Why? The Portsmouth, Va., school board sent a flyer to parents, warning them about the “harmful effects” of the drugs. Apparently, much of the info was taken from the Internet, including a web site run by a group funded by the Church of Scientology, according to The Virginian Pilot. A ruckus ensued - six national organizations and eight local groups sent a letter asking the school board to retract the flier and send a new one stating that ADHD is a disease that requires treatment.

The groups include the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a local chapter of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or CHADD, which receives funding from pharma. The flier was sent “to instill fear in parents,” says E. Clarke Ross, CHADD’s ceo. “It’s not based on published science, but on propaganda. This is the first time I’ve heard of this kind of propaganda being officially disseminated from a school system to its pupils.”

CHADD reps wrote in their letter that they want the school board to “immediately distribute a flier to every household with a school-age child clarifying the facts about ADHD as supported by the research cited in the attached fact sheet.” The fact sheet states that ADHD is real, that treatment for it is effective, and that failing to treat it can have severe consequences. School board members tell the paper that it’s up to the board to decide how to respond. Bailey said Wednesday she was unaware of CHADD’s request.

This is only the latest skirmish in a long-running battle over ADHD meds, which earlier this year received FDA warnings about cardiovascular and psychiatric risks, although the school board skirmish reflects how the controversy can play out on a local level.

The Portsmouth School Board began discussing ADHD at the urging of long time member Elizabeth Daniels, who says she’s concerned about the welfare of children. In the early 1980s, she says she cared for an 11-year-old girl, who was diagnosed as hyperactive and who she believes was treated with Ritalin, which made the girl groggy. When the child was taken off the drug, Daniels says she was alert and happier. So she and the Virginia School Boards Association last year turned to the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics for info about ADHD.

The organizations didn’t respond to the board, according to Daniels. However, Colleen Kraft, president of the Virginia chapter of the AAP insists she replied in November 2006, and sent the paper a copy of the dated e-mail to the state School Boards association. Meanwhile, in August, the Virginia School Boards Association sent a flier to every superintendent in the state similar to the one distributed to Portsmouth parents as a courtesy to Daniels, a former president of the association, according to Frank Barham, the group’s executive director.

The association suggested that individual superintendents and School Boards consider whether to distribute the information further. Earlier this week, Barham said he thinks that Portsmouth is the only board to send the information to parents. CHADD has requested that the association send a new flier to school divisions with information stating that ADHD is a disease. But Barham doesn’t understand why the flier has caused so much controversy. As far as he’s concerned, the matter is closed. “We will not be distributing any more materials on the issue,” he says.

In September, the Portsmouth School Board voted 6-2 to send the flier to the division’s parents. Board members Jean Shackelford and Betty Hudgins voted against it. Board member B. Keith Nance Sr. was absent. “It’s up to doctors to tell parents what to do with their children,” Hudgins tells the paper. Shackelford says: “I do not believe that I, as a School Board member who is not a member of the medical profession, have the knowledge or the right to advise parents about any medical or psychiatric issues associated with their children.”

Superintendent Dave Stuckwisch told board members he had reservations about the flier and the issue should rest between a doctor and a patient, the paper writes. Jim Bridgeford, the board’s chairman, tells the paper the board doesn’t support or denounce the flier’s contents but simply voted to send it as “an informational letter.” The flier contains a disclaimer that “the school division neither endorses nor denounces” its contents. And board member Sheri Bailey says she approved the flier to “encourage folks to get information pro and con to make a decision to medicate or not to medicate.”

For her part, Daniels says she hasn’t received any criticism about the flier from parents. However, she said, she’s heard about concerns that information in the flier was taken from Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a California-based group with ties to the Church of Scientology. The connection to the church, Daniels said, is irrelevant. “That is totally and completely unimportant and makes me think that people are not concerned with what the issue is,” she said. She also argues that CHADD is biased because it receives money from the pharmaceutical industry.

Bryan Goodman, a spokesman for CHADD, which has about 14,000 members nationally, says the organization’s public policy committee works separately from its financial development department. No more than 30 percent of the group’s funding can come from the pharmaceutical industry, he adds. Jeff Katz, local coordinator for the CHADD Tidewater chapter, says he’s concerned some parents might take the school board’s flier “as the gospel” and may be discouraged from seeking treatment or may stop treatment.

Martha Scalf, meanwhile, is angered by the flier that her 11-year-old son, who suffers from ADHD, brought home from Churchland Elementary. “The things that were on there were unbelievable,” she tells the paper, adding that she has no problem with opposing viewpoints but children shouldn’t have been given access to the flier’s contents. The flier was folded and not sealed in an envelope, she says.

Source: The Virginian Pilot