NO REQUIRING RITALIN

When the news first broke a couple of weeks ago about the Albany
County couple accused of child neglect because they took their
7-year-old off Ritalin, most people probably assumed authorities would
back down once the absurdity of their case sank in. But, as Carl
Strock's column in Tuesday's Gazette demonstrated, that did not occur.
The case is still being pursued in Family Court by the county
Department of Social Services, and, in obedience to a court order, the
parents have put the child back on Ritalin.

How could this happen? Well, the father, Mike Carroll, told a nurse at
Berne Elementary School that he did not think his son was doing well
on Ritalin, and had decided to take him off it for two weeks to see if
he did better.

The school notified Social Services, which filed a complaint against
Carroll alleging, among other things, that he "fails to ensure that
[his child] takes medication prescribed for Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, thereby placing the child at risk of
educational failure." Another Social Services document identifies
Ritalin as the drug the father "is refusing" to give his child.

Now if this was some life-saving medicine that a parent was refusing
to dispense, then the intervention of authorities might be justified.
But Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, to the extent that it
can be objectively verified at all, is by no means life-threatening,
and Ritalin is considerably overprescribed, often at the instigation
of school employees. If a child has behavioral or learning problems,
the cause may well be more environmental than physiological, with drug
treatment not the best remedy.

It is not, in general, a good idea for school or social services
personnel to suggest to parents that their children go on Ritalin. It
is simply outrageous for them to require it, and to institute legal
action, with the threat of removing children to foster care, in cases
of noncompliance.

Nor is a doctor's prescription enough to excuse such a drastic
overreach of governmental authority. Doctors, too, are subject to
following the fads of the day, or acting against their better judgment.

While the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District and the office of County
Executive Michael Breslin cite confidentiality concerns and say they
cannot discuss the case, they should disassociate themselves from a
bad policy, and set a better one. Neither the school district nor the
county should seek to penalize parents for declining to have their
child take Ritalin, and that part of the complaint against Carroll
should be rescinded.