USE OF DRUG THERAPY TO CONTROL STUDENTS BEING QUESTIONED

DENVER -- As a debate over the growing use of behavioral drugs for
children intensifies across the country, the Colorado Board of Education
has passed a resolution meant to discourage teachers from recommending
prescription drugs like Ritalin and Luvox for students.

The resolution, the first of its kind in the country, carries no legal
weight. But it urges teachers and other school personnel to use discipline
and instruction to overcome problem behavior in the classroom rather than
encourage parents to put their children on drugs commonly prescribed for
attention deficit and hyperactive disorders.

Proponents of the resolution, which passed by a 6-to-1 vote November 11,
said they were motivated, in part, by evidence that they said suggests
dozen of violent crimes in recent years, including the massacre last spring
at Columbine High School, were committed by young people taking
psychotropic drugs.

One of the teenage killers at Columbine, Eric Harris, had been taking
Luvox, an antidepressant, although there is no evidence that the drug had
anything to do with the shootings.

No other states are considering a measure similar to the one in Colorado,
where an unusual set of circumstances played a role in the resolution's
passage: an elected and fairly-conservative school board responding, in
part, to the outcry from one of the nation's worst school shootings. But
the resolution reflects broader issues, as well, as parents, mental health
professionals and school officials across the country debate the rising use
of behavioral drugs for kids.

Experts in children's mental health issues point out that children who take
the drugs do so because they were having difficulties to begin with. They
acknowledge that impulsive or violent behavior is a recognized side effect
in a small percentage of people taking the drugs.

But in arguing that an overwhelming majority of children who use the drugs
are benefiting, they contend that the Colorado resolution is- irresponsible
and perhaps even dangerous because it could lead school personnel to ignore
signs of serious mental disorders in children and that it would discourage
communication between teachers and parents.

"I hope what happened in Colorado is the exception and not the rule," said
Michael Faenza, president of the National Mental Health Association,
conceding that he fears other states and school districts might replicate
Colorado's efforts.

"Holding up psychotropic medicines as the possible cause of violent
behavior is absurd," he said. "There's a wealth of information to show that
they have helped dramatically."

The use of Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs, has increased steadily
over d3e years among school-age children to a current level of about 2.5
million, according to Children and Adults with Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, a national nonprofit organization known as CHADD,
which is based in Landover, Md.

In Colorado, increased usage has spotlighted the role that teachers and
administrators play in the daily lives of children who attend their
schools. It also has pitted experts who say use is growing because .the
drugs are beneficial against those who contend that parents and teachers
are -too quick to seek out prescription medicine as the simplest way to
treat children with behavioral problems.

Patti Johnson, the Colorado' school board member who organized a hearing on
- - the issue and proposed the resolution, said that in the five years she
has served on the board, she has received "numerous complaints" from
parents who said a teacher had insisted that their child go on Ritalin or
another drug before returning to class.

Recounting the case of one girl who was showing signs of attention deficit
disorder through mood sweeps and napping in class, Johnson said the girl
later was diagnosed to be suffering from hypoglycemia and just needed to
change her diet. According to the girl's parents, Johnson said, the teacher
told them, "You need to get her a prescription for Ritalin."

As a result, she said, a resolution was designed to remove school personnel
from any medical decisions. She said the board, which consists of six
Republicans and one Democrat, passed the resolution along party lines with
minimal debate. The lone Democrat, Gully Stanford, did not return a
telephone call. No other versions of the resolution were considered.

"The resolution does not stop teachers from' communicating with parents,"
Johnson said in an interview. "What it does do is stop teachers from giving
parents an ultimatum: 'Put your kid on a drug or we're not going to teach
them.' That can't happen anymore. It's wrong."

Brenda Welburn, executive director of the National Association of State
Boards of Education, said Colorado's is one of only seven' elected state
boards of education in the country and that those boards tend to be more
ideological.

She added, however: "I agree that too often the first answer for children
with some behavior problem is to reach for medication. Some of the numbers
we are seeing for medication children are staggering."

Julie Underwood, General Council of the National School Boards Association,
said she knew of no~ other school board examining the question. 'She added
that although many people are concerned about over medication, "We would be
reluctant to support such a resolution because there are children who may'
need such services, who may benefit from the medication."

Besides complaints from parents about insistent teachers, Johnson said she
also was motivated to propose the resolution by the violent crimes
involving young people, in which investigators said the perpetrators were
using psychotropic drugs. Accounts of those incidents also persuaded a
Colorado state law~ maker, Penn Pfiffner of Lakeland, to hold a separate
hearing on the issue, which, by coincidence, came two days before the
school board voted on Johnson's measure.

Dr. Peter Breggin, director of the International Center for the Study of
Psychiatry and Psychology, a nonprofit research organization in Bethesda,
Md., testified at both hearings and said doctors have become too eager to
prescribe psychotropic drugs at the expense of conversations among parents,
teachers and children learn why children are acting in anti-social ways.

"It's a tremendous mistake to subdue the behavior of children instead of
tending to their needs," Breggin said in an interview.