{"id":1676,"date":"2012-01-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp\/index.php\/2012\/01\/17\/coalition-letter-in-support-of-parental-consent-act-of-2011\/"},"modified":"2016-12-13T07:51:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T07:51:33","slug":"coalition-letter-in-support-of-parental-consent-act-of-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/17\/coalition-letter-in-support-of-parental-consent-act-of-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition Letter in Support of Parental Consent Act of 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Dear Member of the House of Representatives<\/p>\n

We the undersigned representing millions of concerned citizens, are writing to ask you to support HR2769, The Parental Consent Act of 2011. This bill, recently re-introduced by Congressman Ron Paul forbids federal funds from being used for any universal or mandatory mental-health screening of students without the express, written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents or legal guardians. This bill protects parents' fundamental right to directly control the upbringing and education of their children.<\/p>\n

In 2003 a report by the federal government's, New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, it was recommended that <\/span>all 52 million American schoolchildren be screened for “mental illness”<\/strong>, claiming–without a shred of scientific evidence–that “early detection, assessment, and links with treatment” could “prevent mental health problems from worsening”. <\/span><\/p>\n

These screenings have come under fire. One of the recommended screening programs for schools, called TeenScreen has been highly criticized. Even Dr. David Shaffer, the psychiatrist that helped developed it, admitted that use of this screening method could produce 84 non-suicidal teens to be referred for further evaluation for every 16 youths “correctly identified”.<\/p>\n

In October 2004, the FDA ordered its most stringent “black box” warning: that <\/span>antidepressants also cause suicide in children and adolescents<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2006, the FDA also revealed that <\/span>stimulants<\/strong>–prescribed to 2.5 million American children for so-called “learning” or “behavioral disorders”–could cause <\/span>hallucinations, psychosis, strokes, heart attacks and death<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

About the same time, the public was also warned that there had been <\/span>45 child deaths<\/strong> <\/span>from antipsychotic drugs, largely prescribed for the same “disorders.”<\/p>\n

Still, psychiatrists claim that antidepressants decrease suicide, but according to a <\/span>Journal of the American Medical Association<\/em> <\/span>study, “Despite a dramatic increase in treatment, <\/span>no significant decrease occurred in suicidal thoughts, plans, gestures, or attempts in the United States during the 1990s.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

A 2005 study by Dr. David Healy and Graham Aldred from the North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, reported that the studies of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants show that theyincrease the risk of suicide<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

As for violence, <\/span>at least 12 of the recent school shootings<\/strong> <\/span>have been committed by students taking or withdrawing from these prescribed mind-altering drugs. The medical information of the other teen killers is not publicly available.<\/p>\n

Parents need to be informed that unlike medical diseases, there is no x-ray, blood or other physical test to determine if a child has a “mental disorder,” that mental health screening is based on subjective questions, not medical science, and that any “informed consent” form must contain the above information.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, <\/span>written parental consent<\/strong> <\/span>must be required for any screening initiative dealing with school children and minors.  Recent media has shown more and more parents standing up for that right.<\/p>\n

We respectfully urge your support of The Parental Consent Act (HR 2769) by becoming a co-sponsor.<\/strong>        <\/p>\n

[signed:]<\/p>\n

Gretchen DuBeau, Executive and Legal Director
Alliance for Natural Health<\/p>\n

Dr. Jane Orient, Executive Director
Association of American Physicians & Surgeons<\/p>\n

Star Parker, President
Center for Urban Renewal and Development<\/p>\n

Chuck Muth, President
Citizen Outreach<\/p>\n

James J. Gormley, V.P., Senior Policy Advisor
Citizens for Health<\/p>\n

Mark Lerner, Co-Founder
Constitutional Alliance<\/p>\n

Phyllis Schlafly, Founder and President
Eagle Forum<\/p>\n

Odette J. Wilkins, Esq., Executive Director
Equal Justice Alliance<\/p>\n

Grover Norquist<\/p>\n

Joseph K. Grieboski, Chairman of the Board
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy<\/p>\n

Michael D. Ostrolenk, National Director
Liberty Coalition<\/p>\n

David James, President
The Liberty Committee<\/p>\n

Karen R. Effrem, M.D., President of Education
Liberty Watch<\/p>\n

James Landrith, Founder
The Multiracial Activist<\/p>\n

Kathryn Serkes, Chairman & CEO
Patient Power Alliance<\/p>\n

John Whitehead
President The Rutherford Institute<\/p>\n

Dr. Richard Land, President
Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission<\/p>\n

Dane vonBreichenruchardt, President
U. S. Bill of Rights Foundation<\/p>\n

Michael P. Farris, President
ParentalRights.org<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Member of the House of Representatives We the undersigned representing millions of concerned citizens, are writing to ask you to support HR2769, The Parental Consent Act of 2011. This bill, recently re-introduced by...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-government-agencies-signed-by-tma","category-advocacy-and-letters","tag-advocacy-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-r2","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Advocacy-Work.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3928,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/3928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}