In the wake of the recent wave of shootings in America's government schools, there has been an orgy of hand- wringing and finger- pointing. Blame for these tragedies is ascribed to the availability of firearms or the violent content of movies, television and video games.

Amidst all the clamor there have been a few voices sounding a very different alarm: that millions of American children are on psychotropic drugs&emdash;many of' which have violent side-effects.

Samuel L. Blumenfield, writing in WorldNetDaily (July 7) noted: "What is most disturbing, however, is the growing awareness that the increased violence among school children may have more to do with the drugs they take than with the guns they use."

Kelly O'Meara a, writing in the June 28, 1999 issue of "Insight Magazine," reports that there are now over five million school children on psychotropic drugs, most of which are prescribed and administered in the government schools themselves. The December 1996 Teacher Magazine reports that there are four million on Ritalin alone. while Alexander Cockburn, writing in the Los Angeles Times (July 6), reports that Ritalin is being given to about two million American school children.

Eighteen-year-old Eric Harris, who with his friend Dylan Klebold, 17, massacred their classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton ton Colorado, had been taking Luvox for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

T..J. Solomon, 15, who shot and wounded six fellow students at Heritage High School in (Jonyers Georgia, was on Ritalin for depression. Also on Ritalin for Bi-polar Disorder was 15-year -old Shawn Cooper, who fired two shotgun rounds, narrowly missing classmates and teachers in Notus, Idaho. Kip Kinkel, 15, who first killed his parents and later killed two students and wounded 22 more in his Oregon school was on Ritalin and Prozac.

Mitchell Johnson, 13, who, with his friend, Andrew Golden, 11, shot several children and a teacher at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was being treated by a psychiatrist and is presumed to have been on some sort of medication.

-- MARK VALVERDE

Freedom Network News August-October 1999