Attn: State Editor

Texans For Safe Education
2503 Douglas St. Austin, Texas 78741

News Release

CITIZENS GROUP FORMS TO SAFEGUARD TEXAS CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS

Concerned Texans are uniting to defend children in Texas schools from the harmful and dangerous effects of psychiatric drugs. This new group, Texans For Safe Education, is alarmed at the explosive growth in the use of psychiatric drugs with United States school children. The group instead calls for a positive refocusing on academic solutions to school-related problems, such as greater investments in teacher training, and lower student-teacher ratios.

Citizens are alarmed at the proliferation of psychiatric drug use with United States school children. They call it institutionalized child abuse!

An estimated 8,000,000 school-age children in the United States are on psychiatric drugs, approximately 5,000,000 alone are on Ritalin. Millions more are taking other stimulants and adult antidepressants. Texans For Safe Education estimates that 1,000,000 school-age children in Texas are on psychiatric drugs today!

The 1990s have seen an increase of well over 700% in the production of methylphenidate (Ritalin), and soaring rates of other psychiatric stimulant and adult anti-depressant drug use with children in our schools. Deleterious effects of these drugs on children are well-documented; virtually all physical organ systems are adversely affected. Emotional and mental well-being are also impaired. Psychiatric drug use has been repeatedly linked with dramatic episodes of violence in the schools.

These drugs are being prescribed without any objective scientific evidence of the existence of any medical disease.Texans For Safe Education charges that the ADHD industry is a fraud.

Texans For Safe Education knows that there are better solutions available, and calls on our caring and committed parents, educators, and allied professionals to demand a positive focus on finding ways to implement these methods. We especially encourage a strong focus on proven methods for enhancing learning, especially reading fluency and comprehension. As a group, we think that human resource is the key to meeting our children's needs in the schools. Societal resources should be spent on better pay for well-prepared teachers working with lower student-teacher ratio classes.