Adam, the parent here is providing this information. It is their right to do so as the parent. The school on the other hand is the one bound by privacy laws not to discuss this child’s’ medical issue with the public.

As to this comment, “I can’t agree with your viewpoint that respecting the privacy of children must mean that the school districts are manipulating us all for financial gains”, I am not sure what you are claiming. I am assuming that you mean schools are secretly hiding behind privacy laws to keep the public in the dark while taking our money. I don’t believe they are hiding behind privacy laws. I believe they are manipulating the system in two ways here. First, they are intimidating parents to drug their children so they fit into their one-size-fits all system. Second, by having more kids with an IEP, they receive additional State and Federal funding. The idea about using this to increase our taxes, I can only assume, is about the referendum. If the school district uses special education costs during a referendum campaign, then yes they are using this to attempt raise our taxes. Overall though, the main reason nearly 1 in 8 kids are now using Ritalin like drugs are because the government run school monopoly wants the kids to fit into their one-size-fits all system.

As for the comment posted against your Big Hollow editorial, the school has an obligation to deny access if the parent refuses to follow a doctors order; anything less might put them in a position of extreme liability. It was a doctor that deemed the regiment necessary, not the school. As mandated reporters, the school personnel are bound by law to report a parents neglect and if a doctor writes an order, and a parent refuses to follow it, that’s neglect.

You are correct that schools cannot write prescriptions. That is clearer in my previous article. I wrote both with an assumption that there was a general understanding by intelligent people that schools recommended and parents felt compelled to follow those instructions. If that was not clear, then I apologize.

I am also unsure of where you are claiming schools should discuss individual IEP decisions with the public. Schools do have a general obligation to discuss generalities of IEP programs because they are reporting these to the State. Large increases in certain IEP classifications should be documented and understand by both the State agencies and the public.

Schools do intimidate parents to see a doctor. In this local example, it was the threat of not educating the child; “Big Hollow could not educate my child because I refused to put her on stimulants”. In another case it was, defining parents as child abusers; a similar threat of child neglect that ended in the death of the child. In Oregon, the practice was so well known that State law was changed to prevent schools from recommending Ritalin type drugs. These are just a few examples of many. Search on Google or Yahoo and you will see more facts than you would wish to see.

It seems pretty drastic for you to assume that the school district is automatically at fault here and also hinting that school districts are able to write dangerous perscriptions. I don’t see how discussing private issues such as medical history or individual education plans for special education students with the public is realistic or even legal. You may want to check out a book or two on school law before making such broad and misinformed statements about this kind of thing. It isn’t a matter of not wanting to communicate with the public, it is a matter of law as to what can be discussed and not discussed. There are legal restraints (and common sense ones) for not sharing EVERYTHING with the public, as you probably are aware of already.

I’m all for spreading information to the public via these wonderful websites, but it would be nice if you were to spread a larger dose of factual information rather than this kind of misleading attack.