PRESS RELEASE:

September 19, 2003
Contact: Marla Filidei
humanrights@cchr.org
1-800-869-2247

Last September, New York mother Patty Weathers filed a lawsuit against school officials who forced her to put her then seven-year-old son, Michael, on psychiatric drugs as a contingency of his attending school. He became "psychotic" on the drugs and began to hear voices. The suit says school officials wrongly filed medical neglect and child abuse complaints against Mrs. Weathers when she stopped administering the drugs to Michael. The suit charges the school with negligence and violation of Michael's constitutional rights. The suit also implicates the treating psychiatrist for failing to provide sufficient information about the potential side effects of the drugs, alleging medical malpractice.

One of the drugs Mrs. Weathers had weaned Michael off was an antidepressant that Britain recently banned for use in under 18 year olds because of "high suicidal risks." The FDA issued a similar warning in July.

On July 2, 2003, Federal Senior District Court Judge William Connor in White Plains, New York, ruled that Michael's case would remain in federal court, officially dismissing the school and doctor's motion to dismiss.

In a 1991 precedent case, U.S. District Court Judge Martin F. Loughlin ruled that Derry Cooperative District School in New Hampshire broke federal education laws by barring Casey Jesson, 9, from regular classrooms unless he took a stimulant. The parents sued the school, complaining of "cruel and unusual punishment." Casey's mother, Valerie Jesson argued that her son had the right to a drug-free education.

Mrs. Jesson has recently joined Mrs. Weathers in support of the Child Medication Safety Act of 2003, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year 425 to 1 and is currently in the Senate. The bill prohibits school personnel from forcing parents to put their children on psychotropic drugs as a requisite for school.

For more information on parental rights against coerced or forced child drugging, contact the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) at 800-869-2247 or visit www.cchr.org.

CCHR was established by the Church of Scientology in 1969 to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.