Mental Health Watchdog Applauds President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education
Group Applauds President's
Commission on Special Education
U.S. Newswire
10 Jul 9:00
Mental
Health Watchdog Applauds President's
Commission on
Excellence in Special Education
To: National Desk
Contact: Marla Filidei of the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights, 323-467-4242
LOS
ANGELES, July 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The
Citizens Commission
on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health
watchdog, applauded the
President's Commission on Excellence in
Education for revealing the
source of a deeply troubled Special Education
system: 40 percent of
kids are being labeled with "learning
disorders" simply because
they have not been taught to read. This
finding leaves no doubt
that the subjectivity of the term "learning
disorder" must be a
central point of Special Education reform.
Eighty
percent of children (or 2.4 million) labeled
as having a
"specific learning disability" could be
taught in a normal school
setting but with greater emphasis on phonics
and academic basics,
says CCHR. While there are demands for the
federal government to
increase its funding of Special Education to
a mandatory 40
percent, CCHR's U.S. president, Bruce
Wiseman, says, "State and
federal governments are already wasting $28
billion per year due to
unscientific categories such as 'Non Specific
Learning Disorder.'
This money would be better channeled into
providing more teachers
and workable educational methods that get
results.
"There
comes a time when throwing taxpayers' dollars
at a
failing system in the faint hope that some
return will be realized,
is just plain bad policy and a losing
investment. In the case of
psychiatric disabilities being funded under
Special Education, we
have been literally throwing money away.
There are no effective
results -- just more 'disorders' created,
more children not being
taught, and more kids hooked on prescribed
drugs. But the true
cost is not dollars; it is children's lives."
According
to pediatric neurologist, Dr. Fred Baughman,
Jr., "The
most fundamental aspect of reforming the
Individuals with
Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) is to
provide a definitive
physically based definition of disability.
This must include the
necessity to establish a tangible, objective
physical abnormality
which can be determined by a test such as,
but not limited to,
blood or urine test, x-ray, brain scan or
biopsy. If none of these
learning 'disorders' can meet this test, then
clearly there is no
physical abnormality and we are labeling
entirely normal children
as abnormal," he said.
The primary
purpose of Congress' original IDEA law in
1975 was
to provide a free and appropriate education
for children with
hearing, sight, speech and other physical
handicaps. When the term
"handicapped" was changed to "learning
disabled," children who
fidget, interrupt their teachers, or simply
fall behind
academically were suddenly considered
"disabled."
U.S.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige addressed
this problem in
October 2001, stating, "Our system fails to
teach many children
fundamental skills like reading and then
inappropriately identifies
some of them as having disabilities. Not only
does this hurt those
children who are misidentified, it also
reduces the resources
available to serve children with
disabilities. If we provide all
children with scientifically-based reading
instruction delivered by
well-trained teachers, many will never need
special education."
Former Los
Angeles Special Education teacher Vicki
Gordon, who
testified before the President's Commission
in California,
emphasized the need for schools to use
scientific and proven
methods of teaching to eliminate placing
students who simply lack
academic skills into Special Education.
Resigning in 2001 because
of the number of children being misdiagnosed
and drugged in Special
Education, Ms. Gordon testified that over a
10-year period, she
found that the majority of students had no
basic academic skills.
Many had never mastered the alphabet. "Yet
within a few hours of
teaching these kids the alphabet, they
started on the road to
literacy. By putting in basic academics,
children who had never
been able to learn or advance
academically-especially as
readers-were then able to learn," she stated.
Wiseman
charges that "If Congress ensures that only
children
with physical disabilities, not subjective
'disorders' are placed
in Special Education, they will most likely
find that the existing
funding will more than cover the federal
commitment, ease state
expenditure and, more importantly, we will
not be needlessly
labeling millions of children as 'disabled'
and prescribing them
cocaine-like stimulants because we failed to
teach them to read."
The
Citizens Commission on Human Rights was
established by the
Church of Scientology in 1969 to investigate
and expose psychiatric
abuses and violations of human rights and has
spearheaded a
campaign for children's rights against
psychiatric labeling and
drugging, which has led to legislative
reforms across the United
States.
For more
information log onto
http://www.fightforkids.com
To view the Petition For Children's Rights
Against Stigma and
Psychiatric Drug Abuse go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/forkids/petition.html
For more information about CCHR log onto
http://www.cchr.org
http://www.usnewswire.com
Copyright 2002, U.S. Newswire
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