Education Briefs
The ADHD drug Ritalin stunts children's growth, a recent study showed. After three years on the drug, children are on average an inch shorter and 4.4 pounds lighter than their peers who don't take Ritalin. While researchers and others had noticed the effect before, many thought that ADHD itself was responsible. The study negating that theory also confirmed that the helpful effect of Ritalin compared to behavioral treatment wears off over the same time period so that, after three years, children treated with Ritalin have no advantage over those who receive behavioral interventions. (CBS, 7-20-07)
The U.S. House voted to discourage states from mandating the HPV vaccine. About half of the states have considered legislation to make the vaccine for HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, mandatory in order for girls as young as eleven years to attend school (see Education Reporter, March 2007). The House voted in favor of an amendment to an appropriations bill that would prohibit states that mandate the vaccine from using federal funds to implement the mandate.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), the amendment's sponsor, warned the House that "excluding children from school for refusal to be vaccinated for a disease spread only by sexual intercourse is a serious, precedent-setting action that trespasses on the right of parents to make medical decisions for their children, as well as on the rights of the children to attend school. A mandatory HPV vaccine program improperly and unnecessarily inserts the government into the lives of children, parents, and physicians." (house.gov, 7-18-07)
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