THE DEADLY RISK Psychological Programs in Schools

For many years, schools have employed destructive psychological curricula. “Anger management” is claimed to teach individuals to control their aggression and anger; “conflict resolution” is supposed to help a person to resolve a conflict without resorting to violence. Yet in one anger management class, a boy beat up a classmate so badly that six days later the victim was still in the hospital.

Another psychological experiment, “death education,” has been used in many countries since the 1970s. It requires children to discuss death, suicide and to write their own wills and epitaphs.

One U.S. “death education” class involved taking students to a deserted river shoreline, to observe a mock crime scene complete with a “dismembered mannequin in the car trunk, a severed arm in a grocery bag and a bloody hacksaw.”

In Kyoto, Japan, in a bizarre attempt to educate children about violence, a teacher disguised in a cap and sunglasses, and brandishing a 20-inch metal rod, burst into a class of 11-year-olds sending them stumbling over desks and chairs trying to escape.

Joey, an 8-year-old African-American, attended a “problem solving” class in his school. He was shown a film that depicted a young boy trying to kill himself by tying a rope around his neck. In the film, the boy talks about not being liked at school, being teased and worrying about growing up. Joey’s mother did not know about the program as the
school curriculum merely stated that it was “social sciences.” Two days after her son watched this video, she walked into his room and found him dead, hanging by a rope from his bunk bed.

Columbine High School shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are prime examples of the failure of “anger management” and “death education.” Harris was taking an antidepressant that often causes violent mania. Both Klebold and Harris were ordered by the court to undergo psychological counseling, including “anger management.” They also participated in school-based “death education.”

As part of the “death education” class, students were asked to imagine their own death. Harris subsequently had a dream where he and Klebold went on a shooting rampage in a shopping center. After writing of his dream and handing it in to the teacher, Harris and Klebold acted out the dream by killing a teacher, 12 classmates and then themselves.

Influenced by psychiatrists and psychologists, in 2003 the [U.S.] President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recommended, “… the early detection of mental health problems in children and adults—through routine and comprehensive testing and screening” in schools.

Today, students are screened or “profiled” by using questionnaires that inquire about their own and their parents’ attitudes and behaviors. Questions include, “during the last 12 months, how many times have you hit or beat up on someone” or
“stolen something from a store?” Other questions ask how many times they’ve used cocaine, had sexual intercourse, felt “sad or depressed” and how often their parents tell them they love them.

Psychiatrists are pushing for compulsory “depression screening” of schoolchildren. One “teen screen” program in the United States surveys students with questions such as, “Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren’t interested in anything?” “Has there been a time when you felt you couldn’t do anything well or that you weren’t as goodlooking or as smart as other people?”

With enough “correct” answers, the next questionnaire, called the “Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children” (DISC), claims to be able to check for 18 psychiatric disorders. The child is then referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist and, usually, prescribed drugs.

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, of Harvard Medical School, said the questionnaire of symptoms used to “diagnose” depression “may look scientific,” but “when one examines the questions asked and the scales used, they are utterly subjective measures ….”

Educational author Beverly Eakman warns, “The term ‘screening’ takes on new meaning as children, and by extension, their families, today are assessed for supposed ‘markers’ of psychological disorders … with the results of such analyses going into cross-referenced electronic [data] systems. …” Her advice? “Give the mental health industry a leave of absence from our nation’s homes and schools.”

CREATED KILLERS: Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed a teacher, 12 classmates and themselves in a murderous rampage in 1999 that took place after both boys had undergone court-ordered psychological counseling and “anger management.” In addition, they had taken “death education” classes in their school where they were instructed to imagine their own deaths. At the time of the killings, Harris was also taking an antidepressant known to cause aggressive behavior.

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