Posts Tagged ‘Child Protective Services’

Court files prove Mom had full legal authority to stop administering dangerous drugs to daughter; CPS raid nothing but illegal kidnapping

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Natural News April 26, 2011

by Ethan Hunt

New developments in the case of Maryanne Godboldo — the Detroit, Mich., woman whose house was recently raided by a SWAT team with a tank, and whose daughter was subsequently kidnapped by these armed terrorists — are set to hopefully clear the mother of any wrongdoing in the matter (http://www.naturalnews.com/032090_M…).

Recently-released court documents prove that the consent form Maryanne signed agreeing to give her daughter the highly-dangerous anti-psychotic drug Risperdal was optional, and that she was always free to cease using them at any time.

In other words, the raid conducted by state-sanctioned thugs on behalf of Child Protective Services (CPS) was nothing more than an illegal kidnapping by armed terrorists who violated Maryanne and her family’s legal, civil, and God-given rights. At this point, Maryanne truly has a fully-validated case against CPS and its criminal cabal, should she decide to pursue aggressive legal action against them. After all, they illegally broke into Maryanne’s home and proceeded to kidnap her child without just cause.

The consent document Maryanne signed clearly states that she would “not be forced” to administer the medication, and that her daughter was free to “stop taking it at any time.” Maryanne had also consulted with another doctor, who recommended that she stop using the deadly drug and instead pursue alternative options — which clearly proves that the child was not being neglected as some have accused.

“I think that document proves our case,” said Wanda Evans, Maryanne’s lawyer in the case. “She understood she had a right to stop giving the medication. If you sign an informed consent that says you can stop, and you stop, you did the right thing, and CPS is just being nasty.”

According to reports, Maryanne’s daughter, Ariana, is still being held in captivity at a CPS facility in Northville, Mich. Supporters from around the country continue to raise money to help Maryanne’s legal battle to free her daughter, and you can help support these efforts by visiting:
http://justice4maryanne.com/
Sources for this story include:

http://www.cchrint.org/2011/04/22/c…

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Court Files Vindicate Detroit Mom In Stand Off With Police: She Had Legal Authority To Stop Daughter’s Drugging

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Note from CCHR:  Court documents now vindicate  Maryanne Godboldo in having every legal right to stop administering her daughter an antipsychotic drug documented by international drug regulatory agencies to cause agitation, aggression, cardiac arrest, fatal  blood clots, liver failure, mania, suicide and violence yet this did not stop the state from ordering an assault on this woman in her own home, complete with Swat Teams and a tank.  There can be no doubt that Child Protective Services were in violation of every legal and civil right this mother has to protect her daughter from harm, not to mention her fundamental right as a parent.   We’re not sure why this isn’t being investigated as kidnapping case, because Maryanne Godboldo’s daughter was for all intents and purposes, kidnapped under the authority of Child Protective Services.   We,  as a society, must stand up to the use of force in what our co-founder, Dr. Thomas Szasz calls “The Therapeutic State,” the alliance between psychiatry and government in exerting social control over citizens.  This is not an isolated incident of parents being pressured, coerced, threatened to administer drugs to their child, via “child protective services” on behalf of “the state.”

“In the therapeutic state, treatment is contingent on, and justified by, the diagnosis of the patient’s illness and the physician’s prescription of the proper remedy for it… Today, the therapeutic state exercises authority and uses force in the name of health.  The Founding Fathers could not have anticipated…that an alliance between medicine and the state would then threaten personal liberty and responsibility exactly as they had been threatened by an alliance between church and state.” — Thomas Szasz (read more here http://qr.net/38D )

The Detroit News – April 22

by Doug Guthrie

Detroit — A mother accused of medical neglect for refusing to give her daughter a prescribed drug had authority to halt treatment, court files indicate.

The “informed consent” form signed by Maryanne Godboldo, who sparked a debate over parents’ rights when her daughter was removed from her care March 25, authorized her to give her daughter, Ariana, the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

“It has been explained to me that I have the right to withdraw this consent at any time and can stop taking the medication at any time,” the form reads.

The agreement was signed June 3, 2010, by Godboldo and a psychiatrist associated with a children’s health organization that later complained to child welfare workers when Godboldo stopped giving her daughter the drug used in treatment of symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Lawyers for the 13-year-old’s mother and father will be in Wayne County Circuit Court Juvenile Division today attacking the validity of a petition obtained on a medical emergency claim by a county Child Protective Services worker to take the girl from her home by force March 25. Ariana has since been kept in a state facility for mentally ill juveniles.

The social worker’s efforts to take Ariana set off a 12-hour siege after armed police broke open a door at Godboldo’s west side home and a shot was fired. The 56-year-old mother and the girl’s father, Mubarak Hakim, 58, face neglect claims and attempts by state authorities to make the girl a ward of the court and possibly resumption of drug therapy. Godboldo also is charged separately with criminal assault and resisting and opposing the three Detroit Police officers who entered her home.

The case has drawn nationwide attention from groups advocating parents’ rights, concerns about the safety of childhood immunizations and use of psychotropic drugs, and those opposed to government intrusion on personal decisions.

Godboldo has said her daughter’s problems began in 2009, after she took a cocktail of immunizations to catch up with requirements to switch from homeschooling to a regular school environment. Godboldo, who believes her daughter’s problems are from encephalitis caused by a severe reaction to the immunizations, has said drug therapy worsened her daughter’s behavior. Godboldo has said she sought a “holistic’ alternative with the help of another doctor.

The form was signed by Dr. Rajendra Kanneganti, a psychiatrist associated with the Children’s Center of Wayne County. The treatment plan resulted from a mental health assessment of then 12-year-old Ariana after she was found by police wandering naked in her neighborhood last Memorial Day weekend.

The document, signed by the mother on behalf of her minor child, says, “I understand that I will not be forced to take this medication and that I can stop taking it at anytime. I also understand that discontinuation of prescribed medication without consultation with my doctor could cause my condition to worsen.”

“I think that document proves our case,” said Godboldo’s lawyer, Wanda Evans. “She understood she had a right to stop giving the medication. If you sign an informed consent that says you can stop, and you stop, you did the right thing, and CPS (Child Protective Services) is just being nasty.”

Kanneganti did not respond to a Detroit News telephone call.

A legal expert said the signed document might not carry much weight in court.

“In this case you do have these countervailing rights and obligations and they are difficult to assess,” said John Pirich, professor at Michigan State University College of Law. “But, in practice, a court usually looks first at the health, safety and welfare of the child.”

The News obtained access earlier this week to the previously withheld court file. The file was made available only after a lawyer for The News reminded officials that court files are open to the public under Michigan law.

The original petition to remove the child was obtained by case worker Mia Wenk, two weeks on the assignment, who expressed frustration with Godboldo’s lack of cooperation in her investigation of accusations of medical neglect from at least four sources, including the Children’s Center.

Evans said Godboldo consulted another doctor before weaning her daughter from the drug.

“Our intention is to begin an evidentiary hearing (today) on why the girl was removed from the home,” Evans said. “On what authority did they (Protective Services) act when it is a parent’s responsibility to make these decisions?”

Wayne County Child Protective Services workers last week filed an expanded explanation of claims. It quotes the clinical director of the facility where Ariana is being held, saying the girl, “may have a severe case of childhood onset schizophrenia, which would require medication for her to be treated properly.”

However, Assistant Attorney General David Law, representing Protective Services in court last week, said there was no current emergency need to medicate the girl.

dguthrie@detnews.com

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Mother Loses Custody of Teen For Refusing to Give Her Antipsychotics, Daughter Now Held in Psychiatric Ward

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Note from CCHR:  The author of this article ends with the fact that ‘the state’  may be more guilty than the  mother (Maryanne Godboldo) of causing harm to her 13-year-old daughter, Ariana.  We just want to point out that its not even a question.  The “state,” meaning the psychiatric infiltrated Child Protective Services, was forcing this mother to administer a drug that could have killed her daughter, then showed up at her house with a Swat team and a tank when she chose to save her daughter from a deadly drug, removed her daughter from her custody, threw the 13-year-old girl into a psychiatric ward, where her father reports she has now been sexually abused.  So the “state” has essentially drugged and molested a 13-year-old.  There is absolutely no question of who the real criminals are in this case and they should be prosecuted not only for the  severe damage they have inflicted upon this child,  but also to a mother who has fought tooth and nail to protect her child from harm;  Maryanne Godboldo.  Period.

Care2 -  April 18, 2011

by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

A Detroit mother lost custody of her daughter after refusing to give her antipsychotic medications, which officials say the teen may not need in the first place.  Her mother, Maryanne Godboldo, was accused of medical neglect when her 13-year-old daughter, Ariana, began to have erratic symptoms following a series of vaccinations, and was given an antipsychotic drug by a center for at-risk youth.  Godboldo felt that the drug, however, made her daughter worse, and began looking for holistic treatments instead.  Child Protective Services then tried to remove Ariana from her home, resulting in a “stand-off” with a police SWAT team during which Godboldo reportedly fired a gun.

Ariana is currently at a local psychiatric hospital, where officials say there is no “emergency need” to give her antipsychotic drugs.  Even more disturbingly, Ariana has tested positive for an STD, which her father is saying is proof that she was sexually abused while she was at the hospital.

Godboldo is now facing criminal charges, including resisting arrest and firing a weapon in her home.  But she is still claiming that the state should not have intervened, particularly in the way that they did.  “They took her unlawfully,” said Godboldo.

Ariana remains in protective care, despite the fact that the judge says she would like to have her discharged to a family member.  Bureaucracy is preventing that from happening in a timely manner.  The whole case is pretty stunning, especially considering that, as Anna North writes on Jezebel, Godboldo doesn’t seem to have been “jeopardizing her child’s mental or physical health.”

So although this does raise questions about the use of traditional vs. nontraditional medicine and whether the state can intervene, these don’t seem to be relevant here.  Medical officials say that Ariana is not in dire need of the medication, and in a horrible irony, attempts to improve her well-being have torn her away from her family and resulted in her placement in a facility where she may have been sexually abused.  In this instance, the state may be more guilty than the mother of causing harm to Ariana.

http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/mother-loses-custody-of-teen-for-refusing-to-give-her-antipsychotics/


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The Maryanne Godboldo question: When do parents have the right to shoot back against state-sponsored kidnappers?

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Natural News
By Mike Adams
April 15, 2011

Maryanne Godboldo

The story of Maryanne Godboldo and how armed government agents broke down her door and attempted to kidnap her daughter because she wouldn’t feed her psychiatric drugs  brings to light an important question: When is it justified to shoot back?

I’ll explore both sides of this argument here and then share my own views.

On the “shoot back” side of the argument, this woman had every right to defend herself against armed assailants who were engaged in acts of violence (breaking down her door) and who conspired to kidnap her daughter. In the legal world, the term “conspiracy” simply means more than one person was involved in planning the event. This was, without question, a conspiracy to kidnap a human being.

Shooting back was the only reasonable solution remaining for Maryanne, who had already tried to verbally say no when Child Protective Services insisted they were going to take her daughter away. Notably, it was CPS that brought guns to the scene by calling the police. So the escalation of the event can only be blamed on CPS, not Godboldo.

On the “don’t shoot back” site of the argument, the only argument I’ve really heard so far is from people who say “you should never shoot back against government agents.” In other words, the fact that the kidnappers and assailants are on the city payroll somehow gives them the right to violate your rights and freedom, to assault your person and your home, and to commit the felony act of kidnapping your teenage daughter. This seems a bizarre bit of logic.

I suppose another argument against shooting back would be the philosophical argument that violence never solves anything. But it sure can be a deterrent to would-be thieves, rapists and kidnappers, which is exactly what Maryanne just proved. She was able to hold them off for 12 hours by allegedly firing a single round. Do you think they would have stayed away for 12 hours if she didn’t have a gun?

Now, to use Obama’s current doublespeak, the truth is that Maryanne didn’t even fire a gun at all. She was only engaged in “kinetic action” in the protection of her child. That term — “kinetic action” — is what Obama uses to explain how the war in Libya is not a war. It’s just “kinetic action” (i.e. pieces of lead moving at very high velocities).

I’m thinking of posting a sign on the front door of my own home that reads, “This house is protected by kinetic action.”

Why Hitler loved a disarmed population

But let’s get back to the issue of when it’s appropriate to shoot back. The “don’t shoot back” crowd seems to think that the government can do no wrong. If the government comes for you in the middle of the night to kidnap your children for no justifiable reason, you’re supposed to just surrender and do what you’re told. This is the entire argument of the “don’t shoot back” crowd.

Hitler would have loved this idea, of course. In fact, he pursued it quite diligently. One of the most important elements of his plan to exterminate the Jews was to disarm them first. That’s why Hitler passed gun control laws before he started rounding up Jews and sending them off to the gas chambers. It’s always easier to round people up if they don’t shoot back, you see. An armed population is much more difficult to subject to genocide because they have the pesky problem of causing kinetic action to take place.

This is the reasoning behind the non-profit group JPFO — Jews for the Preservations of Firearms Ownership (www.JPFO.org). Far from being a bunch of gun nuts, these folks are scholars of history who fully realize that if the Jews in the late 1930′s hadn’t given up their guns under Hitler’s gun control agenda, they would have been able to assemble a far more effective resistance against government tyranny.

The French Resistance, of course, kept their guns. And their explosives. This is what made the French Resistance so effective at interdicting German supply lines (blowing up railroad tracks, ammo dumps, German vehicles and so on). The French Resistance is a significant factor of why we won the war against tyranny in World War II. We have to remember to thank the French for holding on to their rifles and bullets. Otherwise, Hitler might have succeeded in his world conquest.

See, governments far too often become tyrannical, out-of-control police states that end up assaulting (and sometimes murdering) their own citizens. It happened in Germany. It happened in Russia. It happened in China and a dozen other countries around the world. And although America today certainly isn’t as bad as Nazi Germany in 1941, there are very clear signs that America is headed into precisely such a scenario, where innocent civilians are targeted by armed government thugs who commit felony crimes in the name of the government.

The situation with Maryanne Godboldo is precisely such a sign. When a woman is threatened, coerced, and has her front door broken down by armed thugs conspiring to kidnap her daughter — merely because she refused to give her daughter a dangerous psychiatric drug — that is a sure sign that the medical police state has descended upon us and is operating in a bold, aggressive manner.

Would I engage in kinetic action to protect my own children?

Personally on all this, let me explain the context of the statement I’m about to make here. First off, I have many friends who are cops. I volunteered countless hours and dollars to help cops in Arizona, and I have great respect for the importance of local law enforcements. Local cops are, for the most part, really dedicated, professional people, and they are underpaid and almost universally unappreciated.

That being said, if a group of them broke into my home to kidnap my child, I would regrettably and sadly engage them with kinetic action. As long as they stayed outside the front door, I would hold off and verbally warn them to go away, but the second they smash through the front door, they become justified targets of kinetic action. The fact that they collect their paychecks from the government makes absolutely no difference. It does not justify their criminal intent. If anything, the fact that they are committing such crimes (kidnapping is a felony) while wearing a badge makes their acts even more offensive than if a street thug did the same thing.

Are my actions justified? Under the laws of our land — as well as in the scriptures of every major world religion — they most certainly are! While we all hopefully seek to avoid violence in every way possible, when violence is brought to our doorstep and into our home, we have little choice but to respond in our own defense.

This is precisely the purpose of the Second Amendment, of course: Not to make guns available for hunting and sport shooting, but rather to give the People of America the power to protect themselves from exactly the kind of armed government tyranny we see being applied to Maryanne Godboldo. Again, I’m no gun nut, and I’m not a hunter. The idea of shooting a living creature or human being is extremely disturbing to me. But if driven to such circumstances by a tyrannical police state that seeks to force me to medicate my own children at gunpoint, I will do what is necessary to protect my family and my life.

Maryanne Godboldo is a hero for her actions. CPS workers and the local police officers who raided her home are the real criminals here, and I can only hope and pray that when justice is finally served, Maryanne will be vindicated. And the medical police state will be completely disarmed so that these Big Pharma henchmen can no longer threaten the lives and liberties of innocent Americans who only seek to protect their children from the devastating side effects of psychiatric medications.

Have no illusions: We the People are under siege by the Big Pharma-influenced medical police state. We are being threatened and assaulted by armed agents who are blatantly conspiring to carry out the wishes of the drug companies. We are being forced to medicate our children against our will and against our better judgment.

CPS workers and law enforcement officers need to learn that when they threaten us with guns and violence, we will shoot back if driven to such actions. And I know quite a few places across America where, if CPS workers try to kidnap innocent children, they will not only be shot but hung from low-hanging branches of nearby trees along with a large piece of plywood spray-painted with the warning message: “WE SHOOT KIDNAPPERS.”

Photo credit: Freep.com
http://www.freep.com/article/201104…

Take action now to help Maryanne Godboldo

(Thanks to Ethan Huff for these resources:)

Supporters of Maryanne have set up a website called “Justice for Maryanne Godboldo”. Its organizers have created a “Calling Campaign” to demand that urges the public to call every single US representative in Detroit, every single day, to demand an investigation into CPS and the Department of Human Services for their crimes in this case (http://justice4maryanne.bbnow.org/e…). Those contacts include:

Fred Duhal – (517) 373-0844, freddurhal@house.mi.gov
Shanelle Jackson – (517) 373-1705, shenellejackson@house.mi.gov
David Nathan – (517) 373-3815, davidnathan@house.mi.gov
Jimmy Womack – (517) 373-0589, jimmywomack@house.mi.gov
Lisa Howze – (517) 373-0106, lisahowze@house.mi.gov
Rick Snyder – (517) 373-3400, rick.snyder@michigan.gov

The key perpetrators who instigated this heinous crime against humanity include:

Michael Patterson, District Manager with the DHS children’s division administration of Wayne County – (313) 852-1700
Michigan Department of Human Services – (517) 373-2035

Also, be sure to check out the “Justice for Maryanne Godboldo” Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justi…

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SWAT Attacks Home School Mom for Refusing to Force Med Child

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 14, 2011

Detroit mother Maryanne Godboldo faces multiple felony charges and is being held on $500,000 bond after a 10-hour standoff with a heavily armed police SWAT team. Godboldo was protecting her 13-year-old daughter from unnecessary medication ordered by the state.

Godboldo’s daughter was born with a defective foot that required amputation of her leg below the knee, which led to Maryanne becoming a stay-at-home mother after her birth, according to Health Impact News Daily.

Despite her handicap, the child swam, sang, danced and played the piano. However, as the home schooled girl approached middle school age, she apparently wanted to start attending public school, and therefore had to “catch up” on immunizations the state insists are required under color of law.

SWAT police descend on mother’s apartment, reportedly using a tank.

According to her aunt, Penny Godboldo, the girl suffered an adverse reaction to the immunizations. “She began acting out of character, being irritated, having facial grimaces that have been associated with immunizations,” Penny told the Detroit News.

Maryanne Godboldo sought help from the Children’s Center, an organization claiming to help families with at-risk children. Godboldo told relatives the medications ordered by the doctor worsened symptoms, including behavioral problems.

When Godboldo refused to give her child the prescribed medication, Child Protective Services became involved. CPS obtained a warrant to remove the girl, but Maryanne reportedly refused to surrender the child to the state.

Police claimed Godboldo discharged a firearm in her apartment during the stand-off and that is when the SWAT team was called in.

Maryanne’s attorney, Allison Folmar, claims her client never shot at police in a report in the Voice of Detroit, which reports that the police sent the “Detroit Special Response Team (SRT) officers who descended on the home with a tank and assault weapons. Video footage shows individual officers staking out the house, taking cover behind trees with their weapons, as in a military operation,” reports Health Impact Daily News.

The Detroit News reports that Godboldo has an excellent reputation in her community, and during the 10 hour standoff many people from the community offered to help with the negotiations, including ministers and community activists.

Wayne Circuit Judge Deborah Thomas finally convinced Maryanne to surrender with a promise her daughter would be turned over to a relative. Family members, however, say the girl was grabbed by the state regardless of the promise.

Maryanne Godboldo was arraigned before 36th District Magistrate Sidney Barthwell Jr. on charges of firing a weapon in a dwelling, felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Her bond was set at $500,000.

“I’m shocked by the amount of the bond. I never dreamed it would be set so high and she wouldn’t be free to care for her daughter,” said an outraged Deborah Thomas.

“Child Protective Services was trying to force her child to take a dangerous medication, Risperdal, against her will. We have been able to get a court order signed by [Wayne County Circuit Court] Judge Richard Skutt, staying the administration of this drug, which is not approved by the FDA in such cases. That’s why they put her in Hawthorne, so they could dope her up,” family attorney Allison Folmar told the media.

The Godboldo case is yet another example of CPS working in league with the police in order to kidnap children. Godboldo was obviously an excellent mother and not a threat to the police. The fact they sent a tank to her apartment is more evidence that the state will react in a violent knee-jerk fashion when its authority is challenged.

Read article here: http://www.prisonplanet.com/swat-attacks-home-school-mom-for-refusing-to-force-med-child.html

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Mother Forced Into Stand Off With Police for Refusing to Adminster Antipsychotic Drug to Daughter

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Note from CCHR:  So its come to this… A Detroit mother is forced into a stand off with police,  because she refused to administer Risperdal—a powerful and potentially lethal antipsychotic drug to her daughter.   Child Protective Services were going to take her child away from her, for refusing to administer a drug that could potentially kill her.  And while the newscast below describes side effects of Risperdal as anxiety, fatigue and restlessness, they omit the fact that international drug regulatory agencies warn Risperdal can cause  seizures,  cancer, tumors, stroke, abnormal bleeding, blood clots, diabetes and sudden death ( http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/drug_warnings.php – Search both Risperdal in the search box and Newer Antipsychotics in the drop down menu). So ask yourself,   what would you do if the authorities came to your home to take your child away, stripping you of all parental rights, and forcing your child to take a drug that could kill them.   And while the mother now faces felony charges,  we have a question we’d like answered—what charges are the psychiatrists/doctors and Child Protective Services agencies going to face if  her child dies as a result of taking the antipsychotic drug being forced on her?  Will police show up at their door to arrest them?  Will they be charged with murder?  Why are the doctors/psychiatrists and “child protective” agencies that prescribe these drugs,  knowing the risks,  never held accountable?  That is the real crime in all of this.  Watch the video.

UPI.com
March 28, 2011

Click the video to watch

DETROIT, March 28 (UPI) — A woman arrested after a 10-hour standoff with Detroit police says she was protecting her 13-year-old daughter from unnecessary medication.

Maryanne Godboldo, 56, is accused of barricading herself inside her home with her daughter and a gun after Child Protective Services workers tried to serve a warrant last week to remove the girl because the Godboldo had withheld her medication, The Detroit News reported Monday.

Godboldo faces charges of firing a weapon in a dwelling, felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, the newspaper said.

Godboldo’s family and supporters said she has the right to make medical decisions for her daughter and that child welfare workers exceeded their authority.

Originally schooled at home, the daughter wanted to attend middle but needed to catch up on required immunizations.

“We believe she had an adverse reaction to her immunizations,” Maryanne’s sister Penny Godboldo said.

Godboldo sought help from The Children’s Center, an organization that helps families with at-risk children, where a medical and mental health treatment plan was prescribed.

Godboldo told relatives medications ordered by a doctor worsened symptoms, including behavioral problems.

“Maryanne’s decision to wean her from that was making a difference, making her better, helping her to be a happy kid again,” Mubuarak Hakim, the girl’s father, said.

A preliminary hearing has been set for April 8.

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Psychiatric Drug Abuse of Foster Care Kids Costs Government Billions; Feds now investigating potentially massive fraud

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Politics Daily
By David Sessions
June 16, 2010

Seven-year-old Gabriel Meyers didn’t want soup for lunch one Thursday in April, 2009. When his 23-year-old foster brother sent Gabriel to his room for dumping his soup in the trash, Gabriel threatened to kill himself. He kicked his toys around his room, then locked himself in the bathroom.

Police reports say Gabriel was home sick that day from his elementary school in Margate, Fla., under the care of Miguel Gould, his foster father’s son. Around 1:00 p.m., city police responded to Gould’s frantic 911 call and found Gabriel had hanged himself.

A troubled child who had previously suffered from neglect, sexual assault, and abusive parenting, Gabriel spent the previous year shuttling among several foster parents while taking a constellation of antipsychotic medicines, including Lexapro and Vyvanse, to control his depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Like most children in Florida state foster care, Medicaid paid Gabriel’s medical expenses.

Just one month before his suicide, Gabriel’s doctor prescribed him Symbyax, an anti-depressant restricted for treatment of children. The medication’s FDA-required label features a warning that use of the drug by children or teenagers can lead to suicide.

Symbyax does not meet criteria established by Congress for Medicaid reimbursement., so it is illegal for Medicaid to pay for a prescription of the drug to a child. Sohail Punjwani, the doctor who prescribed Gabriel’s Symbyax, received a stern letter from the FDA about his history of over-prescribing mental health drugs.

According to a number of foster care experts who spoke with Politics Daily, children in foster care, who are typically concurrently enrolled in Medicaid, are three or four more times as likely to be on antipsychotic medications than other children on Medicaid. Alarmingly, many of these drugs are medically prohibited for minors and dangerous to the children taking them. Often young patients under state supervision are also prescribed three or four high-risk drugs at a time — all paid for by Medicaid.

State foster care programs and child protective services have had mixed success addressing the pervasiveness of dosing their clients with prescription psychotropic drugs. Using federal Medicaid monies to purchase dangerous prohibited prescriptions for children, which cost the government up to $600 per dose, is technically a violation of the law.

Now, the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, chaired by Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, has asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the drugging of foster care children. The investigators will attempt to account for estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars of possible fraud arising from prescriptions for drugs explicitly barred from Medicaid coverage. The GAO is collecting data from Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas, to search for patterns of abuse. This effort marks the first time suspicion of Medicaid fraud related to psychotropic drugs has been examined at the federal level. According to Senate staffers working on the investigation, the committee will likely hold hearings on the matter later this year.

Read entire article:  http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/17/psychotropic-drug-abuse-in-foster-care-costs-government-billions/

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Congressman Ron Paul’s Parental Consent Act

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Ron PaulBy John Breeding
Psychologist, Author, The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses
October 14, 2009

On April 30, 2009, Congressman Ron Paul introduced H.R. 2218, known as The Parental Consent Act of 2009.

The bill forbids federal funding for universal or mandatory mental health screening, and also forbids money for any educational or other government agency that would use a parent’s refusal to consent to their child’s screening as basis for a charge of child neglect or abuse.



A little recent history is relevant. On April 29, 2002, President George Bush created the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. In 2003, this industry-studded commission presented their recommendations for the reform of the United States mental health system.

“To aid in transforming the system,” the authors of the report wanted to do many things, including:

  • Improve and expand school mental health programs.
  • Screen for co-occurring mental and substance use disorders and link with integrated treatment strategies.
  • Screen for mental disorders in primary health care, across the lifespan, and connect to treatment and supports.

This rhetoric serves to hide the truth that New Freedom is better called No Freedom or New Intrusion, and that mental health screening really means mass marketing and target recruitment of a captive population.

By the time of these New Freedom Commission recommendations, there already existed very large numbers of citizens around the country wising up to the extraordinary intrusion of psychiatry into our schools, as demonstrated in the first four years of this millennium by a number of resolutions, education department statements and state laws, all defending a parent’s right to make treatment decisions for a child without coercion, and a child’s right to education without psychiatric labeling and drugs.

Through 2003, there had been at least 46 state bills or resolutions supporting parental choice, in 28 states, that had either passed or were still pending action across the United States.  For example, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas had passed laws explicitly stating that a parent’s refusal to consent to the administration of a psychotropic drug to a child does not constitute neglect, therefore is not in itself grounds for Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation.  Other states have passed related laws either monitoring or curbing CPS policy in this area.

Many states are pursuing related legislation as the wave of activity in support of parental choice continues to expand.  Texas law now prohibits school personnel from suggesting a diagnosis or recommending a psychotropic drug to a parent for their child.  The public will is clearly for the schools to educate, not medicate, and for the state to allow privacy and autonomy to parents and families.  At a federal level the fight over the Child Medication Safety Act was eventually won so that nowhere in the country is it legal to require a psychiatric controlled substance as a condition of attending school.

Ron Paul has been a key leader in this effort for some time.  On October 6, 2004, he introduced an earlier incarnation of his current Parental Consent Act.  This one, aptly titled the Let Parents Raise Their Kids Act, also attempted to forbid federal funds from being used for any universal or mandatory mental-health screening of students without the express, written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents or legal guardians.

Since that time, the fight has only intensified.  In 2005 in Texas, for example, we fought tooth and nail to the bitter end to defeat a bill that would have initiated mental health screening in schools throughout Texas.  Since we have defeated them consistently, this session they tried to get a pilot program approved for San Antonio and we defeated that as well, but the psychiatric and pharmaceutical lobbies are relentless.  PsychSearch.net provides one of the best websites on mental health screening and the ongoing resistance.

We have been aided by our awareness.  Made possible largely by the work of Pennsylvania whistleblower Allen Jones, we know that many of the New Freedom commissioners are linked directly or indirectly to the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), which provides formulas recommending specific psychotropic drugs to treat various “mental illnesses.”  It has been revealed that TMAP pushed an off-label drug marketing scheme that appears to skirt federal law.  We know, therefore, that this commission’s recommendations are intended to encourage an expansion of the fact that “appropriate services” in today’s psychiatric world means psychotropic drugs; there are already millions upon millions of school-age children on psychiatric drugs.

Senator Charles Grassley’s work outing the severe ethical financial conflicts of so many psychiatric industry spokespersons makes it a little easier to challenge these things.  For example, it tends to impress legislators when they hear that three psychiatry department chairs—Charles Nemeroff of Emory University ($1 million from GlaxoSmithKline alone), Martin Keller of Brown University (associated with a severely compromised drug trial) and Alan Shatzberg of Stanford (who was principal investigator on a drug developed by a company in which he owned $6 million of stock) have all recently resigned their positions as a result of Grassley’s investigation.

The very high number of false positives in mental health screening is good data.  In one study at Columbia University, the authors concluded that use of the Columbia Suicide Screen would result in 84 non-suicidal teens being referred for further evaluation for every 16 youths correctly identified.  It also helps to know that these type programs tend not to work anyway.  For example, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) found that screening for suicide risk does not reduce suicide attempts or mortality.

Finally, the facts about the severe dangers and lack of efficacy of the various types of psychiatric drugs gets attention once the truth is made known.

I consider this to represent a tragic situation, and a clear and present danger to our children.  Here is a pledge that thousands specifically signed and that so many more are acting on in the concerted challenges around the country to this scourge:

We promise to actively resist further intrusion of psychiatry into the public schools, and will not cooperate in any way with those who act as agents of this wrong-headed government initiative.  We do not now and will not later consent to the psychiatric or psychological testing of our children by those who act as agents to implement New Freedom recommendations for universal mental health screening of our children.

The Parental Consent Act of 2009 is a great idea. Passing this bill in Washington would make a significant difference in protecting children and families against further intrusion of psychiatry into the schools. I know it would also make this Texas activist’s life a little easier!

John Breeding, Ph.D. has been a counseling psychologist in Austin, Texas for 25 years. He is the director of Texans For Safe Education, a citizens group dedicated to challenging the ever-increasing role of psychiatric drugs in schools.  He is the author of numerous articles and four books including: The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses and True Nature and Great Misunderstandings: On How We Care For Our Children According To Our Understanding.

Click here to read The Parental Consent Act

Contact your member of Congress to support The Parental Consent Act. To find your Representative and get their contact information, go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt to look them up (you need to enter your zip code).

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