I have recently been told that my eight-year-old son cannot attend school unless he is medicated. Even though we comply, there is not adequate staff in the school to deal with my son or other children in need of extra attention.
I decided to look into this.
The prison system also medicates unruly inmates in order to have them comply behaviourally. The mentally ill and drug addicts are given methadone so they can function within the government’s system.
I once worked at a long-term care facility where unruly patients were medicated for staff to be able to deal with them, not necessarily based on what is best for the patients.
The government is encouraging prescribed drug use to control the population that is in their care.
My eight-year-old son is not a drug addict, does not have dementia and outside of school is a pretty busy normal eight-year-old. Why should I have to medicate him to fit in to a system that fails to support him appropriately? He was deemed unsafe due to losing his temper at being so frustrated because he doesn’t “have a normal brain.” In essence, this is literally saying: Take a pill.
I spoke to the MLA’s office regarding this and was told that it can be tough to advocate for your children. It certainly is when I feel I am being forced to medicate him without his needs being met in the education system.
This is merely my perspective as a frustrated mom who has to medicate her child for him to get a public education and feels that everyone needs to know more about our government, the health system, education system and how they are treating our society as a whole.
Kate Allcock
Garibaldi Highlands
