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Female news caster: Every school has them, children who can’t sit still, who get over excited sometimes and slightly wild occasionally. You used to see them at the principal’s office or standing in the corner. But, today, a new and troubling method of dealing with kids like this is finding favor among teachers. More and more schools are pressuring parents to put their children on drugs. One powerful drug in particular, Tome Jerriel’s investigation has uncovered a frightening trend in America’s classrooms.

Narrator: Spontaneity and self-control children are born with one, but must learn the other. When they can’t problems arise, not only for themselves but others. Today a conflict has evolved over controlling the minds and emotions of children. At issue, experts say “is a drug with proven benefits, being pushed to extremes to control troublesome kids”. The drug is Ritalin. Debbie and Gary Brown live outside Richmond, Virginia.

Debbie Brown: We had a conference with the school teacher, and, um, she said Ryan likes to make jokes and make people laugh, and to calm him down we should think about putting him on Ritalin, because it was no big deal a lot of children were on it, so we should ask our doctor about it. Which we did, and the doctor said they were crazy that he didn’t need it.

Narrator: Ritalin helps children with Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD, to deal with hyper activity, poor concentration and peer relations. Believing Ryan had ADD, the school pressed for a second examination. The doctor related and prescribed Ritalin, but the Brown’s said Ryan’s personality changed after he took the drug. Once vibrant he became socially withdrawn.

Gary Brown: I called the school that Monday and said, “I am taking Ryan off this stuff, do not give him any of that today when he’s at school”. They said, “We can’t do that”.

Tom: Can’t do it?

Gary Brown: And, I said, “Wait a minute, this is his father. I am the one who brought it there I am now telling you do not give it to him”. They’re saying, “Well we can’t do that, if we have it here, ya know, we have to give it to him”. And, I am like, “Fine”. So I slammed down the phone, I was at work, so I drove over there, went to the nurses office and said, “Give it to me right now, in my hand, he is off of it, goodbye”.

Narrator: The Brown’s discovered Ryan didn’t even need the drug. He’s doing fine now at a new school. But, with crowded classrooms and a lot of normal highly active kids, for educators the temptation to recommend it is great.

Debbie Brown: I think Ritalin is a Godsend for a child who is truly ADD and needs it. But, when you have fifty percent of the children in one classroom on Ritalin there is a problem there.

Tom: Fifty percent?

Debbie Brown: In my son’s fifth grade classroom thirteen out of twenty two children were on Ritalin.

Narrator: ADD is a complex mental problem that can easily be misdiagnosed because normal children often display the very symptoms of the disorder.

Dr. Robert Reed: Everyone fidgets. Everyone talks excessively. Everyone has attention lapses once I a while. In fact everyone has a little of the behavior we call ADD.

Narrator: Dr. Robert Reed trains teachers how to deal with ADD children. He believes too many kids get Ritalin.

Dr. Robert Reed: I’m not going to blame the teachers for that because too often they haven’t been trained. Or, too often they are put into an overcrowded classroom, where they don’t have support.

Narrator: Many parents view Ritalin, sold generically as Methylphenidate, as nothing short of a miracle. Its production has soared five hundred percent this decade. And up to two million children take the drug. But, 20/20 found that thousands of children nationwide are being rushed into taking Ritalin without proper evaluation. A note or a call from a teacher and brief doctor’s office visit are often all that is needed for a prescription. And, though most experts say that Ritalin should never be given alone without also teaching children on how to control their behavior, it often is.

Debbie Brown: They wanted all out kids to be zombies. They wanted all the children to sit there like robots and look straight ahead and not do anything.

John Edie: Teachers should never recommend this drug to families. Teachers should instead, recommend that families take their children to psychologist and to physicians for an adequate work up.

Narrator: Even so, John Edie, Assistant Dean of New York School of Public Health says, “If mistakes are being made their unintentional”.

John Edie: I haven’t met anyone in the education business or in the medical profession who had the slightest interest in doing anything but what is good for children.

Narrator: To see what’s alarming parents, we looked at Carver Elementary in Reichle County, outside Richmond. Last year Theresa Ellis’ daughter, Kristina, entered the second grade at Carver. Soon pressure built to put Kristina on Ritalin after her teacher said she had trouble concentrating.

Tom: when did the word Ritalin come up?

Theresa Ellis: Probably two or three months after we had been in the school system.

Narrator: At the teacher’s urging Theresa Ellis says she took her daughter to the doctor to see if she needed medication.

Tom: How thoroughly was she checked and what was his analysis?

Theresa Ellis: She wasn’t checked, all he did was ask me a few questions and I told him that the school felt like she really needed it and he wrote me a prescription.

Tom: No in-depth analysis no prolonged studies?

Theresa Ellis: No.

Tom: That very day you had your prescription?

Theresa Ellis: I had my prescription and we started the next day.

Narrator: Susan Fracheal also got a call from the school saying her son was too impulsive.

Susan Fracheal: I thought his behavior could be controlled without medication. She said she really thought it would be a benefit to him, and that, um, that we were actually hurting him if we didn’t put him on the Ritalin.

Narrator: The teacher’s phone call surprised Susan and her husband Doug Olson. Their son had done fine academically at another school only a year earlier without medication. But in his new class, there was a rush to Ritalin. In fact, five parents of children in the same second grade class at Carver, told 20/20 that last year they felt pressure from the school to medicate their children. Susan Fracheal learned of other parents by chance, at her son’s cub scout meeting.

Susan Fracheal: It turns out that the other mothers, who were in Nick’s classroom, said that they had been approached about the same problem and I was surprised. I had thought I was like the only person, and it had turned out that we had all gotten the same message.

Narrator: Parents say the message often came with the implied threat, without Ritalin your child will suffer academically.

Tom: How much pressure were you under to give you daughter Ritalin whether she needed it or not?

Theresa Ellis: A whole lot. I felt like it was the only she was going to get a fair chance

Tom: You felt this could be a threat to her entire education?

Theresa Ellis: That’s correct.

Narrator: Theresa Ellis said that her daughter, like Susan Fracheal’s son, is doing fine now, without the drug, in another school. In fact, Susan and Doug were so upset, they moved to another state.

Tom: what was wrong with the system that it couldn’t accommodate those parents?

Dr. Mark Edwards: That causes me great concern and obviously we need to take this situation and learn from it, work to the future to improve it.

Narrator: Dr. Mark Edwards is superintendent of Reichle County Schools.

Tom: Are teacher’s authorized to prescribe Ritalin or urge parents to be used?

Dr. Mark Edwards: Absolutely not. Now our policy clearly states that, that is something that should be left up to physicians. And I would also say Tom that I believe that, that in the vast, vast majority of our situations, we are clearly in adherence to our policy.

Narrator: Our investigation found the liberal use of Ritalin does not involve just one teacher, one school or even one state. Consider this, experts believe up to five percent of all children have ADD. But in a New York study, three upstate counties were found to have at least thirteen percent of their young boys on Ritalin. Nearly one in seven, between the ages of six to twelve. Since then Ritalin production has surged nationwide. Suggesting these percentages are now much higher.

Tom: Does that figure surprise you?

Andy Watree: It scares me to death.

Narrator: Andy Watree is Executive Director of the Georgia State Medical Board. He’s seen Ritalin use soar out of all proportion in some of his state’s counties

Andy Watree: What’s going on here? Do we have lack of disease? An epidemic in one area and not in another? No, I don’t think so. I think that’s a reflection of, of a drug that uh, has a very subjective diagnosis.

Narrator: Normal childhood behavior can often be mistaken for the disorder. This Virginia study found that about half the children treated with medication did not meet a review team’s criteria for ADD.

Dr. Mark Edwards: I would say don’t put blind trust in anybody, blind trust is what gets people into trouble, uh, we see a lot of people get into trouble because they think that, uh, somebody in a white coat can do no wrong.

Narrator: Parents often don’t know about another problem, over medicating kids who actually have ADD and need the drug. One result can be a loss of spontaneity or creativity as seen through art work. Dr. Molly Malone works with ADD children in Toronto.

Dr. Molly Malone: ....As you can see it’s very colorful and very expansive, um and it was very spontaneously drawn.

Narrator: But when this same child took a relatively high dose of medication the art work changed dramatically. Objects have shrunk, along with creativity.

Dr. Molly Malone: Well it’s quite striking and it certainly makes me concerned at this dosage level, for that given child. This is another child who is eight years old. He used to like to draw a lot when he would come into the clinic. And he drew this picture very spontaneously on my big marker board. It’s a picture of a truck, and it’s, uh, got a lot of movement in it.

Narrator: But another dramatic change occurred when he was put on Ritalin or methylphenidate.

Dr. Molly Malone: He sat there for a long time not knowing what to draw it seemed. Um, and in fact these cars were traced. He eventually took out cars from his pocket that he brought, and traced around the cars. The impression is that spontaneity that’s there, uh, when the kids are off medication is diminished on medication. Sometimes that can be a good thing because it does lead to a reduction in impulsivity. However, there are instances like this where I am not sure that it is a good thing.

Narrator: Dr. William Pellam, who treats ADD children at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center, urges caution in using Ritalin.

Dr. William Pellam: Unfortunately much of what’s being written tells parents that medication is a useful and sufficient treatment for ADD. And it doesn’t tell parents the whole story about the limitations of medication. My view is that it is a useful treatment, but it’s not sufficient. So it should never be used as the sole form of intervention.

Narrator: Becky Jackmen’s son, who was diagnosed with ADD, suffered side effects with high doses of Ritalin.

Becky Jackmen: His problem of nail biting and finger picking increased. To the point where his cuticles were bleeding, and constantly scabbing over and being picked at again.

Narrator: Dr. Pellam treats Becky’s son. His staff reduced the boys intake of Ritalin, and increased his self-control through behavior therapy.

Becky Jackmen: The child that I have now is, I’d say a one eighty degree turn around from the child I had one year ago.

Dr. William Pellam: If as a parent you want your child to graduate from high school and to go to college and to get a good job and to function adaptively as an adult, then you want to change something permanently. And the data that we have today, says that medication alone will not do that. It’s my belief that one could eliminate half those children who are currently being medicated in the country.

Narrator: That’s more than half a million kids who might not need the drug. Theresa Ellis’ daughter was one who didn’t.

Tom: Why do you think they gave it to her?

Theresa Ellis: To calm her down. I mean her teacher had a lot of students in the class, I mean there’s overcrowded classrooms. And, to make her just do nothing, I mean just sit there and ….

Tom: tranquilize her?

Theresa Ellis: That’s right. And I guess it worked for her teacher.

Male newscaster/Hugh: That’s certainly a problem Tom.

Tom: Absolutely.

Hugh: Now in an earlier report you talked about the illegal abuse Ritalin. This is a different situation; isn’t it?

Tom: No, Hugh this is not an illegal in anyway. This is bad judgment it is not criminal activity. This is a matter of too many people using judgment in a poor fashion and to put too many kids on this drug.

Hugh: Now if a parent is concerned about this, and the teacher has indicated Ritalin should be used, what should the parent do?

Tom: The parent has to go to a specialist that can really recognize Attention Deficit Disorder and say this child is a candidate for it, has all the symptoms, needs the drug, then the drug is very useful. But too often, they go to the family doctor or general practitioner who is not skilled in this, that doctor can still write the prescription the school and the parents want.

Hugh: But, the parents shouldn’t have the final say of whether the child of theirs gets a prescription drug should they.

Tom: Absolutely, this is a class two drug, a serious drug and it again is useful and helpful when used properly. But, too many times it’s being used too much.

Hugh: Thank you Tom.

Tom: Certainly.