Texans for Safe Education

New! Letter to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) regarding their opposition to the Child Medication Safety Act

Press Release of June 4, 2003: Legislators Strike a Blow for Parent Rights: Two New Laws Put a Halt to Coercion of Parents to Put Texas Children on Psychotropic Drugs

A Legislative Success Tale: Changing Child Psychiatric Policy in Texas

A Call to Legislative Action: Stop the Mass Psychiatric Drugging of United States School Children

Statement of Purpose

Protect our children from the harmful effects of psychiatric drugs.
Safeguard our schools from violence related to psychiatric drug use.
Educate parents and educators about the fraud of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.
Empower parents and educators to "say no" to psychiatric drug use with children.
Encourage educators to refocus on proven methods to enhance learning.
Support educators by investing resources in teacher training, salaries and lower student-teacher ratios.

Texans For Safe Education is a citizens group whose purpose is to defend the safety of children in our schools. We see grave harm being done by our society's current decision to give psychiatric drugs to an estimated 1,000,000 of our school-age children in Texas. Texans For Safe Education is aware that child psychiatric diagnoses such as ADHD, other "disruptive behavior disorders," and depression have not been scientifically demonstrated to be legitimate medical illnesses. We consider subsequent use of psychiatric drugs with children to be based, therefore, not in science but in fraud. We view psychiatric labeling as unnecessary stigmatization, false explaining away of real problems, and abdication of adult responsibility to keep thinking and express the necessary will and resolve to meet our children's needs by addressing these problems.

One of our first successful initiatives was to encourage the Texas State Board Of Education to pass a resolution to support parents and educators in their right to say no to this practice, and to emphasize a positive focus on proven methods for meeting the educational needs of our children. We think that psychiatric drugs are directly harmful and dangerous, physically and psychologically, to the children who take them. We think they are also dangerous to everyone else because of effects on school climate and relationships, because of the large incidence of illegal and recreational use of these drugs, and because of the proven "side" effects of agitation, aggression and violence.

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 ratios.

Other TFSE Links

Texas Board of Education Rethinks Ritalin, Editorial by Fred Baughman, M.D.
November 2000 Testimony to the State Board of Education
Special Hearing on Psychiatric Drugs in the Schools
Press Release of January 25, 2000
Letter to Texas State Board of Education members
Appeal to Texas State Board of Education members
Is ADHD a Real Disease?
An Estimate of Current Psychiatric Drug Use with School Age Children in the United States
May Testimony to Texas State Board of Education

Please call TOLL FREE 1-800-572-2905 to obtain a packet of information you can use as a group in your own area. Also, please call to report grievances and bad experiences with the use of psychiatric drugs in the schools.