I'm surprised to hear that meds are still any kind of a stigma at all.
Isn't pretty much every school kid on meds these days, special needs or not?
Amongst certain demographics it is an absolute travesty to admit your child is on meds.
Tinsel, you might know of some Orthodox Jews who are very quiet about any issue their child(ren) has due to trying to keep open the best marriage relationship possible. I know of several personally who have done everything possible to keep quiet a child's disability. Often it isn't even to try getting the child with the disability eventually married off when older, but even when a "normal" child has a disabled sibling the family will keep that news very quiet until after the marriage for fear the wedding won't happen due to fears that a genetic abnormality might be hidden in the genes of the normal child.
Russians are also very unwilling to put their kids on meds, pretending nothing is wrong.
I have neighbors across from me who have a daughter and she isn't on any meds despite being on "the spectrum" because her Irish father is unwilling to admit there is a problem.
Sometimes it is a cultural thing, sometimes it is the unwillingness of a parent to recognize something is wrong.
Granted society is over-medicated when it comes to things like ADD, ADHD, OCD, and other things IMO, but when a child is acting out to the point of causing harm to themselves or others, or when a child who is challenged but could actually function as normal with meds, those are times when meds are warranted. Unfortunately schools are unable to require any type of evaluation or even inquire if a child is on meds, such as several kids in my wife's class who are well behaved in the morning then after lunch it is like a switch is thrown and they are wild. The parents blame the food, the lunch environment, anything possible so as to not say "yeah, i forgot to pack his meds in his lunch or he forgot to take them". If the teachers or ANYONE in the school was made aware...the nurse, principal, counselors, maybe the Para...ANYONE!!!...then they could make sure the meds are with the kid when they arrive and that they take them at lunch. Instead after lunch it is near impossible to teach because no one is able to control the crazed kids who are off their meds.
Parents have rights, students have rights (except apparently when assaulted by a kid who is off their meds, then they somehow don't have any rights anymore because we have to over-protect the unmedicated for some reason i am yet to grasp), but unfortunately it has gone too far to the point that the only people left to finger for why kids are underperforming are the teachers. Yes, there are bad teachers. Yes there are teachers who are known to use excessive measures in attempting to control classes as well. The problem there is that it is no longer a threat to call the parent so that proper discipline can be provided because the parents don't know how to control their own kids nor are they allowed to use any type of discipline beyond grounding otherwise they get arrested for physical abuse of their child. I'm waiting for the soon approaching lawsuit against parents by their child for mental abuse due to grounding.
No discipline + no meds + standardized testing = if you have the chance to get your kid out of public school, DO IT!!! Charter, private, home schooled...any alternative to public school education is better for children these days, at least in the cities.
