Mandatory mental health testing in public schools proposed by Bush

[Maddy McCall]

Another excellent reason to bring them home and teach them yourselves.

Nov 15 - Funding for a controversial Bush administration plan to submit the nation's school children to mental health testing and drug treatment may end up reaching the Senate floor this week, as GOP congressional leaders look to clear the legislative slate in order to set the table for George W. Bush's second term.

The plan, called the New Freedom Initiative (NFI), is the keystone of a package of initiatives by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a group of doctors and mental health care professionals established by the Bush Administration in 2002.

As previously reported by The NewStandard, the Initiative’s critics, ranging from grassroots mental health advocacy organizations to government whistleblowers, have said the NFI's proposals do little else but establish state-mandated markets for the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry.

In 2003, the Commission published a report recommending states encourage more mental health testing and treatment for Americans and suggested public schools were an ideal place to access students and begin to root out undiagnosed and "severely disruptive" mental health issues. It pointed to a program begun during George Bush's governorship of Texas called the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), which set a standard operating procedure within a flow chart allowing psychiatrists to identify and medicate possible conditions.

More at http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1234

[kostya]

1. Oh great, just when I was starting to convince myself to

stay in this country, this kind of crap pops up. What next? What next? That's right, you know that troublesome kid who keeps spouting all those lefty ideas, who seems to be able to think for himself, there must be something WRONG WITH HIS BRAIN, so let's get him "medicated" so our programming will take hold better.

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. If they put the word Freedom in one more bill that is about anything but..

I'll scream.

[msgadget]

3. It's time to take action, parents,

the other side is uncomfortable with this as well. Call someone, write, contact homeschooling associations, state department of education, your local elected officials, join a group and let's get moving! Some lone guy is going to re-open this in Jan. to rework the language and we need to be noisy. Let's not forget it. Call into to C-Span to speak against it, let's write the networks. Does anyone have any links to groups already organized around this issue?

[LeftyMom]

4. Talk to conservatives you know

the religous types and old school small govt conservatives are with us on this one. (I know you gotta hold your nose but politics makes strange bedfellows.) The first media outlet screaming about it was WorldNutDaily.

[genius]

5. They want to drug them into submission.

Have you ever seen any of those drugged kids? They are like zombies.

[Flying Coyote]

6. That's the tip of the iceberg

The Bushies are neck-deep in drug company links, and the "New Freedom" plans also call for testing pregnant women and eventually expanding the program to ALL citizens.

Getcher soma here...