Can the school try to force me to put my son on Ritalin?

Question

My son was diagnosed with ADHD and his father and I are working closely with him and giving him all natural things like fish oil and cutting sugar out of his diet. His teacher, the school psychologist and the principal seem to be demanding me to put him on Ritalin which i refuse. My son is actually improving and bringing home all A's and B's. Can the school actually demand that we drug our son against our will?

Answer 1

I don't know about if the school can force you, but I just wanted to say how proud I am of you for trying to handle the ADD naturally (my whole family has ADD, used to be on Ritalin but now our diet is chemical-free and we no longer need the pills). That is the sign of a hardworking parent. You might, since you are obviously concerned about your child, consider homeschooling him if the school continues to fight you on this. And if you don't have it already, here is the website that got my family started on treating ADD and ADHD without medication:
http://www.feingold.org/
Good luck and God bless!

Answer 2

They can't force you to put your son on prescription medication, but they can suspend or expel him if he's disruptive or causing other problems. That's the leverage school districts will often use on children who have been diagnosed ADHD. They think that parents will capitulate and give their children the meds instead of taking the school district to court and attempt to fight it. The problem is the odds are stacked in the favor of the school district because the courts will take the word of the school district if your son's teachers say he's difficult to control or a disruptive influence. P.S.: Giving your son fish oil and cutting sugar out of his diet will probably not help. I speak from experience -- I was diagnosed ADHD as a child and the only thing that worked for me was medication. Hopefully you can find something other than Ritalin (like an herbal remedy) that will work for your son.

Answer 3

No they can not make you. They can suggest that you see a doctor about his hyperness. That is all. However they can make life difficult for you. Phone calls all the time parent-teacher meetings over nothing.

Try meeting with the teacher and tell them what you are doing to help your child. Give some advice as to how the teacher can help your child. Make it a meeting of the minds meeting not a battle of wills.

I would also suggest talking to your son. Ask him how he thinks he is doing. I bet he can give you some advice on to how to make things easier for him at school. He may think that moving him to the front of the class where he can not see the other s will let him focus more. Or it maybe the middle or the back of the class.Letting your child work it out is great. It is a wonderful thing for him to be able to do.

As long as he can do his work and bring home good grade he is doing great. If the grades start to fall and he is slipping in school then you can try different alternatives. Medication is not a bad thing.. it is how it is used that can be bad.

My son uses it for school and nothing else. At home on vacation or the weekends he does not get it. I think this helps him be able to know the difference. Also because I don't want him to feel as if it is a bad thing that he may need help once in a while. Every one does.

Answer 4

if your school is attempting to force you to put your child on Ritalin, get your kid out of that school and in one that is more appropriate. Teachers teach for the average student. If your student is bringing home As and Bs, he is not average, he is above average. Their motive is probably that he is bored by the content and has too much time on his hands so his behavior must be interrupting the class.

I would not allow the school to change teachers. My reasoning is that when teachers sit down in the teacher's lounge, they talk about students, so all other teachers will have preformed opinions. Better school for advanced students would include private schools, an added expense, but probably well worth it.

A middle school teacher sort of forced us to put my son on Ritalin and we went along with the suggestion for a short while. However, the doctor did not prescribe it right, it should be taken twice a day, not once.

His teacher is willing to put your kid on a amphetamine related drug to get him out of her hair. Teachers, on the whole, are not very smart - they don't have the education to give a lot of content, they generally emphasize methods of teaching class. I had a friend who graduated with a certificate for teaching Social Science, and she had enough hours, but they put her teaching Political Science, or Civics, and she had taken no classes in that. However I was selling university text books, with a large list of books in just that, and sent her a box loaded down with Poly Sci books and she did quite well - but that was because she was smart in the first place.

I don't think that the lack of fish oil or cutting sugar is the answer, just get a teacher that knows something about what she is teaching and watch him respond positively.

I would assume that it is the teacher who needs help, not your son.

Answer 5

No they can't, they can make it very difficult for you, some around here (FL) will even threaten you but they can't force you to put him on ritalin. You're going to need to be very committed, it will probably be a fight because it's easier for them. Stick to your guns, there's natural products for him and those would so much healthier.

My son was on ritalin and it did so much more damage than good he's been off of it for 5 yrs and he still has effects from it......DON'T GIVE IN. I feel that for the yrs he was on it I was abusing him. Horrible guilt!!!!

Keep up the good work by refusing...I'm proud of you :-D

Answer 6

No, they can not demand you give your son this medication. My son also has the same condition. We have changed his diet several ways and sometimes it has helped, but his has gotten out of control so we decided (nobody else) to give him Focalin. My son never got better than a "D" without his medication, now he is getting great grades. Because your son is getting great grades with his change of diet, I would just keep a journal of his progress, that way you have documentation in case the school tries to do something.

Answer 7

NO !!!
There is a federal law just for this reason.
It's called 'child safety medication act of 2000'
Schools think they don't have to follow laws. they are sick.
Find this law on the net, print it out, and mail it to the school. Include a letter that states if the school brings this up one more time you will have no choice but to take legal action ( which you CAN do)
This should shut them up.
The reason this law was made at the FEDERAL (national)level, is because so many schools were doing this and it harmed kids health, some even died!!!!

Answer 8

No they cannot force you to put your son on Ritalin
Doctors say that diet is the most importnat and effective way of controlling ADHD, so KUDOs to you for doing it the right way and not the fastest way.
http://www.naturalchoice.net/articles/ritalin.htm

The schools gets extra money for each child on Ritalinn and other drugs so they are just trying to get more money.

By Sean Martin
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Dr. Jacqueline Brooks


Oct. 2, 2000 (Washington) -- Are schools wrongly encouraging the use of Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs on disruptive children? With Ritalin already on the legal hot seat, congressional Republicans held a hearing on the education issue last week and are promising more next year.


At a session of the Education and Workforce Committee's oversight panel, Rep. Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., says, "Our children will be better off if the correlation between financial public incentives and the frequency of psychotropic drug use among schoolchildren is more fully understood."


According to Schaffer, the Department of Education has made "hundreds of special education dollars available to schools every year since 1991 for each child labeled with ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]."


Parents have come forward with "horror stories" about intimidation by schools to get kids onto drugs. At the hearing, Patricia Weathers testified about her son, whom school authorities in Millbrook, N.Y., encouraged to take Ritalin and other medications to curb his disruptive behavior. But the drugs caused hallucinations, and she refused to keep him medicated, leading school officials to pursue protective custody of the child. She asks, "What concerns me is the intimidation tactics that a school can use on a parent to coerce them to drug their child." Weather finally put her son in a private school.


Earlier this month, class action suits were filed in California and New Jersey against both Ritalin's maker, Novartis, and the American Psychiatric Association (APA), alleging a conspiracy to manufacture the condition ADHD for the purposes of lucratively marketing the diagnosis.


The hearing featured several outspoken critics of Ritalin, which has been available for decades. Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, MD, says he believes that Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs may do serious long-term harm to kids. Fred Baughman, MD, a pediatric neurologist, testified, "We've got a parasitic industry that is appending itself to our schools."


According to Schaffer, the issue is "overidentification" and "overdiagnosis" of hyperactive children. For schools seeking federal subsidies, he says that the dynamic appears to be a classic case of "follow the money."


An estimated 3% to 5% of children suffer from ADHD, according to the APA. Research published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the use of some psychotropic drugs as much as tripled between 1991 and 1995.


Other experts at the hearing say that the Ritalin controversy is really about broader medical and education issues. According to APA official David Fassler, MD, good quality mental health care should involve a one- to two-hour "comprehensive assessment" of a child. But he notes that most kids with ADHD are not seeing psychiatrists, or indeed any mental health professionals. He also noted that kids are often prescribed psychiatric drugs by family doctors and pediatricians, who lack a full background in other mental health treatments.


Judith Heumann, an Education Department official, contends that schools need more money to be more sensitive to the individual needs of children. Then, they can hire more psychologists and have smaller classes.


But Weathers angrily responded, "I do not think for one minute that schools need additional psychologists." Recalling her son's public school psychologist, she says, "She is the one who is pushing all these disorders."


Heumann acknowledges that decisions to medicate children "must be made by families and physicians, not by educators."

Answer 9

No they cannot force you to. you have the right to use your own methods. This is not exactly the same situation, but there was recently a case in Virginia where a boy had cancer and his parents wanted to use alternative methods to deal with it and social services was trying to force them to use chemotherapy. The family took it to court and they won. But hopefully it won't come to having to go to court with your family.

Answer 10

Absolutely not. Take your son to the Dr. and get advice from him.

The educational system just wants your kid to sit quietly in his chair at school so he won't be a bother to anyone at all.