Free Articles on Freedom Plaza
by Kieron McFadden
In the aftermath of a little boy's death, child welfare chiefs admit they violated laws aimed at protecting kids from psychiatric-drug use.
The chilling truth has emerged that Child Welfare administrators in Florida have frequently ignored a 2005 law that requires the agency to obtain the consent of a parent or judge before giving dangerous mind-altering medications to foster children.
The head of the state Department of Children & Families acknowledged on Friday that an agency administrator has taken it upon himself to allow case workers to bypass the requirement for judicial or parental consent when a foster child's doctor insists such drugs are "not being used for psychiatric purposes."
It is not clear what "other purposes" psychiatric drugs are being used for but the fact that the children were given psychiatric medication even though they were not suffering from a psychiatric disorder makes the disregard for a law specifically designed to protect children from arbitrary drugging no less flagrant.
There is no ambiguity over the capacity for psychiatric drugs to alter personality and cause brain and nerve damage in ADULTS, let alone small, vulnerable children. If the children had been denied the opportunity for parents or a court to protect their rights and liberties it is not clear what opportunity was afforded the children in question to assert their right not to be drugged or to understand or object to any adverse reactions they may have experienced.
''He did take that position,'' DCF Secretary George Sheldon said of Frank Platt, a DCF policy analyst who oversees medication of foster children. "He won't take that position tomorrow.'' And he added that he does not know exactly how many children were medicated without a parent or judge's consent as a result of the illegal directive.
An internal investigation is ongoing to determine the extent to which the illegal drugging of children occurred. It is unclear as yet what criminal charges, if any, the officials responsible for the abuse will face or whether any official caught breaking he law will lose his job. Neither is there any information yet as to what damage was done to the children illegally drugged.
These revelations come amid a far-reaching departmental inquiry into the use of powerful psychotropic drugs among the 35,000 children in DCF's care.
The investigation was prompted by the death last month of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old who hanged himself in a Florida foster home.
Gabriel had been prescribed several psychotropic drugs in his last months and DCF administrators admit that he started taking the drugs before a judge was asked for consent, and that DCF's computerized record system does not accurately reflect the medications he was prescribed.
