First in a series

Re “Mielke Addresses Students on Drugs Attending Classes”

A deeply disappointed David Mielke, a teacher for 38 years in the School District, left no doubt where he stands.

“You would think educational institutions should embrace, not shy away from, issues that are controversial,” said the psychology teacher.

“The fact that we drug our kids so they will pay attention in school should be controversial.

“As a society,” said Mr. Mielke, “we should examine this question:

“Is changing the brain of a child preferable to altering the school experience that child has?”

In a poignant letter this week to all School District teachers, School Board members and District administrators, Mr. Mielke said, in part:

“I have been particularly focused on the issue of giving kids adult psychiatric diagnoses and then treating them with powerful psychiatric drugs that often have not been tested on kids.

“Given that so many of my kids each year come with a diagnosis of ADHD, I have immersed myself in the research literature related to this new disorder which showed up in 1987 as the successor to ADD.”

The surprising, disappointing result:

Exactly one person from among the hundreds of recipients replied to Mr. Mielke.

“The School District should be interested in the research, but they do not want to be involved,” Mr. Mielke said.

(To be continued)