Gifted Children

and Spectrum Children

Is It A Cheetah? by Stephanie S. Tolan

"required reading" for any parent of a gifted child - please look at this at least once.

"Don't Mourn for Us"

This 1993 essay by Jim Sinclair, co-founder of ANI
(mirror page)

(video montage) from Christschool (veoh.com link)

Disabilities and School System Procedures

Public Law 94-142 - (IDEA)

brief summary of Public Law 94-142 from this site

PBIS and the Law This site has a large amount of information on the implementation of PL 94-142. This one's worth bookmarking if you need to deal with a public school system. Included are descriptons of 'IEP' and 'FBA' evaluations.

20 U.S.C. §1412 - The IDEA law

Go to 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(25) (search for "(25)") for the part about Prohibition on mandatory medication

NICHCY

Has information on P.L.94-142 and other links relating to IDEA

News Digest de NICHCY en Español

con informacion de P.L.94-142 y IDEA

34 CFR 300 et seq (pdf format; This is a partial set of the Federal Rules which implement P.L. 94-142.)

(site may have changed; I last checked it during a Government shutdown and could not get to it.)

IEP Handout (.pdf) by Ian Ford

This is geared toward autistic mid-school students, and is intended for students advocating for themselves in writing IEPs. Ian Ford describes himself as "An autistic quaker engineer who is fixated on policy, transit, and education." (html version)

"Law and Exception Students" summary from Angela Howell at U.N.C.

Functional Behavioral Assessment

This may be obtained under IDEA in some instances.

Laws Against School System Ritalin Abuse

Federal (US) IDEA Reauthorization Act - 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(25) - Prohibition on mandatory medication

This section, implemented July-2005, makes it illegal for a school district to require a child to obtain a prescription for a substance covered by the Controlled Substances Act (e.g., R-ball; Adderal) as a condition for attending school. This applies to all students of a school receiving funds under IDEA, which includes all public schools. This Federal prohibition applies to all students; not just those falling under IDEA.

At any meeting discussing the subject, bring a copy, take notes and state that one of your objectives is to ensure full compliance with both the letter and spirit of the law under 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(25).

The Inhofe Letter from William W. Knudsen of DOE Office of Special Education and Rehabilative Services (OSERS), interpreting 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(25) as applying to all school students (not just students receiving an IEP under the IDEA law).

Connecticut Law on Ritalin

earlier law, passed June-2001 - Connecticut law says only doctors; not teachers - can recommend Ritalin for students. Connecticut and Minnesota had passed such laws before the Federal law.

The outfall of this is that if one does receive a prescription for Ritalin, the parent has a right to refuse to administer the Ritalin, which effectively puts an end to pressure from the school for any form of drug therapy. (i.e., to circumvent 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(25), they would have to recommend that parent get a different prescription for a different drug, presumably for a different diagnosis -- not an easy task.)

Declining the Opportunity to Drug Your Child - a HOWTO on declining Ritalin when pressured by the school district

various strategies based on adherance to the Federal prohibition on mandatory medication provisions of the IDEA Reauthorisation Act   (from this website)

Ritalin

Other Ritalin Resources

Dr. Peter Breggin's Website

Dr. Breggin has extensive medical information about use and misuse of Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs.

"Psychiatric Drug Facts" by Dr. Breggin

Dr. Breggin's Huffington Post column

Attention Disorder: Overcoming the Deficit; Abuse of Attention Deficit Drug Can Be Deadly

-> ->   This report is from the FDA!

Possible Side Effects of Ritalin

from about.com

Religion-Based Approaches

This is here because of its relevance to a few readers. This is of not comprehensive, and not intended to be comprehensive. Obviously, not all religions will consider this issue directly impacted by their philosophy.

Christian

ADHD info

Church of Scientology

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a group within the Church of Scientology has become active in opposing the use of Ritalin (probably a reason for reduced use of the drug in California). It seems that Scientology is involved in part because they disfavour psychology; instead favouring their own techniques. As far as I'm concerned, their concern is more than welcome. Thank you, Scientologists.

I would ask where are the other religious groups, but there is at least one other fundamentalist group above with a public anti-drug message.

Jewish

Nothing substantive, but here's a Rabbinical analysis of taking Ritalin on Shabbat (English).

Other Opposition

There are various groups who have taken a position on "better children through chemistry." This comes from unexpected places. For example, the supposedly anti-drug Mormon Church (LDS) is suprisingly silent on Ritalin and other drugs given to children. In fact Utah is reported to have the highest incidence of prescribed Ritalin in the U.S.! (Hey, Elders - HELLO!! Do you really want your kids trained to use drugs?)

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

This is a group of Scientologists who expressed an interest in the issue, and have apparently reduced its abuse. Regardless of whether you buy into their belief system, they are spot on with their approach on this issue.

What Is CCHR?

ADHD and Learning Disorders

"About Child Drugging"

Other Drugs and Treatments

Medical Marijuana (MMJ)

This information is presented here to place the use of Ritalin drug treatment into perspective.

Medical marijuana (MMJ) is not an option in many jurisdictions. Significantly, more "controlled study" psychological research is desparately needed. While MMJ is being advanced in connection with autism, most of the experience in MMJ for personality conditions relates to ADHD.

Autism and Medical Marijuana

Autism includes Kanner's autism, High functioning autism, and Asperger's syndrome (AS). In general these are personalities or personality disorders (depending on one's political viewpoint).

A significant percentage of autistics -- probably the majority -- would object to a "cure". It's unlikely that drugs therapy would "cure" a personality condition in any meaningful way.

Medical marijuana is proposed to address issues of:

1. as as a training aid to assist the subject in perception of social interactions
2. sensory overload (e.g., "meltdowns")
3. anxiety

CBS article on use of MMJ to treat ADHD

Article on one family's use of MMJ, for disorders which are apparently ADJD-related.

Caffeine

No links yet (although this page was written with the aid of quite a bit of "organic shade grown" from Whole Foods.) Caffeine is, after all, the ADHD drug of choice of many adults in the workplace.

Child Abuse in the School

This relates to institutionalized abuse; for (unsanctioned) predator abuse, please see other web sources.

"Stand Against Restraint, Seclusion, and Bullying by Teachers"

at http://www.facebook.com/endabuseinschool (Facebook account or logon to Facebook account not required.)

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain 1967-1994

a description of the tragedy

Kirstie Alley's comments

"Cobain had been a bright and active child who liked to sing Beatles tunes, until he was labeled 'hyperactive' and put on the controversial drug Ritalin.

He was then given sedatives to counter the side effects. 'They set him up for drug addiction when he was in kindergarten"
(alternate link)

history of Kurt Corbin

Another description of the Corbin tragedy

www.grungers-corner.com/downwardspiral/ The downward spiral - another perspective

It is common knowlege that Kurt Cobain had a long history of drug abuse, however it is not as commonly known he started at age 6

Other Links Pages

ADD Resources in Tacoma

Includes some good information on ADD in a series of links to articles

ADD - A Non-Medication Approach - excellent collection of links

from Attention Deficit Disorder - Home Page from About.com (also good links)

Non-Medical use of Ritalin

from Indiana University

ADD-ALIVE! - has several links on ADD and adult ADD

Jeffrey's ADHD Links Page

Your On-line Guide to Good Health and De-toxification

a collection of links, although some may be considered fringe. I included a link to this page for those wishing to obtain reference material, but you'll have to ferret out the good stuff on your own.

Drug Data

Drug Types - an index of drugs (reference)

DEA Warns of Ritalin Abuse

DEA diversion control head Gene Haislip: "A lot of people don't know Ritalinş is like cocaine"

US D.E.A. on methylphenidate

(The D.E.A. is a law enforcement agency which is part of the Dept. of Justice. We also have the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Food and Drug Administration and state law enforcement agencies.)
URL:

Experiments

Neurodiversity's History of Autism Research - includes Lauretta Bender's bizarre LSD-25 experiments on autistic children from 1962-1968. The similarity to Ritalin treatments is striking. (Compare the acceptability of the Lauretta Bender LSD-25 experiments with the better-known self-medication advocates of the day.)

Alternative ADD Remedies

WatchMinder: A reminder system for ADD patients

Actually I prefer Norton Program Scheduler, but that's proprietary software (included with some Symantec programs).

Herbal Remedies

Regarding St. John's Wort, this is medication and should be dosed carefully. Please speak with someone who is familiar with its use prior to administering it, especially if you are not familiar with naturopathic medicines.

Ritalin (methylphenidate) side effects in the treatment of ADD/ADHD

Rossha Enterprises, Inc. Klamath Lake Algae Testimonial #2

Ritilin: Do You Like Your Child For Who He Is? Stop Medicating NOW! ritalin,html)

ADD/ADHD ~ And What You Can Do About It Without Ritalin

Apple-a-Day: Insight Newsletter3

ADHD Products and Publications

Trepanation Site I highly recommend this for public school officials who "prescribe" Ritalin.

Talk about DIY medicine! So how much better is giving Ritalin to our kids?

Men have a philosophy that "every project is an excuse to buy a power tool," but Amanda (and her husband) take this a little too seriously.