DEBATE OVER STUDENT MEDICATION INTENSIFIES

EDUCATION: Colorado board discourages teachers from suggesting Ritalin for
pupils.

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

Proponents of the resolution, which passed by a 6-1 vote Nov. 11, said they
were motivated, in part, by evidence that they said suggests dozens 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 teen-age shooters at Columbine, Eric Harris, had been taking
Luvox, an anti-depressant, 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 parents, mental-health
professionals and school officials around the country debate the rising use
of medication for children.

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 in that it could lead school personnel to ignore
signs of serious mental disorders and 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.
"Holding up psychotropic medicines as the possible cause of violent behavior
is absurd."

The use of Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs has steadily increased over
the years among school-age children to a 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 turned a new focus onto the role that
teachers and administrators play in the daily lives of children who attend
their schools. It has also 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 Jonson, 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 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.