TeenScreen: One Family's Story
CategoriesWhen 15-year-old Chelsea Rhoades left for school early one day last December, her family expected it to be just another normal, uneventful day at one of Indiana's premier public high schools. But school officials had slightly different plans...
Read the whole article on the Rutherford.org site
See also this more recent article in the Minnesota Daily:
Any combination of answers resulted in recommendations to see a doctor.
By Brian Hokanson
At the beginning of fall semester I noticed fliers in my residence hall encouraging students to take the free depression screening test at depression-screening.org. Having a vague hunch as to what might follow, I visited the Web site...And there are some more recent developments...
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June 2006: Newly obtained documents detail a milestone in the fight against TeenScreen.
TeenScreen has been using "passive consent" to bypass parents. If a parent did not return the passive consent form to the school, then TeenScreen considered that the parent consented. What about a child who loses the form or a parent who forgets? They consented!One document, now available here written by TeenScreen Director, Leslie McGuire states:
"Effective August 1, 2006, all school-based sites will be required to obtain written ("active") consent from the parents or legal guardians of minor students." "For some sites, the updated policy and forms will be a departure from the way in which they currently operate, but I want to assure you that we did not make this decision lightly and that we will be available to help make this a straightforward transition for you and your staff."Notice Leslie says "school based sites". What about the TeenScreen sites in homeless shelters and juvenile detention centers?"TeenScreen's standard forms are designed to meet the consent requirements of the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) which applies to state educational agencies, local educational agencies and other recipients of funds from the Department of Education."It's about time they finally realized a federal law prohibits passive consent.In a previously obtained e-mail obtained under public records law, a TeenScreen official stated that:
"The Passive acceptance style was mostly discussed to increase the numbers from 50% for Consent (active written parental) to near 95% for Passive."So this means TeenScreen's business will be cut directly in half by abolishing passive consent.
The consent issue is only one beef parents across the country have had with TeenScreen's psychiatric intrusion. Some other concerns are government intervention into the lives of families, treatment of kids with dangerous drugs after screening, the unscientific nature of the surveys, the fact that 84% of the children come away with a false label and even having these psychiatric tests in schools to begin with.
If you're doing anything to contribute, please continue. If you're not doing anything, please start!
A message by Sue Weibert as forwarded by Vince Boehm...
Chelsea Rhoades was "TeenScreened" at her school in South Bend, Indiana. No one explained to her what it was really about and no officials asked for her parents's permission to test her.
Teresa and Michael Rhoades filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Madison Center, Inc., the psychiatric facility who screened their child. Chelsea, was a normal, happy and active student who gets good grades and helps mentor a girl at school. She came home from Penn High School labeled with an obsessive compulsive and social anxiety disorder.
"I was absolutely outraged that my daughter was told she had these two conditions based off a computer test," said Teresa.
Photo: Teresa Rhoades, right, her daughter, Chelsea, left
Please sign this petition set up by Chelsea Rhoades' mother, Teresa.
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html
This petition will be sent to ALL legislators and can also be used by you to send to your school board members.
Forward this link to all your e-mail lists, friends, family and associates. Post a link on your website to alert others.
The faster that the 15,000 signatures are collected the faster it gets to your legislators!
Sue Weibert
See also:Teen Screen: Creating a Nation of Victims
"If I had my way, I would screen kids for abilities, for dreams and ambitions. Then I would help each one to achieve them. You can hardly stop a man who has a dream and works toward it. There are countless stories in history to make man proud of those who achieved wonders despite a poor upbringing or some feeling of inadequacy or momentary depression."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Friday August 26 2005
updated on Thursday December 21 2006URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/08/26/teenscreen_one_familys_story.htm
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