•  bring about "further identifying and understanding causes and associated risk factors for youth suicide";
•  "analyzing the efficacy of new and existing youth suicide early intervention techniques and technology;" and
• "ensuring the surveillance of suicidal behaviors and nonfatal suicidal attempts;"

• What are the rights of youth and their parents to refuse or opt out of this screening?
• Will they face coercion and threats of removal from school or visits from child protection if they refuse?
• How reliable are the screening instruments?
• What if the diagnosis is wrong?
• How will a child or adolescent remove a stigmatizing label from their records that could follow them the rest of their lives?
• Will parents be honestly informed about the potentially severe side effects of these medications?

In the midst of Senator Smith's very real and intense pain over his loss and the desire of the Congress to support their colleague and to "do something," important facts are being overlooked:
 
1) Screening does not prevent suicide -

Garrett Smith had already been diagnosed with bipolar disease, was already undergoing therapy, and was likely already on medication.  None of this prevented his suicide.  The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued its findings and recommendation against screening for suicide. The USPSTF findings corroborate those of the Canadian PSTF.  "USPSTF found no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality. There is limited evidence on the accuracy of screening tools to identify suicide risk in the primary care setting, including tools to identify those at high risk. The USPSTF found insufficient evidence that treatment of those at high risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality." 
See: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/3rduspstf/suicide/suiciderr.htm#clinical 
See:  Annals of Internal Medicine, May 18. (This study was referenced and analyzed by the Alliance for Human Research Protection,       http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/05/21.html)
 
2)  Mental health diagnoses are extremely subjective -
"Diagnostic categories of mental disorders are social constructions. (Bandura, 1969)”
 
3) Parents are already being coerced to put their children on psychiatric medications and some children are dying because of it.  This bill will only increase that problem - Patricia Weathers and the Carroll Family, both of New York, the Johnston Family of West Virginia, and the Salazar Family of Florida were all charged or threatened with child abuse charges for refusing to give their children or taking their children off of psychiatric medications.

Matthew Smith of Michigan died of cardiac toxicity due to Ritalin and Shaina Dunkle of Pennsylvania died of cardiac toxicity due to the antidepressant desipramine both after their parents were coerced to place their children on these medications by the schools.

4) Antidepressants do NOT work -
No antidepressants have demonstrated greater efficacy than placebo in alleviating depressive symptoms in children and adolescents” (Baker – 1995)  This was confirmed by a British study just released today (7/21) saying "Prescribing antidepressants is only marginally more effective than prescribing a placebo."
 
5) Antidepressants that are supposed to decrease suicide, may actually increase it as well as violence and other dangerous side effects -

The British equivalent of the FDA banned the use of all of the newer SSRI antidepressant drugs except Prozac in children under 18 last December (http://www.icspp.org/media/drugsfor.htm) after finding that the pharmaceutical companies had withheld data for more than 7 years showing an increased risk of suicide in children taking the medications, as well as not publishing studies showing no improvement for children on the medications. 

Prozac, despite being the only drug in its class allowed by the FDA to be used in children, generated more adverse drug reaction reports than any drug in America, including 2,000 reports of suicide deaths linked to Prozac. By the agency’s own calculations this reflects but a fraction of the likely number of suicides.” (FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. ADR reports for Prozac between 1987-1995.as quoted in Sharav – 2003)

Several school shooters, like Eric Harris of Columbine; Kip Kinkel of Springfield, Oregon; and Jason Hoffman of San Diego were on antidepressants at the time of their crimes.
 
What to Do:
H.R.4799 needs ALL of the following changes or it should be voted down -

1) Parental consent must be obtained for screening and treatment and refusal must not be overridden.
 
2) It is time to include the language of the Child Medication Safety Act which prohibits schools from coercing parents to place their children on psychiatric medications like Ritalin that are on the controlled substances list. But the prohibition should be expanded to prevent coercion of parents to place their children on ALL psychotropic medications, not just the controlled substances. (See testimony at http://www.edaction.org/2003/030827.htm)
 
3)  Not only must parents be allowed to keep their children in school if they refuse medication, but they must not be charged with child abuse or neglect either.
 
Please contact the following US House members on July 22nd or 23rd with these concerns and requests:

Your own member (See www.congress.org)

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert at 202-225-2976

Majority Leader Tom DeLay at 202-225-5951

Majority Whip Roy Blunt at 202-225-6536

The House is expected to bring the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (H.R.4799) to a vote in September, after the August recess.