Mental Health Screening - The REST of the Story

[downeast@tir.com (downeast)]

INSIGHT On the News, a publication of THE WASHINGTON TIMES

November 1, 1999

Continuation of Inquiring Minds Want to Know:
p.24

     This program is part of a long time effort to integrate behavioral
modification with academic studies. Some call the movement "Big Brotherism".
While no one disagrees that children should behave in school, this marriage
of the public-school system to the mental-health system for the purpose of
controlling behavior is drawing fire. Should the state determine what
constitutes an "improved lifestyle" into which children should be
conditioned? And on what foundation do the lifestyle modifiers propose to
build this positive behavior?
     Even proponents of the plan question whether overtaxed teachers can
afford to take more time away from academics to modify behavior and whether
school districts can afford to hire a contingent of trained mental-health
professionals. Assuming data could be gathered accurately on every student,
should the information permanently remain on record? Who should be able to
access it? And where do parents fit in the picture? For now, the federal
research continues without answering those questions and the fashion of
treating bad behavior as an illness - not a discipline problem - is sweeping
the nation courtesy of the federal government.
     "Traditionally, youth violence has been addressed by justice or
sociological domains and not as a concern for the public-health system. In
recent years a proven, effective public-health approach has become an
increasingly important resource in the effort to prevent youth violence",
argues author M A Hamburg in VIOLENCE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS: A NEW
PERSPECTIVE. He recommends tracking risk factors and doing epidemiological
studies for youth violence as for any other public-health concern.
     Certainly many children need to be noticed and helped. Recent studies
say that 9 to 13 percent of children ages 0-19 (and as many as one in 5
teenagers) have emotional or behavioral problems that interfere with their
academic and social adjustment. Roughly one-third of teen-age deaths in the
US are a result of homicide or suicide.
     With images of school violence from Paducah, KY, to Littleton, Colo,
seared into the public's memory during the last two years, popular opinion
and federal dollars have been mobilized to support mental-health researchers
who believe they can use schools to diagnose and treat mental illness to
keep other children's psychological troubles from boiling over into tragedy.
     "I think this is a real window of opportunity. I think the focus on
school violence has opened a lot of people's eyes to the fact that there's a
lot of things going on that we aren't doing a lot about", says Mike Nelson,
a researcher at the University of Kentucky who works with OSEP.
     Nelson served on a task force that recommended systematic screening for
all Kentucky schools in 1991. When the recommendations were passed into law
by the Kentucky Legislature, screening was rendered optional because local
schools found the mass screening burdensome. Nelson says he doesn't know of
a single school that has implemented a screening program as recommended but
believes public policy is moving in that direction. "I think that there is
critical mass developing - especially with the support of the federal
government.:
                    ------ end of article ------

Side Bar, p. 24

The School As Parent

     When Sandra Delancey discovered what had been troubling her 8-year-old
son, Kyle, since he entered third grade at his suburban Pittsburgh school in
September 1995, she was outraged.
     The boy's school had agreed to allow William Pelham, a behavioral
researcher, and the University of Pittsburgh's Wester Psychiatric Institute
and Clinic access to their 5-to 10-year-old students for an experimental
research project. Calld the Pittsburgh School-Wide Intervention Model, or
PSWIM, it was funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Although designed for children with serious behavior disorders, PSWIM was
adopted schoolwide and every student was required to participate. "Neither
(the researchers nor the school) thought they needed to get parents'
permission - or else they didn't care", Delancey says.
     It wasn't until November, when a mother discovered a "Distruptive
Behavior Disorder" analysis form, that Delancey - and other parents,
mystified by the signs of stress their usually typical children were
exhibiting - became aware of the behavior modification, psychological
testing and sociometric analyses to which researchers were subjecting their
kids. The telltale form asked teachers to report the frequency of a
student's behavior from fidgeting and humming to stealing, starting fires
and forcing others into sex. Other elements of the process included giving
students a page of photos of classmates and instructing them to put an "X"
next to the three they disliked the most.
     Parents demanded that PSWIM be stopped at once and that all related
documents be returned to the parents. School staff claimed they had been
promised confidentiality and refused to return them. The Psychiatric
Institute said it had paid for the data and wouldn't surrender it.
     Two years later, in January 1997, some records were returned to parents
after a ruling by the school board, but there were heaily redacted. Despite
high-level requests, many documents were shredded. "We still don't know who
has information about my son", says Delancey, "or how it was interpreted".
     In the aftermath of PSWIM, state Rep. Sam Rhorer, a Republican, is
working to pass parental-rights legislation, the Student and Family Privacy
and Protection Act, that would keep schools from providing in-school medical
treatment beyond emergencies, immunizations and legall required exams,
wihout prior, informed, written consent of parents.
     More than 70 parents are bringing a federal lawsuit against the school
district and the researchers with the aid of a conservative public-service
law firm, the American Center for Law and Justice in Virginia Beach, VA. It
should go to trial in spring 2000. Meanwhile, Delancey has turned to
homeschooling.      -AH
                    -------------------------------