 2003, Vol. 2, Issue 2) instructs
schools that making the TeenScreen survey a part of the curriculum
will help them get around the PPRA, " ... if the screening
will be given to all students, as opposed to some, it becomes
part of the curriculum and no longer requires active parental
consent."
But even if active consent forms were used for all children being
tested by TeenScreen, it still would provide no protection for
unsuspecting parents. Before parents can make a truly educated
decision they must be told all the facts. Then, and only then,
can they provide informed consent.
A true informed consent form would tell parents the following:
* Chemical imbalance of the
brain is only a theory with no science of proof to back it up
* While screening is not a
scientific and medical test it might still result in the child
being labeled depressed or mentally ill
* Should the child be labeled,
the likely recommended course of treatment will be psychiatric
drugs
* Psychiatric drugs are known
to cause children to commit sui cide
* Should parents refuse the
recommended course of treatment, a referral to the local child
welfare agency might be made, which could result in the child
being taken away from home and forcibly drugged
Flynn has made it clear that
she will go to any length in getting acceptance for TeenScreen.
While testifying in front of a Senate Committee in Washington,
she claimed to be in partnership with the University of South
Florida in piloting district wide mental Health screenings of
9th graders in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Florida.
Wilcox Clayton, Pinellas County School Board Superintendent,
was quick to set the record straight. He emphatically stated
that no such screening was taking place and added, "If this
person [Laurie Flynn] said what they allegedly said, I would
have serious reservations about partnering with such an organization."
TeenScreen is designed only to increase psychiatric and drug
company revenues by turning normal ch ildren into lifelong mental
patients. Now is the time for anyone who cares about children
and the future to step up and demand that mental health screening
not be allowed in any schools at any time.
Sandra Lucas is the Executive Director of the Utah Chapter
of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a mental health watchdog
group. She was born in Sydney, Australia, raised on the French
South Pacific island of New Caledonia. She moved to the United
States at the age of 15 and has lived in Salt Lake City with
her family since 1992. She can be reached at lucsan@yahoo.com
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