By Anne Dachel

Looking back over January it’s clear that the stories I’ve been collecting over the past three full years are unstoppable. There is no plateau to be reached where cost and demand level out.  

Everywhere in the English-speaking world, as far as I can see, special education is taking center stage in school budgets talks. Reports on special ed enrollment are invariably about growth and the need for more teachers to accommodate more special ed students. And we’re constantly told that kids with needs go way beyond just cognitive delays. Today special education involves students with behavioral issues/emotional problems. Stories often mention that the disorders these kids have are more complex. And at the same time all this is going on, our children are increasingly plagued with chronic health problems never before seen at today’s rates.

So how will we pay for all of this? Will we have to take from the general ed money to pay for special ed?

Actually I am seeing this being talked about in news reports. There’s no way they can avoid the issue. The money has to come for somewhere since it’s a federal law that special needs kids have a right to a free and appropriate education, and the feds haven’t increased funding. This means state and local governments have to come up with the cash.

So how much longer will this go on? Are we approaching a point where someone will sound an alarm and demand we look into the state of children’s physical, mental, emotional health?

I’d like to think so, but I have watched autism grow from a novel, unheard of condition over the past twenty years to a normal and acceptable part of childhood. The same thing seems to be happening with all kids with special ed needs.

Let me start with a really strange story from the Pocohantas (WV) Times entitled, School system increasing medical staff for student safety.   Staff reporter Suzanne Stewart made it clear that students are coming to school with really serious health issues/learning problems all the while she’s completely disinterested in why it’s happening.

Stewart reported, “… the medical issues of students today have grown to the point that a medical professional is needed full-time.”

To meet the needs of the students, superintendent of schools Terrence Beam said the Pocahontas County Board of Education is seeking two LPNs to assist school nurse Jenny Friel.

Schools become clinics

Superintendent Beam:

‘Our kids are coming to us with all kinds of emotional and physical issues that – up to this point – we have been unable to provide the assistance that was necessary….

 ‘The actual physical condition of the kids is different than it was twenty years ago. We have more diabetic students. We have more kids with major allergies. We have kids with seizure disorders.’…

Schools now are in charge providing medical care as well as classroom learning, and while we’re told there are school-based clinics in every school, this is not enough.

“In addition to physical medical concerns, there is also an increase in social and emotional issues, which Beam hopes to also address soon.”

Beam: ‘The next step we’re going to take is to employ a social worker for our schools. …We’re going to expand our counseling services.’

At the end, the superintendent conceded that he has no choice. We have to adjust to the students of the 21^st century.

‘Sometimes we focus a lot on the academics and the athletics in our school systems, but we really need to look at the physical and the mental condition of our kids, because it is difficult.’

So if the superintendent isn’t looking for answers and yet another reporter has no interest in asking for an explanation for what’s happening, nothing will improve. Expect the downward spiral to continue. All the things happening in Pocahontas County schools should be seen as an unprecedented crisis.  More kids with diabetes, seizures, and ‘major allergies’ should be scaring everyone.  

Pocahontas County is not alone in this nightmare. Here are a few examples to show just how widespread this is.

Jan 25, Charlotte (NC) Observer:

$5.6M in county funding will be used to hire 25 new social workers for the district. In addition,

“The district is looking to hire 30 additional mental-health professionals, including counselors and psychologists….

“Staffing deficits at CMS call for recruiting 500 more social workers, as well as 150 counselors and 115 psychologists, according to an analysis provided to the Mecklenburg County commissioners ahead of their annual board retreat next week. …

“In recent years, the number of students screened for suicide risk at CMS has soared.”

Jan 24, WAAY-TV Huntsville, AL:

Alabama Department of Education is asking for $7.7M in additional funding to address student mental health. 

‘I think across our state and certainly across our district, we're seeing an increase of mental health issues at an earlier age for students.’

“The money would also provide more full-time therapists to schools. …”

Jan 24, NorthCentralPA,com:

Danville, Pennsylvania school district is shortening the school day and reducing class requirements to help improve students mental health.

Jan 24, Charlottesville (VA) Daily Progress:

A bill in the state legislature to authorize all school nurses to stock Albuterol inhalers for students with asthma.

Jan 23, (Canada) Leghbridge News:

The government of Alberta, as of Jan 1^st, “has required all K-12 schools in the province to have at least one epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen) on-site at all times” in case of a severe allergic reaction.

Jan 22, (UK) Barking and Dagenham Post:

“Barking and Dagenham has experienced rapidly increasing numbers of youngsters needing support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), councillors heard.

“A forecast total of 113 primary and 353 secondary SEND pupils is anticipated over the next four years, the majority with autism….”

Jan 22, Trumbull (CT) Times:

“[Superintendent] Iassogna had told the board the schools were running a deficit projected at up to $2 million and that he had implemented a spending freeze and a hold on overtime and substitute teacher costs….

“The biggest factor, though, is special education and transportation for students in special education programs, he said.

“‘In October 2019, we identified $1.4 million in special education and transportation costs,’ O’Keefe said. ‘That number has only grown.’”

Jan 21, AZFamily.com:

“With more students having more severe disabilities, there is a growing strain on general classroom spending in Arizona's public schools.

“Now, Arizona lawmakers are considering a bill that would help public schools manage the rising cost of special education services….

“Dr. Kym Marshall, Director of Student Services for Chandler Unified School District says the special education population has exploded and so have the needs.

“‘It’s not just about reading writing and math, it’s more about mental health, social emotional,’ said Marshall….

“‘What we do know is that the population keeps growing without any additional funding.’

“Between the 2007 to 20017 school years, the number of Arizona students diagnosed with autism more than doubled…

“‘There are just too many children who fall into these classifications that haven’t been true in the past,’ said Sen. Allen. ‘I don’t know all the reasons and I guess it doesn’t matter for this argument. We have the issue now let’s try to help these kids.’” …

Jan 19, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette:

“Cedar Rapids elementary school students were held in seclusion rooms or physically restrained 237 times in the first month of this school year — more than 10 times a day and more than four times as much as in the first month of the 2015-2016 school year….

“School seclusion has been a lightning rod in recent years as more parents learn about 6-by-6 foot rooms with padded walls used to contain overwrought students in schools across Iowa….

“…most elementary students were put into seclusion for violent behavior that included kicking, biting, hitting and throwing items that could harm others….

“Teacher and staff injuries that involved students rose 88 percent, from 226 to 425, in the past five years in the Des Moines Public Schools,…”

Jan 18, (UK) Sunderland Echo:

“With concern growing that an increasing use of the booths for disruptive students could have serious effects on young people's mental health, we asked if their use should be stopped.”

Jan 17, South Portland (ME) Press Herald:

“As schools deal with an increasing number of children with disabilities like autism, demand for disabilities awareness and sensitivity programs has increased, meaning Portland-based organization The Cromwell Center currently has a waiting list of 25 schools….

“She estimates that between 10 and 12 percent of the school’s students have some type of disability and said that while she has not noticed more autism diagnoses in recent years, she said the number of students who are in special education or require an individualized education plan has increased over the last few years.”

Jan 16, Wilmington (NC) Daily News:

“Collected data also showed students with disabilities were secluded more frequently than those without disabilities. During the 2013-2014 school year, students with disabilities were subjected to seclusion rates ‘that far exceeded those of other students,’ according to an OCR report published in 2016….”

Jan 15, (UK) North Somerset Times:

“A special school has received overwhelming support for its expansion ambitions, during a five-week consultation.

“Baytree School, in Weston, is desperately in need of more space to cope with the growing demand for children with  special educational needs.”

Jan 14, (UK) Independent:

“Families of autistic children are facing waits of up to three years for a formal diagnosis, a charity has warned. 

“Around half (46 per cent) of families waited 18 months or longer for a formal diagnosis for their autistic child, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 parents by Ambitious about Autism. 

“Once a diagnosis is made, nearly three in four (70 per cent) parents said they were still not offered adequate support for their child – such as therapies that help with speech and language.”

Jan 11, Texarkana (AR) Gazette:

“Over the past decade, greater numbers of Arkansas children have been diagnosed with disabilities that require them to receive education.

“Consequently, Arkansas public schools are spending greater amounts of money on special education.

“Last year, there were almost 64,000 students with a diagnosed disability in Arkansas public schools. That is 13.4% of the state's total student enrollment….

“The number of students diagnosed with autism has gone up 55% since 2013. The increase is attributable to an increased awareness among educators and others of the characteristics of autism.

“The growth in children diagnosed with dyslexia has followed a similar trend. In 2014, for example, 957 students received therapy for dyslexia. In 2014, only 89 school districts and one charter school reported results from screening for dyslexia.”

Jan 9, (UK) Guardian:

“A special needs school has welcomed plans to increase its capacity in the face of growing demand.

“New Rush Hall school, in Fencepiece Road, Fairlop, will be expanded from 64 places to 80 after Redbridge Council gave plans the green light on Tuesday, January 7.

“The school – rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2016 – is a specialist school for children and young people experiencing significant social, emotional, behavioural and/or mental health difficulties.

“Executive headteacher, Sam Walters, welcomed the news, saying the demand for places had greatly risen in recent years.

“He said: ‘There has been a huge increase in the number of young people needing EHC plans, particularly for social and mental health needs, has naturally meant that there are not enough appropriate school place to meet the populaces needs.’ …

“Since 2014, the number of Redbridge resident pupils with an EHC plan has risen approximately 35 per cent.

“Council officials estimate the borough’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) pupil population will grow by 16.5 per cent (153 school places) for primary education and 33.7 per cent (248 places) for secondary by 2025.”

Jan 8, 2020, NJ Spotlight:

“Tuition for out-of-district placement of some students often runs well into six figures

“The high cost of special education in New Jersey is getting renewed attention, as Senate President Steve Sweeney presses the state to do more to help districts pay for students with severe disabilities….

“Long an advocate for special education as a parent of a child with special needs, Sweeney said he wants to ease the tension that arises with the high costs of serving these students, and said the state can and should do more….

“But the rising costs of special education — and specifically those of specialized outside schools where tuition costs can reach six figures — has been a contentious issue for years, if not decades….”

Jan 8, Butte Montana Standard:

“‘So this whole thing here is the sensory hallway, and we added it as a way for kids to calm down themselves,’ said Norah Barney, Lincoln Primary School principal. She said the school’s occupational therapist, Addie Hall, created the pathway just in time for the 2019-2020 school year….

“While it helps students with motor skills and provides sensory input, the sensory hallway is part of a larger movement to get Lincoln students to learn how to ‘self-regulate.’

“‘What’s self-regulate? So think of it like: When you get upset, are you able to calm yourself without assistance?’ explained Barney.”

Jan 7, (UK) KLFM, Norfolk:

“The plan is part of Norfolk County Council’s £120 million [$160M US] transformation of special educational needs.

“The programme seeks to create 500 extra school places by building up to four new specialist schools and expanding existing SRBs or building new ones.”

Jan 5, 2020, (UK) Exeter Fe News:

“With one in eight children suffering from some form of mental health issue during their childhood years, it is important that we as parents and teachers are able to understand what this means for our children and how we can support them….”

By Kim Rossi

Ususally our Anne Dachel writes about the weight of special education on school districts.  Earlier this month, in my Fairfield County Connecticut town, our Superintendent announced his retirement and then took an immediate leave. We've heard that our Special Education Director is also leaving. Then we found out we have a huge budget deficit. Take a look at this sentence pulled from the article below:

The biggest factor, though, is special education and transportation for students in special education programs, he said.

I believe that "special education” means mostly autism. My own daughter attends a private autism school for her 19 - 21 post graduate years, and is transported some 13 miles away.  How long before special education take so high a toll on districts that there is a real backlash? And think of the bedlam post age 21, if schools can not handle the numbers of students, how will the meager offerings of the adult disability world ever provide services? This is the looming pandemic that should be mobilizing the great and mighty global minds. Entire families will be affected by adult children, siblings, aunts, uncles, with autism. Generations.  Kim

From CTInsider.com

TRUMBULL — School officials are breathing easier after a week of crunching budget numbers and meeting with numerous town and state officials, according to Interim Superintendent Ralph Iassogna.

“We’re seeing a light at the end of the tunnel,” Iassogna said Wednesday.

At the Jan. 14 Board of Education meeting, Iassogna detailed a series of belt-tightening measures he had implemented in his first five days since replacing retiring Supt. Gary Cialfi. Iassogna had told the board the schools were running a deficit projected at up to $2 million and that he had implemented a spending freeze and a hold on overtime and substitute teacher costs.

“That’s how dire the situation is,” Iassogna told the board. He said he had not been able to pin down exactly how large the deficit is, but it likely would be at least $1.2 million.

“I will candidly tell you that, after five days in the position, we are in a serious situation and have several challenges ahead. There’s no question about that,” he said.  Read more at Trumbull schools face ‘dire’ budget situation.

By Anne Dachel

Investigative reporter Ben Swann makes the case for questioning the mandated, one-size fits all vaccine program.  

Jan 21, 2020, New study warns about potential harm of present vaccination guide

A new study says that the CDC's vaccine schedule, a guide for doctors and parents detailing which vaccines to get and when to get them, may have harmful effects. Plus, I explain the systemic bias against those who question the effectiveness and possible health impact of some vaccines.

I covered Mr. Swann in 2015 and in 2017.

He is truly one of a dying bred: a real journalist.

By Anne Dachel

Disabled children are changing the face of education in the 21^st century, and the evidence is overwhelming. And yes, the impact of the ever-increasing autism rate is a big part of the story, but it’s not just about autism. Intellectually, behaviorally and emotionally students today are noticeably different from past generations.

Below is just a fraction of recent coverage in the mainstream press that clearly documents the decline of children everywhere. Incredibly these are increases without explanation. Exploding numbers and soaring costs are accepted without question by today’s reporters and educators. The only solutions talked about involve more money for more programs, schools and therapists as if these things can continue indefinitely.

What is never discussed is the future when this disabled, costly population does to adult social services what they’re doing to schools worldwide.

 These stunning reports should have everyone’s attention.

RESTRAINT/SECLUSION

Rockford (IL) Register Star: Schools aren’t supposed to forcibly restrain children as punishment. In Illinois, it happened repeatedly  

An analysis of more than 15,000 physical restraints in 100 Illinois school districts from August 2017 to early December 2018 found that about a quarter of the interventions began without any documented safety reason. …

Records show that most of the children restrained had behavioral or intellectual disabilities….

…Together, districts used these restraints nearly 1,800 times in the 15-month period examined.

Thirteen-hundred of those floor restraints were in the prone position, and three districts accounted for the majority of those incidents.

 (UK) Motherwell Times: Inspectorate’s concerns over special schools in Motherwell, Uddingston and Coatbridge  

Three North Lanarkshire special schools have received harsh assessments from inspectors….

Clydeview School, hit the headlines last March as North Lanarkshire Council called in police to investigate allegations of use of improper restraint involving an autistic child. This resulted in four members of staff being suspended….

In the report from this further inspection they wrote: “A number of children display challenging behaviour as a result of their social and emotional needs. This leads to a significant number of incidents of conflict and disruption to learning on a regular basis. Staff’s approaches to promoting positive behaviour are not having an impact on improving relationships and behaviour across the school.”

SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Lakeland (FL) Ledger: Student assaults on Polk County school officials skyrocket

Between mid-August and early December this school year, there have been 26 incidents….

The numbers also show a trend: more than 60 percent of those assaults each year are routinely committed by special education students — those students who have learning disabilities or behavioral issues and are receiving special accommodations to help them….

Judd said there has been a breakdown in society and some parents are not holding their children accountable for their bad behavior.

Deputy Superintendent John Hill, who has worked in education for 25 years, said a number of factors have developed over the last few decades that has adversely impacted children.

“I often tell people that children have not changed; what has changed is our society, environment and popular culture,”…

SPECIAL EDUCATION INCREASES

(UK) Newcastle upon Tyne Chronicle: New £6.3m [$8M US] Sunderland specialist autism school vows to provide 'the very best education'

A new multi-million pound school is set to provide specialist education and support for children with autism in Sunderland.

Note: Anne Dachel has been cataloging thousands of stories from around the globe that discuss the decline of pediatric health and the impact on education systems. Schools are staggered by the percentages of students with serious mental health, special needs and health issues. Budgets are being stretched thin in an attempt to educate a population never before seen - chronically ill and unwell children from preschool forward. You can find her catalog at LossOfBrainTrust.com.

By Anne Dachel

Connecticut: “The growing needs of students”

Sheridan Roy, staff reporter at the Southington Observer clearly has a limited view of the coming collapse of education in her state.

Here was the title of her Dec 27^th piece: While school populations decline, special needs are on the rise.

(The story covered a recent presentation at a school board meeting by two special education coordinators.)

Reporter Roy told readers that the increase in special education numbers is part of  “the national trend of growing needs that the school system must meet for its students….”

The fact that the PRESCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IS INCREASING should be worth exploring, but nothing more was said about it. In fact, not once did she venture to say anything about why MORE KIDS ARE IN SPECIAL EDUCATION, while the overall student population is declining. “

Here’s what the special ed coordinator told the board: ‘Our data has indicated that preschool [sped] enrollment is increasing. It has also indicated that our programs are nearing or are at capacity.’

Roy continued,

 “…that prevalence rate is increasing, too. Essentially, the number of students needing to be placed in special education programs is on the rise—especially students with autism spectrum disorder.”

Here’s the jaw-dropping fact revealed by the sped head:

‘Since 2013, the number of students with autism spectrum disorder has increased by 36.6%.’

THERE WAS NOT ONE WORD TO EXPLAIN THIS NIGHTMARE INCREASE or why they expect it to keep growing.

NOT ONE.

An official even admitted, ‘The issues that students have to come to us with have become more complex over the years.’

STILL there was no attempt to explain why it’s happening.

Note: Final part of our series. Vaxxed II debuts THIS Week! Join us in congratulating and thanking Polly and her team, and all of the professionals and parents who had the courage to participate.  XOX

Vaxxed From Cover up to Catastrophe launched a firestorm when, in 2016, it was abruptly removed from the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro's event in New York.  As angry as so many of us were at the time, the cowardice and dismissal provided an efficient fuel that fired the campaign, and continues to do so.  From the Vaxxed II site: 

In 2016, a media firestorm erupted when Tribeca Film Festival abruptly censored its documentary selection, VAXXED: FROM COVER-UP TO CATASTROPHE, amid pressure from pro-pharmaceutical interests.

In response to media silence on CDC whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, who admitted to fraud on a pivotal vaccine safety study, VAXXED catapulted to notoriety and became a worldwide trending topic, opening to sold out theater audiences nationwide.

Stunned by the immense volume of parents lining up outside the theaters with vaccine injury stories to share, VAXXED producer Polly Tommey began to livestream worldwide reaching millions, and a community that had once been silenced were empowered to rise up.

In VAXXED II: THE PEOPLE'S TRUTH, Polly and the team travel over 50,000 miles in the USA and around the world. Interviews of parents and doctors with nothing to gain and everything to lose exposed the vaccine injury epidemic and asked the question on every parent’s mind, “Are vaccines really as safe and effective as we’ve been told?”
 
Many Age of Autism readers have seen the bus, which is a rolling memorial to vaccine injured children.  Some are included in the interviews, including me, Kim Rossi.) Perhaps your child's name is on the bus. Vaxxed II the People's Truth continues the stories from families and includes many medical professionals, who risk everything when they talk about vaccination policy and injury.  Anne Dachel interviewed Executive Producer Polly Tommey. The series will run here on Age of Autism.  The transcript follows each video clip.

Q: Parents with thriving, healthy, high achieving UNVACCINATED children tell their stories on Vaxxed II. What do you see these stories doing to the vaccine debate?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtDoqYaZwCU

Polly: Make no mistake that the other side, without a doubt, do not want the public, the people, the parents to hear the stories of the unvaccinated. They want us to talk about the MMR, autism, Andrew Wakefield. They want that to go down the same path every single time because they can attack us. But you cannot attack the generations and generations of the health of the unvaccinated.

Vaxxed II doesn’t even begin to cover the health of the unvaccinated. We uncovered so much. We uncovered generations and generations standing there saying, “We’ve never had any cancer in our family.” “We’ve never had rheumatoid arthritis in our family.” “We’ve never had diabetes.” “We’ve never had any of these things that you see that are just common elderly conditions.”

They don’t have them in their families. And as we went deeper and deeper into the world of the unvaccinated, I could see, the team could see, this is why they don’t do the vaxxed/unvaxxed study. This is why they’re trying to censor us and stop us, and they’re petrified of these people speaking out. Because when the world knows about the health of the unvaccinated, game over. They’re done.

Note: Senator Schumer might as be Amy Schumer when it comes to vaccine safety. If the juxtaposition of allowable media and political outrage weren't so infuriating, it would be laughable.

By Anne Dachel

Forbes…listen to yourself!

On Oct 21^st Forbes Magazine published this piece about the news that toxic heavy metals were found in almost all commercial baby food.

Forbes: 95% Of Baby Food Had Toxic Heavy Metals, Senator Schumer Calls For Action, by health expert Bruce Y. Lee.

Bruce Y. Lee was more than a little critical of the oversight failure on the part of the FDA. He quoted U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer who was equally infuriated:

The FDA must investigate the new report detailing the presence of toxic metals in a wide variety of baby foods.

We need new regulations to force the industry to address exposures and alleviate concerns for the health of our youngest Americans.

(One has to wonder how the FDA can “investigate” this since they were the people that okayed all these products in the first place.)

Lee continued giving us the facts:

According to the report, 95% of baby food containers tested had “toxic heavy metals.” Oh, baby, baby, that does not sound good.

The testing involved checking 168 containers of 61 brands of 13 different types of baby food for four types of heavy metals. Arsenic was in 73% of the baby foods tested, cadmium in 75%, mercury in 32%, and lead in a whopping 94%. In fact, 26% of baby foods tested had all four of these metals, and 40% had three of them.  

“Something needs to be done…”

Lee expressed a certain amount of outrage about what we’re doing to children. 

These weren’t bullets and batteries that were being tested. Rather they were things that go into the mouths of little Johnny, …

Why are these heavy metals even in baby foods? …Some of the metals can be from the environment, which would be more evidence that something needs to be done about better controlling pollution.  … 

Lee was adamant that toxic metal exposure can harm children. He even suggested that exposure can be related to neurological conditions, including autism.

The bottom line is that heavy metal and babies should not mix. Musically, head banging is not good at that age. Chemically, exposure could lead to brain and body problems. It isn’t even clear what levels of such heavy metals in food may be safe, especially since exposure can accumulate over time from other sources such as the environment. How might exposure to these metals be related to rising rates of conditions such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? How well is our food supply being monitored for contaminants? There is a lot of unfinished business when it comes to the safety of our food supply. …

According to our Anne Dachel, when she went to post this video on Facebook, she was blocked from doing so with a content warning. The information in this post is a mix of true and false statements or it could simply be incomplete. In some cases, the information is misleading.

Thank you to Bill Maher. Go to the 6:15 mark. Share far and wide. The hell with Zuckerberg, his pediatrician wife and Facebook.

Note: PART THREE of a series

Vaxxed From Cover up to Catastrophe launched a firestorm when, in 2016, it was abruptly removed from the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro's event in New York.  As angry as so many of us were at the time, the cowardice and dismissal provided an efficient fuel that fired the campaign, and continues to do so.  From the Vaxxed II site: 

In 2016, a media firestorm erupted when Tribeca Film Festival abruptly censored its documentary selection, VAXXED: FROM COVER-UP TO CATASTROPHE, amid pressure from pro-pharmaceutical interests.

In response to media silence on CDC whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, who admitted to fraud on a pivotal vaccine safety study, VAXXED catapulted to notoriety and became a worldwide trending topic, opening to sold out theater audiences nationwide.

Stunned by the immense volume of parents lining up outside the theaters with vaccine injury stories to share, VAXXED producer Polly Tommey began to livestream worldwide reaching millions, and a community that had once been silenced were empowered to rise up.

In VAXXED II: THE PEOPLE'S TRUTH, Polly and the team travel over 50,000 miles in the USA and around the world. Interviews of parents and doctors with nothing to gain and everything to lose exposed the vaccine injury epidemic and asked the question on every parent’s mind, “Are vaccines really as safe and effective as we’ve been told?”
 
Many Age of Autism readers have seen the bus, which is a rolling memorial to vaccine injured children.  Some are included in the interviews, including me, Kim Rossi.) Perhaps your child's name is on the bus. Vaxxed II the People's Truth continues the stories from families and includes many medical professionals, who risk everything when they talk about vaccination policy and injury.  Anne Dachel interviewed Executive Producer Polly Tommey. The series will run here on Age of Autism.  The transcript follows each video clip.



By Anne Dachel

Q:   The stories about the HPV vaccine Gardasil were especially shocking. What did you learn about the damage from this vaccine?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0i653grpCs

Polly: Gardasil, Gardasil, Gardasil. Everywhere that we went on the bus was Gardasil injury. It got to the point where we could open the bus door and see the line of people and spot how many Gardasil injuries were walking towards us. You could see the Gardasil girls, the Gardasil boys as they came towards you.

This vaccine has caused untold injury and death, and I don’t think we are at even the beginning of the extent of the damage that this vaccine has caused. It’s got to go. …I think when people watch Vaxxed II there is no one in their right mind that is going to give this vaccine to anybody—themselves, their children, anybody—when they’ve seen what we’ve seen on the roads of America. It is everywhere.

Anyone who’s had the Gardasil vaccine is injured in some way: girls’ ovaries shutting down, the paralysis, the death, ongoing injury and no recovery from these injuries.

Q: The movie charges that forces are telling us to “hate the unvaccinated… hate children.” Why are the unvaccinated the enemy if vaccines offer protection? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVNCS2PNiCs

Polly: So in the movie Vaxxed Del Bigtree talks about the hatred for the unvaccinated child. It’s a very, very good point. I’m 53 years old. When I was a child, I was taken to parties to catch measles, and it was considered a mild childhood illness. I remember having measles and really not feeling that ill but just enjoying the week off school. Then 20 years later, I then go to have children, and we’re told that measles is not very nice, so why don’t you give your child the MMR? And they’ll never, ever, ever get measles again.

Sure. Give your child the MMR—brain damage, another story.

Then by the time I get to my third child, actually you need two of the MMR for extra protection.

Can you see how it’s changing?

To say that an unvaccinated child is a hateful person you need to stay away. We see it on social media.  “Stay away from my child. I don’t want to catch your disgusting unvaccinated diseases.”

Of all the unvaccinated children that we saw on the roads of America, I can tell you that none of them were sick, they were extremely strong, they were clever, top of their class. And if they did get sick, they got over it very quickly—unlike the vaccinated. So to blame an unvaccinated child for spreading measles, for example, when they don’t have measles, and to believe that, is really, really, really unintelligent.

Think people. Think about what they’re saying. I really don’t know what else to add to that, Anne, other that it’s the most stupid, stupid, statement ever to blame the unvaccinated who don’t have the illnesses on spreading the illnesses. It makes no sense.
 STOP HERE

Note: PART Two of a Three Part Interview Series

Vaxxed From Cover up to Catastrophe launched a firestorm when, in 2016, it was abruptly removed from the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro's event in New York.  As angry as so many of us were at the time, the cowardice and dismissal provided an efficient fuel that fired the campaign, and continues to do so.  From the Vaxxed II site: 

In 2016, a media firestorm erupted when Tribeca Film Festival abruptly censored its documentary selection, VAXXED: FROM COVER-UP TO CATASTROPHE, amid pressure from pro-pharmaceutical interests.

In response to media silence on CDC whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, who admitted to fraud on a pivotal vaccine safety study, VAXXED catapulted to notoriety and became a worldwide trending topic, opening to sold out theater audiences nationwide.

Stunned by the immense volume of parents lining up outside the theaters with vaccine injury stories to share, VAXXED producer Polly Tommey began to livestream worldwide reaching millions, and a community that had once been silenced were empowered to rise up.

In VAXXED II: THE PEOPLE'S TRUTH, Polly and the team travel over 50,000 miles in the USA and around the world. Interviews of parents and doctors with nothing to gain and everything to lose exposed the vaccine injury epidemic and asked the question on every parent’s mind, “Are vaccines really as safe and effective as we’ve been told?”
 
Many Age of Autism readers have seen the bus, which is a rolling memorial to vaccine injured children.  Some are included in the interviews, including me, Kim Rossi.) Perhaps your child's name is on the bus. Vaxxed II the People's Truth continues the stories from families and includes many medical professionals, who risk everything when they talk about vaccination policy and injury.  Anne Dachel interviewed Executive Producer Polly Tommey. The series will run here on Age of Autism.  The transcript follows each video clip.



By Anne Dachel

You remarked that you were surprised at the number of medical experts that came on the bus to tell their stories. What do you see changing among doctors? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCo1DiTgDig

Polly: It was incredible to see the medical profession coming to the bus and talking openly about what they know about vaccination. And really, it took a couple to come on the bus, and then they started to all come onto the bus. Safety in numbers.

These doctors are brave to do this because we know what happens to doctors who speak out against vaccines. So it was incredible to hear—first of all, who knew? We’re told, “Do you have a medical degree? Do you have a medical degree, Anne? Do you have a medical degree, Polly? Well you can’t speak on this subject.”

But what the bus found out—again the medical profession coming to the bus on the roads of America—is that they have absolutely no training in vaccines while they’re training to be a doctor.  Not one of them had any training. And we interviewed hundreds of doctors and nurses—people with the highest, top qualifications in the medical profession. Nobody has had any training other than vaccines are safe and effective. The same thing that we hear from the media is the same thing they hear in the medical profession. Why are we bowing down to the white coat gods with our most precious possessions to vaccinate them when they’ve had no training?

And you, if you do your research on the insert of that vaccine, will have more training than the doctor that you’re talking to. That was to me was the most amazing thing that happened from the medical profession.

People wake up. They’ve had no training. They do not know what they’re talking about when it comes to vaccines as say they.

Q: There were numerous stories of regression, many immediate, following vaccination. What kind of support/explanation from doctors do parents get when healthy children suddenly stop making eye contact and talking, start having seizures, develop high fevers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C2Rw8uTmmw

Polly: Vaxxed II is one and a half hours long, so they can’t put everything in, but one of the things I think could last an hour and a half on its own, is all the parents when they talk about what happened when their child was injured, or someone they love was injured, and they went back to the doctor and they said, my child just had the Gardasil or the DTaP or whatever vaccine it is. It had a seizure…it died, whatever.

“It’s not the vaccines.”

All of them. They put their hands up: “It’s not the vaccine.”

STOP HERE

Note: Vaxxed From Cover up to Catastrophe launched a firestorm when, in 2016, it was abruptly removed from the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro's event in New York.  As angry as so many of us were at the time, the cowardice and dismissal provided an efficient fuel that fired the campaign, and continues to do so.  From the Vaxxed II site: 

In 2016, a media firestorm erupted when Tribeca Film Festival abruptly censored its documentary selection, VAXXED: FROM COVER-UP TO CATASTROPHE, amid pressure from pro-pharmaceutical interests.

In response to media silence on CDC whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, who admitted to fraud on a pivotal vaccine safety study, VAXXED catapulted to notoriety and became a worldwide trending topic, opening to sold out theater audiences nationwide.

Stunned by the immense volume of parents lining up outside the theaters with vaccine injury stories to share, VAXXED producer Polly Tommey began to livestream worldwide reaching millions, and a community that had once been silenced were empowered to rise up.

In VAXXED II: THE PEOPLE'S TRUTH, Polly and the team travel over 50,000 miles in the USA and around the world. Interviews of parents and doctors with nothing to gain and everything to lose exposed the vaccine injury epidemic and asked the question on every parent’s mind, “Are vaccines really as safe and effective as we’ve been told?”
 
Many Age of Autism readers have seen the bus, which is a rolling memorial to vaccine injured children.  Some are included in the interviews, including me, Kim Rossi.) Perhaps your child's name is on the bus. Vaxxed II the People's Truth continues the stories from families and includes many medical professionals, who risk everything when they talk about vaccination policy and injury.  Anne Dachel interviewed Executive Producer Polly Tommey. The series will run here on Age of Autism.  The transcript follows each video clip.



By Anne Dachel

Q: What did the original showing of Vaxxed around the country do for parents?

Polly: When Vaxxed come out, and parents started to hear, thanks to censorship, thanks to the explosion on social media, …this was about a whistleblower at the CDC, and there were parents in there talking about how their children regressed. Every parent that’s lived through that, which is countless as we know, suddenly BREATH, breath of relief that we’re not crazy. This is true. We’ve been slam-dunked so much that the original Vaxxed was literally the massive boost that these parents needed to get out there, have the courage to say, “You spoke out, so I’m going to speak out.”

And as that happened, the army of parents started to come out. So Vaxxed definitely was instrumental in giving parents the courage to go back out there and tell their stories and warn the other that parents, which is what they’re actually doing more than anything else.

Q: What was the Vaxxed bus tour around the U.S. like?

Polly: We realized that travelling by plane to all the events and trying to speak to parents was not going to work. We were missing too many stories. So we got a Vaxxed bus, and we got out on the road in an RV, and we spoke to the parents.

What we saw, none of us were prepared for. None of us knew the extent of vaccine injury. We knew there was a problem with the MMR. We knew there was a problem with autism. We knew there was a possible problem with a few others, but nothing prepared us for what I described as a war zone out here in America. It was like a blood bath of death and injury. It was literally like walking out onto a battlefield.

And this America. This isn’t a Third World country. This is America where …all I’m seeing on the streets talking to the people—and these are really well-educated people—talking to these people who believed in and had faith in our medical profession, and there in their houses coming to the bus, nothing but death, destruction, paralysis, injury beyond belief here in America.

By Anne Dachel

Here’s one of the latest stories added to my website, LossOfBrainTrust.com NBC Nightly News gave the issue of nationwide classroom violence/room clears coverage, but they completely missed the real issue in their dismissive attitude in how to deal with situation.

We’re told that clearing classrooms because of out-of-control students has ‘become more common in the past decade,’ and one expert even calls for finding out ‘why that kid is acting that way,’ but NBC News has no interest in what’s really going on.

“Room clears” are the problem, not violent kids. (This practice is done here in my little town in Wisconsin, as I’ve been told by parents of elementary school students.)

NBC News calls for MORE MONEY and MORE MENTAL HEALTH SPECIALISTS. Dangerous students are normal and acceptable in today’s world, even as young as seven. (If we can casually watch the autism rate climb year after year, no questions ask, we will somehow learn to live with any type of dysfunctional child.

How long before things finally collapse under the strain? I’m not sure, but eventually they will.

Oct 1, 2019, NBC News: Teachers sounding the alarm over ‘room clear’ method

One of the methods often used to control a child having a meltdown, “room clear” leaves the disruptive child in the classroom, while the other kids are moved out. The result can be classrooms torn apart, desk and tables upended.

VIDEO: "The videos are shocking, classrooms torn apart. Desks and tables upended."

By Anne Dachel

Ever since Simpsonwood (the secret meeting of CDC, FDA, British Health Ministry, federal scientists and pharma people in June 2000 where they discussed the link between mercury-containing vaccines and the explosion in neurological problems in kids) the official explanation for the decline of our childrenhas been one of reassurance. Parents are routinely told that nothing is really wrong. They’re told the dramatic increase in learning problems/neurological disorders is merely greater awareness and better diagnosing—experts just used to miss these kids or label them as something else. 

Nineteen years ago officials were already seeing the connection between vaccines and speech delays, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism, but the aim of that meeting was not to address what was happening, but to figure out how to cover it up. 

Autism

And for two decades officials have stuck to the script. More and more kids with disabilities is never a crisis (officially the word CRISIS is never used in connection to the ever-increasing autism rate). We celebrate autism every spring with April Awareness Month. Health officials have remained dumbfounded by the puzzling disorder. Is the rate the result of better diagnosing/greater awareness or is it really going up? We may never know. Officials have never acknowledged a real increase in the autism rate.

In truth, the meeting goers at Simpsonwood had every right to be concerned. The increase in the number of mandatory vaccinesafter the U.S. government indemnified the vaccine makers and doctors in 1986 was affecting children worldwide. The effects went way beyond the short list of neurological problems discussed in 2000. Modern children were rapidly becoming the generation of the sick and disabled. Chronic health problems like seizure disorders, asthma, life-threatening allergies, bowel disease, diabetes and more were becoming commonplace in children, along with behavior problems and mental health issues.

More vaccines were added year by year to the childhood schedule, and year after year our kids became more disabled.

The disinterest of the media

Since January 2017  I’ve been collecting stories from all over on what’s happening.  I barely touch on what’s out there in the press, yet I have over 5,000 news reports. 

The figures I’m seeing on a daily basis are the undeniable truth. Incredibly, there is pathetically little effort being made to explain why these things are happening. We’ve come to the point where we just have to accept the situation. 

That should surprise no one. Any thinking person back in 2000who understood the full scope of things could have predicted the future we’re living today:

Note: The laws in California and New York now require expelling healthy, whole students based on their vaccination status. At the same time, schools are turning into pysch wards and play grounds are more like prison grounds with violence and trouble. Are we so worried about measles or chicken pox of pertussis that we think it is acceptable, even necessary to remove students who may be honor roll 4.0 kids, athletes, leaders, kind kids, special needs kids, every type of kid?

I'm reminded of an old 1960s commercial for Armour hot dogs, "Hot dogs! Armour hot dogs! What kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs? Fat kids. Skinny kids. Kids who climb on rocks. Tough kids. Sissy Kids. Even kids with chicken pox love hot dogs! Armour hot dogs! The Dogs! Kids! Love! To Bite!"

Today, kids without a chicken pox shot are to be feared and removed, like criminals.  Meanwhile, the violent behavior of our critically and chronically unwell population of students escalates to never before seen heights.

Hot diggety dog...

By Anne Dachel

TWO RECENT STORIES on Age of Autism were about the explosion in school violence seemingly everywhere.

June 11, 2019, Violence, Aggression Taking Over Classrooms in Ore-GONE

And June 7, 2019, Iowa Teachers Reach Breaking Point Over Student Violence 

So what is happening to children from Iowa to Oregon and from Maine to California? Curiously this is never a topic for the national networks or major print media.

On my website LossOfBrainTrust.com I manage to post a few of the non-stop local stories from around the world each day. (Believe me I could add hundreds if I really worked at it.)

So what is the public supposed to think when they read about VIOLENCE in schools (more and more it’s elementary schools) in their town?

Why are schools across the country adding “calming rooms” to help with aggressive students?

Why are state legislatures passing laws on restraining and secluding kids as young as kindergarteners?

Why are more districts partnering with mental health providers and adding in-school therapy?

When will the local stories add up to being a national issue? Will the candidates care about this issue in 2020?

Here are some examples of just how bad things are EVERYWHERE:Oslo, Norway: Armed police and emergency health care personnel responded swiftly to calls of a “threatening situation” involving a knife at a primary school in Oslo this week. Eight minutes later they had control of the suspect, a little boy who apparently was angry with his teacher. … It was just the latest example of violence at Norwegian schools, also now those with the youngest pupils. …

A new report confirms the incident was not unusual. Norway’s workplace regulatory agency Arbeidstilsynet has just recently surveyed 93 primary and junior high schools in southeastern Norway, and state broadcaster NRK reported on Wednesday that the findings were raising alarm: fully 90 percent of the schools lack routines to prevent violence and threats. School employees don’t receive training in how threatening situations can be warded off.

…“The problems are the biggest in the primary schools,” federation leader Steffen Handal told NRK. “Teachers are subject to a rising degree of violence from pupils. We’ve seen incidents double from 2005 to 2018.”

Brighton, MI: Officials with Brighton Area Schools have provided some clarification about student disruptions at Hawkins Elementary School in Brighton. On Wednesday, WHMI reported that special education students were causing daily disruptions at the school to the point where a class may have to be evacuated 2-3 times a day because of a disruptive or violent student.

Anne Dachel transcribed Rep Adam Schiff's speech from June 13, 2019, on the dangers of “vaccine hesitancy” and what to do about it. See FB post here.

“I rise today to offer an amendment in support of vaccines and the medical effectiveness. Specifically my amendment would direct $5 million to amplify a public health campaign to promote vaccine usage and combat hesitancy.

These funds would support the work of the national vaccine program within the office of infectious disease policy and HIV aids, which provides a framework for pursuing the prevention of infectious diseases through immunizations. It is the nation’s leading roadmap in articulating a comprehensive strategy to develop new and approved vaccines, enhance the vaccine safety system, and support communications to enhance vaccine decision making.

Each year vaccines are estimated to save two to three million lives worldwide. Due to effective vaccination campaigns, what were once referred to as the usual diseases of childhood, are now considered vaccine preventable diseases.

Unfortunately, vaccines are a victim of their own success. These monumental public health achievements have contributed to a false perception that disease threats are minimal and that routine vaccination is no longer necessary.  

This year alone we have witnessed numerous outbreaks of measles across the country—a disease that was once considered eradicated in the United States.

Declining vaccination rates pose an imminent threat to public health. In fact the World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as a top global health threat for 2019.

There is strong evidence to suggest that at least part of the source of this trend is the degree to which medically inaccurate information about vaccines surfaces on websites where many Americans get their information.

Repetition of information, even if false, can often be mistaken for accuracy. And exposure to anti-vaccine content via social media may negatively sharp user attitudes towards vaccination.

The emergence of vaccine hesitancy as an increasingly common theme in health care settings demands attention. And it is imperative for public health officials to take a necessary and critical step to flip the script from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence to protect and bolster the public health.

The scientific and medical communities are in overwhelming consensus that vaccines are both effective and safe.

There is no evidence to suggest that vaccines cause life-threatening or disabling diseases and the dissemination of unfounded or debunked theories about the dangers of vaccination pose a great risk to the public health.

Support for the national vaccine program in coordinating a national public health campaign to fight vaccine misinformation is imperative.

It is essential now more than ever that we fund vaccine communication research to strengthen the evidence-based for what works in fighting vaccine hesitance, combating misinformation and encouraging responsible vaccine decision-making.    

By Anne Dachel

On May 21, 2019, Business Insider published a piece entitled, The anti-vaxx movement is fueling the measles epidemic by deliberately targeting communities most affected by the disease.

Hundreds of people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, gathered at a rally in Rockland County, New York last week to listen as speakers ticked off a slew of unverified claims about vaccinations.

The story included prominent critics of the mandated vaccine program: Robert Kennedy, Jr. Del Bigtree, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Dr. Andrew Wakefield via Skype. Also in the gathering was an outspoken leader in the Orthodox Jewish community from Brooklyn, Rabbi William Handler. Brooklyn is an area where the measles outbreak is especially acute.

Readers were told that most of the attendees were “ultra Orthodox Jews,” and that these are “people who are mostly isolated from the outside world and have limited access to the internet or scientific research, can be particularly vulnerable to anti-vaxx rhetoric.”

At a May 14^th  rally in Albany Handler joined other activists in attacking a bill that would remove the right to a religious exemption from vaccines. “We have come here today to protest this latest desecration of God in culture to take away the religious exemption.” 

Handler has received coverage by such well-known vaccine defenders as the Washington Post and the New York Times.  A hit piece by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura at the Times with the headline, Despite Measles Warnings, Anti-Vaccine Rally Draws Hundreds of Ultra-Orthodox Jews,  sounded more like an editorial than standard journalism.  Anyone questioning vaccine safety and calling for the right to exempt children were blamed for “the spread of misinformation.”

Handler was featured saying that his community has recently been demonized.  "We Hasidim have been chosen as the target... the campaign against us has been successful,” but the Times accused him of having  “falsely described the measles outbreak among Jews as part of an elaborate plan concocted by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York to deflect attention from ‘more serious’ diseases brought by Central American migrants.”

There was of course no mention of any risk involved with mass vaccination with multiple vaccines at once, or the fact that the people making and giving the vaccines can’t be sued for injuries resulting from the shots.

(To understand the attitude at the NY Times, one need only to look at the 2011 story where in attacking the movie, The Greater Good, reporter Jeannette Catsoulis made this stunning statement:

“But while the film acknowledges that science has so far been consistent in its refutation of a vaccine-autism link, it fails to point out that even were such a link proved definitively, all that matters is that its victims number significantly fewer than those of the diseases vaccinations are designed to prevent.”)

While the real fear mongers warn about measles outbreaks, Rabbi Handler continues to call attention to individual civil rights along with questions about the safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine.

In this 4 minute video from June 4^th, Rabbi Handler explained his views.

Note: Our Anne Dachel has been cataloguing the demise of the pediatric brain for over a decade at Age of Autism. Our children are sicker than ever and increasingly incapable of functioning in a traditional American classroom. Behavior plans replaced weekend plans with friends.  Detention is a quaint remnant of another era, as arrests and calls to "211" have become the norm. Teachers find themselves needing to learn how to block, place a student into a submission, and restrain as if the classroom as become the Octagon.

Here in Connecticut, we have "PMT" training for educators.  It's supposed to support safe interactions during a behavior. But when there is violent aggression, staff are woefully unprepared. The result is more injury to staff in school. And that's never acceptable. At the same time, as a parent of three daughters with special needs, I know that restraints and submissions can maim, wound and even kill - think sleeper hold. It happens.  I teach martial arts. My Sensei and I have a class called ASD - Autism Self Defense, for families. The problem in schools is that teachers and staff can not use techniques that really work - that send a message. Stop. And let's face it, as parents we do not want them to touch our kids - not on a bet.  The answer isn't martial arts training for staff - that's ridiculous and would take years for any training to take affect.

But training is an issue - and discussed heavily in the article for Oregon which is part of a series. However, the real problem is this: 

“Have mental health people, have counselors so we don’t have to pull staff from other assignments,” said Winters. “Because that’s what happening right now. Principals are being pulled, other assistants.” 

Why the increase in disruptive behavior?  

There are several theories on why disruptive incidents are on the rise in Oregon classrooms but no in-depth research on what’s causing it.

Teachers say more trauma at home and less support in schools are the most obvious factors.

I call horsepucky and I know you do too. Trauma at home? Chances are the parents and siblings of these students are the ones facing trauma. Less support in schools? Nonsense - kids have 1 to 1s, lunch bunch, social worker teams, school psychologists, counselors and far more mental health support than any school ever imagined necessary. What's changed:

0 Food - it's chemical garbage

0 Vaccinations - more than 72 before first grade today with more in the queue

o Toxic chemicals everywhere, including school classrooms and grounds

o Tampering with the brain in utero with vaccinations, ultrasounds, medication and interactions at birth

o Tylenol at the first sign of any and all discomfort, including at vaccination visits

o Electromagnetic Frequencies

o Screen time

o Reduction in parental authority

o Changing the power structure from parent overseeing child to child bossing parent

And I'm sure there are many more suggestions. Feel free to share them.

Here's an article that is part of an excellent series from Oregon.  Thanks to Laura Hayes for sending it to me. Teachers are not working with teachable material, "normal" children, like their predecessors who taught our parents and grandparents and yes, most of us. Education is Ore-going, going, gone.

###

From KGW-8 NBC TV in Portland, Oregon:

Classrooms in Crisis: Verbal, physical, sometimes violent outbursts plaguing Oregon classrooms

The situation has gotten so dire that the Oregon Education Association – the union that represents 44,000 teachers across the state – plans to release a report this week calling classroom disruptions a “significant and growing problem in Oregon classrooms.”

Note: American children are regressing into a primal state of dysfunctional mental health. They are not naughty. They are not unloved. They are not possessed by demons. Screen time alone isn't destroying their ability to have empathy and control. One could say that even our poorest children living in abject poverty have more luxuries that our grandparents could have imagined. Kids are pathologically unwell. But they don't have the chicken pox, so teachers can be grateful for that as they dodge chairs and fists. Meanwhile, teachers, aides and bus drivers are also cracking up and being violent toward students with special needs. Children are not supposed to need psychiatric care at age 7. Schools nurses are supposed to hand out band aids to boys with scraped knees and feminine pads to frightened 7th grade girls and put cold compresses on a feverish child whose mother has been called. Today's school nurses might as well work under MASH tents for the trauma the see each day. Social workers used to facilitate lunch bunch and counsel children whose parents were in the process of a divorce. We have a monstrous problem on our hands. 

###

By Anne Dachel

Reporters endlessly tell us about INCREASES/CHANGES in the population of disabled children in our schools everywhere in the English speaking world. Despite the serious things they tell, these same reporters just move on to the next topic. There’s never an in-depth follow-up asking critical questions and searching for real answers.

One recent story immediately got my attention, and I felt I had to highlight it.

May 31, 2019, Des Moines, IA, CBS13: Extreme & Violent Student Behavior Pushing Iowa Teachers to Breaking Point 

Iowa teachers tell Channel 13 they are so overwhelmed by extreme violent behavior they have reached a breaking point.  They asked us to share their stories so people will understand what happens inside classrooms.

Ashlee May teaches second grade in Des Moines.  She said, “Most people, I don’t think, realize kind of what’s happening.  We get screamed at and cursed at daily.  I’ve been stabbed with a pencil before.”

Police reports back her up.  They contain stories of children ages 10 and younger throwing chairs, punching teachers in the face, and leaving bruises on instructors.  May considers herself lucky.  “In terms of what other teachers deal with, I think I’ve been kind of blessed because I’ve never had to go to the hospital.”

A teacher whose identity we concealed based on her fear of retaliation from administrators for speaking out told us children “get in the faces of the teachers.”  She said she hears things like, “Get out of my way, you (expletives).  You can’t do anything to me.  I’m not going to get into trouble.  You’re going to get into trouble.  All kinds of intimidation.”

May said, “There just comes a point where you’re just so worn out emotionally, and physically, and mentally that you just can’t do it anymore.”

We’re told, “Teachers have been sounding the alarm privately about extreme behavior for years.”

We hear about “room clears” where a child becomes so violent that other students are in danger and they have to be removed to the hallway. A single student is then left to trash the room.

So why have (elementary) students recently become so disruptive and out-of-control?

The 7 minute news video didn’t have much to say about it except that there are ‘gaps in our social fabric’ and insinuate that parents are at fault. 

“Teachers are tasked with types of nurturing that have never been asked of them, that they weren’t trained for, and state lawmakers haven’t budgeted for.”

Nurturing?

Children seemingly aren’t being nurtured outside of school.

In addition, there is a lack of mental health services that children need.

The interview with a district administer went like this:

“All the gaps in our social fabric that schools are more and more expected to take on, whether that’s private service providers or access to private service providers.”

“Or moms and dads.”

By Anne Dachel

While California politicians focus on removing vaccination rights from healthy citizens, its schools face unheard of budget pressures from ever mounting special education costs.

On May 12 the Los Angeles Times  reported that local school districts were “hitting the panic button” over costs despite a huge 21% increase in the state’s special education budget.

Reporter John Myers pointed to “the rapid growth in expenses for special education.” He wrote, “More children are qualifying for additional services, particularly those diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.”

MORE CHILDREN ARE QUALIFYING

Many of these kids have really severe and costly needs. ‘When you look at the dollars that reach the actual schools, the increase in overall funding is being outstripped by the increase in mandated costs.’

Back in March, the Marin County Independent Journal  had a similar story. It seems that while enrollment in the district is going down, special education costs are rising. This makes for a big money problem and they have to make budget cuts of $1.8M.

“ ‘This $1.8 million is just the beginning,’” said trustee Ross Millerick, referring to continuing challenges from rising pension costs, declining enrollment and flat per-student revenue from the state.” …

“Hawkins said another significant factor this year was a steep rise in special education costs. … ‘The costs for special education are up over $750,000 this year,’ Hawkins told the board on Tuesday. ‘This is the largest increase in over 20 years.’”…

No one seems willing to ask the obvious in these stories: Why are special education costs and numbers increasingly a problem, especially if enrollment is down?

By Anne Dachel

I often say that regular ed today is really special ed with all the kids who have individual plans and different learning needs.

In the same sense, special ed should actually be called behavioral ed because of what things are like in the modern school setting.

From therapy dogs, to the use of restraint/seclusion and increased mental health services, academics is no longer the sole focus of schools. Education has to change because kids today cannot function normally. It's that simple.

Here are some examples from recent news reports. Taken as a whole they should be scaring everyone. How much time do we have left to fix things?

The content quoted below can be found among the recent stories on LossOfBrainTrust.com

Delaware, OH: Two full-time and two part-time therapists are assigned to Delaware City Schools, she said….

The district also partners with other [mental health] agencies as part of its overall effort to maintain student wellness, she said.

Florida: Florida has an estimated 400,000 children who need behavioral-health services, but 55 percent of them don’t get any treatment, members of a health-care panel were told Thursday.

That translates to 220,000 children across the state, or about one child in every classroom…

Lawmakers this month approved a 2019-2020 state budget that includes $75 million for mental-health services at schools, a boost from the $64 million given to school districts for the current year.

Dublin, Ireland: She is one of a number of Dublin parents who will take part in a protest on Saturday in the city centre, about the lack of school places for their autistic children.

Fairfax County, VA: But last March, a WAMU investigation revealed hundreds of cases in which elementary students in schools designed to serve students with special needs were secluded and restrained. In some cases, children were as young as six. One child was isolated more than 100 times in a school year. …

WAKE UP ARKANSAS! The end is near.

In the midst of a flurry of coverage in the media about the threat posed by measles outbreaks in the U.S., I found a truly frightening story from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

State autism-treatment options scarce, but growing was all about how the state government fails children with autism. It seems that in Arkansas, autism is a real problem.

The Democrat Gazette gives readers real things to worry about. It’s the inevitable position every state in the U.S. will be in the next few years.

To summarize: the epidemic of autism shows no signs of slowing down, and there simply aren’t enough services to address it.

Reporter Alex Golden uses the example of a 2 year-old who stopped talking and was diagnosed with autism. Incredibly, Golden says nothing about why a child would regress. It’s just autism.

From there he goes on to talk about THE PRICE TAG OF AUTISM.

Autism costs an average of about $60,000 a year through childhood, with the bulk of the costs in special services and lost wages related to increased demands on one or both parents. Costs increase with the occurrence of intellectual disability.

And it isn’t just the cost of care, what’s worse is the absence of help for these children.

It's also a struggle in Northwest Arkansas to get treatment for children who are on the autism spectrum, a problem that parents and professionals attribute to a lack of services and professionals in the field. …

Golden cites one service provider who just can’t keep up with demand.

Note: Time to bring back Jocko Homo and DEVO - which stood for de-evolution. Happening right under our injection sites.... Are we not men?

By Anne Dachel

Thanks to a friend who passed this on to me, we have some really scary info that raises lots of questions. For a long time I've said, "We'll vaccinate ourselves right back to the Stone Age."

May 22, 2019, NBC News: IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity

An intelligence crisis could undermine our problem-solving capacities and dim the prospects of the global economy.

People are getting dumber. That's not a judgment; it's a global fact. In a host of leading nations, IQ scores have started to decline. ...

As yet, the United States hasn’t hit this IQ wall — despite what you may be tempted to surmise from the current state of the political debate. But don’t rush to celebrate American exceptionalism: If IQs are dropping in other advanced countries but not here, maybe that means we’re not really an advanced country (too much poverty, too little social support).

Or — just as troubling — if we are keeping up with the Joneses (or Johanssons and Jacques) in terms of national development, that means we are likely to experience similarly plummeting IQs in the near future. At which point, the U.S. will face the same dangers of intellectual and economic stagnation. ...

These days, however, Flynn himself concedes that "the IQ gains of the 20th century have faltered." A range of studies using a variety of well-established IQ tests and metrics have found declining scores across Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, France and Australia.

But the broad pattern has become clearer: Beginning around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations began experiencing some kind of decline in IQ.

By Anne Dachel

My friend Maurine Meleck, dedicated autism activist, had this letter to the editor published by the Jacksonville (FL) Times Union.

Every April we live the fantasy surrounding autism with blue lights, walks, and puzzle pieces. We’ve been conditioned to think all this is significant. Somehow there’s no need to worry about a disorder overwhelmingly affecting children with no known cause. The fact that the rate keeps on increasing is just more of the mystery.    

Maurine points out the obvious and ignored truth: AUTISM WILL BURY US.

The cost of this disaster will be dumped on the states. While federal officials continue to scratch their collective heads over autism, state governments will have to provide for adults who will live long lives dependent on social services. The autism bill will come due very soon.

We must address autism in a realistic manner

The authors of a recent article urging employers to hire more people on the autism spectrum because it makes good business sense stated that individuals with autism may “differ dramatically from one another.”

This statement is very true.

By Anne Dachel

Someone in the mainstream media actually noticed that something is wrong with our children. On May 9, 2019 Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson editorialized on the state of our children’s health and our elected officials’ failure to deal with it.

The occasion involved the most recent school shooting, namely the one at a Denver-area charter school where a young man was killed trying to stop an assailant. The title of the story was Vultures treat the Colorado shooting like a political prop—our kids deserve so much more, and in it Carlson went from criticizing politicians who use heartbreaking situations and push for gun control to asking the REALLY BIG QUESTION: WHY ARE KIDS TODAY SO DIFFERENT?

Carlson: Congressman Jason Crow and Sen. Michael Bennet, both Democrats, attended the prayer vigil. They were not there to offer prayers. They were there to belittle prayer, and instead hold a campaign rally….

What vultures these people are. The students walked out of the vigil. For the politicians, devastated children and grieving families were just political props -- props they could use to increase their own power at the expense of other people's freedom. That is their reaction to every problem and every tragedy.

This could have been stopped if you have given me more power. Of course, in reality, Washington has been getting more and more power for decades and has not been making our kids happier or healthier. …

There are a lot of possible explanations for this. We don't seem to be talking about any of them. The kids in Colorado were, though. They chanted, "Mental health." And they are right. But it is not enough to say we need more mental healthcare. It is also worth asking why we need it.

Why do so many kids have so many more mental health problems? It's not your imagination. It's real. It is measurable. It is being measured, though not addressed. In the past decade, teen depression has risen dramatically, as have teen suicides. They are connected, of course. Between 2008 and 2017, the percentage of adolescents with depression symptoms rose 52 percent. Among kids 15 to 24, suicides are up almost 50 percent. That's a horrifying number. No one mentions it.

Millions of American children are on drugs for ADHD, anxiety, other mental health problems. But why? What is driving this?

Is it the breakdown in the family? Is it too much screen time? Is it something in the food? We don't really know. That is the actual tragedy. And as long as our leaders' preferred response to this tragedy is opportunism, we never will know.

By Anne Dachel

Two stories out on April 22, 2019 make it clear that we are expected to accept ANY INCREASE, ANY RATE in childhood illness or disabilities, especially when it comes to the “A” WORD—AUTISM.

By an odd coincidence a piece from Scotland and one from Syracuse, NY both use the word “soaring” to describe increases in autism/special needs.

The report from Scotland defies reason.

Herald: Number of pupils with special needs 'soaring'

The number of pupils requiring support for mental health problems has more than tripled between 2012 and 2018, up 252 per cent.

Those with communication support needs have increased by 293% in the same period, while pupils identified as having autism spectrum disorder have more than doubled, rising by 101%.

Students needing help at school for physical health problems have risen by 98% in the six-year period, while those with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties have increased by 86%.

Students with dyslexia have risen 60% …

Then we are told that all these disabled children are merely due “to increased recognition and diagnosis of conditions, as well as improvements in recording.”

By Anne Dachel

On my website, LossOfBrainTrust.com, I continue to post stories on the decline of education and childhood in the 21^st century.  I can only conclude that this disaster will never be addressed for what it is by officials. SOMEHOW we’ll just struggle on until everything collapses. These stories are just a sample and they speak for themselves. I really have no words of my own for this

April 21, 2019, (UK) Telegraph: Seven-year-old boy threatened to stab pregnant teacher in stomach as union warns of rise in pupil violence

A seven-year-old boy threatened to stab a pregnant teacher in the stomach over a literacy lesson, it emerges as a union warns of a rise in children who do not respond to any form of punishment.

…families need to be held accountable for their children’s behaviour, explaining: “If your child is constantly disruptive, if they are violent, if they are abusive, I think it’s about time that schools and teachers question the parenting of those children.

April 20, 2019, (Canada) Study Finds: Study: 1 In 5 Children Suffers From A Mental Health Disorder 

One in five children suffer from a mental disorder — with notable increases in depression and anxiety over the past 30 years — yet less than one- third have had contact with a mental healthcare provider, a new study finds.

April 20, 2019, (Canada) Durham (ON) Region: Durham school board expecting 350 to 400 more students with autism over the next year Board chair says budget process will be 'very difficult' 

The Durham District School Board is anticipating an influx of students with autism over the next year, as a result of changes to Ontario’s autism program.

A new report says an additional 350 to 400 students with autism who have "significant needs" are expected by winter 2020 — about triple the normal amount.

April 20, 2019, (UK) Guardian: One in four teachers 'experience violence from pupils every week'—Many say poor behaviour is making them want to leave the profession, NASUWT finds

One in four teachers in the UK say they experience physical violence from their pupils at least once a week, and many say poor behaviour is making them want to leave the profession, according to figures compiled by a teaching union….

Nearly nine in 10 teachers said they had received some sort of verbal or physical abuse from pupils in the past year. Eighty-six per cent said they had been sworn at and 46% said they had been verbally threatened….

“Having taught for almost 40 years I have witnessed a demonstrable and seemingly unstoppable deterioration in pupil behaviour,” one said.

April 19, 2019, Fox26, Fresno, CA: Sinclair Cares: Popular places catering to autistic children

By Anne Dachel

Dr. Walter Zahorodny from Rutgers is EVERYWHERE in print and broadcast news right now talking about the ALARMING, GROWING AUTISM RATE IN NJ which he says will continue to get even worse.

Science Daily put it this way.

A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which uses research by Rutgers University, shows a significant increase in the percentage of 4-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder in New Jersey.

 The study found the rate increased 43 percent from 2010 to 2014 in the state.

The report, released April 11, found that about one in 59 children has autism. New Jersey's rate was the highest of the states studied: one in 35. That puts the national rate of autism at 1.7 percent of the childhood population and New Jersey's autism rate at 3 percent.

…The analysis of this young group of children shows U.S. autism rates are continuing to rise without plateauing.

"It's very likely that the next time we survey autism among children, the rate will be even higher," [Zahorodny] said....

The researchers can't explain why autism rates have increased across the United States. Factors associated with a higher risk include advanced parental age (children of parents over age 30 have heightened risk), maternal illness during pregnancy, genetic mutations, birth before 37 weeks gestation and multiple births.

"These are true influences exerting an effect, but they are not enough to explain the high rate of autism prevalence," said Zahorodny. "There are still undefined environmental risks that contribute to this significant increase, factors that could affect a child in its development in utero or related to birth complications or to the newborn period. We need more research into non-genetic triggers for autism."

IT IS DESPICABLE, in my opinion, for this medical expert to make these idiotic claims about causation.

IN 2012 on  NY radio he admitted that YES, VACCINES ARE LINKED TO AUTISM.  I wrote about it 2015.

Media Heats Up on Vaccine Debate

Back in April, 2012, Zahorodny was featured on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC radio.

http://www.irishbeo.com/Irish_Beo/School_Stories/School_Stories.html

Note: Here is just one take away from this article, and the same thing is happening here in the USA. Dec 1, 2018, (Ireland) Extra IE: 33 teachers took leave this academic year after being assaulted by pupils. Assault. Behavior. Students in pain and frustrated. Teachers ill equipped for this new normal. 

We'll be wearin’ the green this weekend, the Chicago River will flow green, the beer will flow from coast to coast as America celebrates St. Patrick's Day on the 17th.  Who can drive out the scourge of autism on Ireland's children?  And yes, for most, it is indeed a scourge.

By Anne Dachel

A recent story on from Ireland got my attention. It’s proof that those in charge will never recognize the decline of children. Sinn Fein representative Kathleen Funchion comes across as a champion of disabled students.  She’s adamant that more needs to be done for autistic kids in Ireland, all the while pretending that autism is a normal and acceptable part of childhood.

Mar 7, 2019, (Ireland) Kilkenny Now: Kathleen Funchion: ‘Why are autistic children being treated differently in Kilkenny?’ 

Sinn Fein official asks:

Why is there an acute shortage of ASD classes for secondary students in Kilkenny?...

Concerned parents have approached me over recent months over their fear that there will be no secondary school places in Kilkenny for their child when the time for them to enrol arrives.

This concern is not an arbitrary fear, it is based on parents’ experiences approaching secondary schools in our constituency and being told there is little hope for their child’s admission to a school that provides an ASD class or that the waiting list is full….

The good news is, autism really isn’t a problem. We’re just noticing it more.  We need to provide more room in schools.

…Every school in our constituency needs to acknowledge that diagnostic rates are increasing among our population and we must deliver for that changing demographic….

In fact, all the autistic children bankrupting Irish schools are a sign of progress.

We are fortunate to be living in a time in Ireland where these diagnoses are happening more readily and gone are the days of simply ignoring a child who appears to be ‘different’….

Funchion, of course, is presiding over the end of childhood as we’ve always known it. Her lack of interest in the explosion in autism (and special education in general in Ireland) is outrageous. It brings to mind the real meaning of the charge, “callous disregard.” Her pretense that the autism epidemic is just something we need to adjust to, defies common sense and endangers the future of the Republic.

Funchion sees the neglect rampant in Irish schools as one isolated worry that can be fixed with more places for kids with ASD.  Special education is the biggest problem in education in Ireland, but she is oblivious to it all.

Here are just some of the recent stories about Ireland that I’ve posted on LossOfBrainTrust.com

They  that should have the attention of everyone in the government in Ireland, including Kathleen Funchion. Schools are being overwhelmed by students who can’t learn or behave normally in the classroom.  Meanwhile those in charge tell us it isn’t happening.

Mar 1, 2019, (Ireland) Kildare Nationalist: Official opening of school's sensory room 

Acting principal Ross Dignam said students with sensory needs and self-regulation requirements will find that the features of this room will be of great benefit when seeking sensory stimulation.

“The room will allow a student to regulate themselves for a short period so that they can re-engage with their other learning activities in a more concentrated way,” he said.

Mr Dignam  explained that there will  be a maximum of three students in the sensory room at any one time, as the room is not for ordinary classroom work but instead will act as “an aid to self-regulation between learning activities” for the school’s pupils…

By Anne Dachel

Recent news stories here are ones that we should all be concerned about.  They’re part of the 3,900+ reports I’ve posted on Loss of Brain Trust. 

Most of the articles are from other countries, especially Britain, so it’s clear that the decline of childhood is happening simultaneously around the world. Disabled and dysfunctional children are overwhelming school budgets and classroom teachers, yet there is no real alarm, no demand for answers.

The reader is left with one thought: How long can this go on?

Mar 4, 2019, (Canada) Toronto Star: Schools unprepared for influx of kids with autism, principals say 

Most school staff aren’t trained to “treat, teach or manage” children with autism — and boards aren’t ready for an influx of students in a few weeks’ time when changes to the autism program come into effect, warn Ontario principals. …

As of April 1, families will be eligible for up to $20,000 a year for each child under 6, to a lifetime maximum of $140,000, to be used for the services of their choice. Children older than that can access up to $5,000 a year up to age 18, to a lifetime maximum of $55,000. …

Mar 4, 2019, (UK) Kent Online:  Children waiting up to two years for ADHD, autism and dyslexia diagnosis

Children in Kent showing signs of ADHD, autism, dyslexia or learning and communication disorders are spending two years without a formal diagnosis.

^{Mar 4, 2019, (UK) Gloucestershire Live: These are the number of kids kicked out of school and here’s why}

Half of the 139 permanent exclusions were pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The findings, released by Gloucestershire County Council in a report, also reveal the state of an increasing number of kids being home-schooled in the county. …

According to the report, the most common reason for permanent exclusions in primary school is persistent disruptive behaviour.

There has also been a rise in the number of pupils permanently excluded for physical assault against an adult or pupil, from five to seven…..

^{Mar 4, 2019, (UK) North Somerset Times: Improvements to special education needs funding approved} 

The amount spent on children with SEND is increasing and the funds available do not match demand….

However, an increasing number of pupils with complex needs are managed in mainstream schools. …

Paul Shattuck

By Anne Dachel

This is the frightening future for the coming generation(s) of autistic children in America:  DENIAL.

Anyone who reads the Feb 20, 2019 piece in The Atlantic entitled,The Coming Care Crisis as Kids With Autism Grow Up—The number of adults with autism diagnoses is soaring, but there aren’t enough programs and services to meet the demand, by writer and doctoral candidate Noah Remnick,  will understand that members of the press just don’t care.

First of all, the “crisis” Remnick sees when it comes to autism is the lack of services for adults. AUTISM itself is not a crisis, in fact Remnick assures us that autism has always been here, we just didn’t notice.

Although people with autism have always existed, the United States saw a tremendous spike in diagnoses beginning in the late 1990s, due in part to increased public awareness of the disorder and improvements in evaluation.

How is that possible?  How could educators, parents, and doctors over many past generations never have recognized the collective signs and symptoms of autism? Why have schools during the last twenty years had to train teachers to deal with autistic students? (We’ve had disabled children in school by federal law for the past 45 years.)

Remnick acknowledges that the explosion in autism among children began in the last 90s, yet the statistics he cites to compare are from AFTER THE 1990s.

About one in every 59 children is diagnosed with autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from one in every 150 in 2000.

By Anne Dachel

As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” If you want a current example of that regarding autism numbers, you have only to look at the January 21, 2019 piece from the Sacramento Bee by Michael Finch II.  

Notice the stunning title: Special education enrollment in California is up. No one can say exactly why.

It was the same sense of mystery that always surrounds coverage of autism and for good reason.

The Modesto Bee, the Napa Valley Register, and the San Luis Obispo Tribune quickly republished the Sac Bee piece, and even though the headline talked about special education, the piece was almost entirely about the exploding number of kids with autism in California schools.

The story started with the example of twin boys who, according to their mom, a physician’s assistant, were “normal and healthy at first” and later diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy.

Of course it isn’t just autism happening to SPED, but it’s an overwhelming part of the story.

Special education enrollment has surged in the last decade, with more than 96,000 students pouring into school districts across the state, according to data from the California Department of Education.

One of the drivers has been a marked increase in students with autism and other behavioral delays, a Bee analysis shows. At the same time, the number of students with other disabilities grew modestly or decreased between the 2009 and 2018 school years.

Once again, Finch retreated to the standard autism shoulder shrug:

Although the trend is undeniable, no one can say exactly why it’s happening.

More of the mystery.

Brian Peterson, Star Tribune

Note: Harsh words in that headline? Maybe. The wall is divisive enough. It's tangible and easy to make a fast mental picture. Special Education is not as easy to imagine.  Special Education will pit parent against parent. From our Anne Dachel, a story that ran yesterday from Minnesota. Years ago, we began reporting on the catastrophic birth of autism within the Somali immigrant population.  Dec 17, 2013, MinnPost.com: Autism highest among Minneapolis' Somali and white children, U study finds Take note of the beautiful child in the photo. Somali.

"We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control." Pink Floyd

###

By Anne Dachel

Saturday, Jan 19, the Minneapolis Star Tribune posted a very concerning piece online entitled, Minnesota schools facing 'crisis level' in special education funding. 

It was featured on the front page of the Sunday Star Tribune.

The COST of special education is increasingly a financial calamity for schools in the state with no signs of leveling off.

The response to this headline from any thinking person would be, why? Why is the cost of SPED now a crisis?

Of course school districts have no choice but to address this because the federal government mandates that they provide a free and appropriate education for every student, even the most disabled children.

The Star Tribune reported:

School administrators say the mandate's growing financial burden is threatening their ability to provide the same for all students. 

Soaring special education costs are squeezing the budgets of Minnesota schools — and quickly becoming school districts’ top priority for the new legislative session.

School administrators are quick to note that they cannot — and would not — deny special education students their right to an education that meets their needs, no matter the cost. But they say the mandate’s growing financial burden is threatening their ability to provide the same for all students.

So what happens when the cost of SPED students sucks dry the funds for regular ed kids?

By Anne Dachel

Dr. Orit Stoller, a pediatric neurologist with ALUT, the Israeli Society for Children and Adults with Autism

No matter what kinds of increases are happening, nothing will be done to address them. I’m convinced of it. Stories about more and more special education students, more diagnosed with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, mental problems should be getting everyone’s attention, but the old bromides about better diagnosing/greater awareness show no signs of going away.

One of the first Loss of Brain Trust website stories of the new year is a chilling example of how education is changing around the world.

On Jan 3, 2018, (Israel) Haaetz published the story, Israel Sees 12 Fold Increase in Autistic Children in Special Ed Since 2000, by Shira Kadari-Ovadia.

'Israel’s increase is exceptional': In 2000 there were 894 autistic children in special education, in 2018 the number has grown to 11,145 …

The number of autistic children in special education has grown more than 12-fold in less than two decades, from 894 in 2000 to 11,145 in 2018, a new report said.

Calm down.  One in every 40 kids with autism is nothing to worry about.

Once again the officialdom in Atlanta [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has announced that the autism rate is higher than previously believed, and once again, we’re told that IT DOESN’T MEAN MORE CHILDREN ACTUALLY HAVE AUTISM.

I’ve been writing on this phenomenon over the last couple of decades.

EACH AND EVERY TIME an update in the numbers came out, there was ALWAYS the caveat added by some expert and featured by all in the mainstream media that assured the public that the new rate was nothing to worry about—no real change.

When the news broke on the latest findings, I could predict that every major news outlet covering it would ONCE AGAIN deny any real increase and would ONCE AGAIN attribute the numbers to better counting and greater awareness. And this time we’re told it’s also due to different methods of gathering data.

The message to the American people ONCE AGAIN is: AUTISM IS NOT, NOR WILL IT EVER BE, A CRISIS.  

Remember back to last April when the rate of one in 59 U.S. children was announced?

THE NEW JERSEY RATE CITED AT THAT TIME WAS ONE IN EVERY 34 CHIDREN (one in every 22 boys).  You’d think people would have been in a panic to explain the NJ numbers—why the big difference?  (Or why there is NEVER a comparable rate of autism found among ADULTS.)

Note: No one has done more to ring the bell of alarm over the autism epidemic worldwide than our own Anne Dachel. Here, she reports on a similar disconnect between the difficult reality of autism's never ending climb and what seems to be a hallucinatory denial of the severity.   There is no known cause, just coincidence.  Dr. Wazed Hossain knows in her very heart of hearts (insert gag) that it is NOT vaccines - that theory has never been replicated (wrong) and has been "debunked."  When  you read the word debunked you must ALWAYS put on your bull&hit goggles. It's a playbook code word. No matter the topic. Debunked means, dismissed.

By Anne Dachel

An article published on Oct 23, 2018 by a news source in Sri Lanka shows just how paralyzed experts are when it comes to addressing autism.

The piece, Autism may reach epidemic proportions in Lanka, warns WHO expert Dr. Saima Wazed Hossain,   contains a maze of remarks that will only leave the reader mystified. 

Hossain, "an expert on neuro-developmental disorders," is actually very clever at double speak. Take your pick of her views from this interview:

She sounds worried about the rising rate.

 "Autism has reached alarming numbers worldwide, and that it may reach epidemic proportions in Sri Lanka."

 "It is an increasing number all over the world." 

And in the same breath she chalks it up to better diagnosing, no real increase.

 "It is believed, awareness and better diagnostic mechanisms are exposing more and more numbers that would not have come to light otherwise."

She tells us to be patient when it comes to finding the cause of autism.

"No specific cause has been established for the rise. It takes time to know if there is a connection to our changing lifestyle, if something related is causing this genetic mutation to effect."

Hossain cites DDT exposure, cosmetics, and processed food as possibly linked to autism.

Again she focuses on an increase.

The first article I found on Saturday, October 20^th made me stop my news search. It was about a 10 year boy in County Cork, Ireland and the desperate situation faced by him and his family.

I couldn’t get over the number of things affecting this child that were mentioned in this piece.

This story talked about depression, autism, suicide attempts, anxiety, mental illness, meltdowns, sensory processing disorder, dysregulation disorder (and head and stomach pain)—all in one little boy!

It also described a system that’s broken. This mother is at the end of her rope. She faces endless waiting lists and constant worry about her son’s actions, especially his anger issues affecting the whole family.

What really stood out to me was the fact that all the problems his mother described are now common in American schools. Issues long associated WITH AUTISM are increasingly recognized in kids WITHOUT an ASD diagnosis.  

Scary stuff

I have now compiled over 3,000 stories since January 2017   on the declining health and performance of children.

Schools EVERYWHERE in the world are dealing with exploding special education numbers, huge behavioral and sensory issues, self-harm, violence, and anxiety.  We’re now used to horrific rates of neurological/behavioral disorders profoundly affecting CHILDREN.

Where’s the alarm?

By Anne Dachel

Sept 25, 2018, My Central Jersey published the piece, New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence http://njace.us/ established at Rutgers University

The latest from the state with the highest rate of autism is a report that announced the creation of the NJ Autism Center of Excellence.  The NJACE is there to “improve research, treatment and services for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”

Elizabeth Torres, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers, one of the heads of the center said she hopes that they’ll become a model for programs around the U.S.

We were told about the stunning difference between the national rate and the autism numbers in New Jersey alone.

“While autism affects one in 59 children in United States, one in 34 children has the disorder in New Jersey.” (And it should be added that among boys, the New Jersey rate is one in 22.)

Torres talked about the lack of insurance coverage, the need for therapy and the absence of employment opportunities for people with autism.

James Millonig, an associate professor in neuroscience and cell biology at Rutgers, is also part of the leadership of the NJACE. He promised to focus on research, treatment and employment for people with autism. They’re going to be working with the New Jersey Autism Council ‘in order to advance and disseminate the understanding, treatment, and management of ASD.’

Our Anne Dachel puts out daily reports from around the world about the decline of pediatric health including the sharp increase in mental health problems.  "Worrisome" is an understatement used by US News (no friend to autism or vaccine injury) designed to keep the panic low. We don't panic, we don't have that luxury. We will sound the alarm.  A Presidential alert would be nice too. Insert eye roll emoji here. The lack of concern from the White House following promises that have disappeared into the ether is.... worrisome.

WED UPDATE: https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/

SIX STORIES:  3 from the U.S., one from the U.K., 2 from Ireland

US News: (Another of the mainstream outlines that has IGNORED the rapid decline in the mental/behavioral/physical wellbeing of children)

We’re told MENTAL HEALTH/BEHAVIORAL ISSUES ARE RISING AMONG KIDS. It’s pretty bad. We’re told 20%, even 25% of kids are affected.

No explanation is given. The AAP is calling for universal screening.

ALSO: “Rising rates of anxiety, autism spectrum disorder and aggression are also worrisome….”

Maryland: Governor okays new student app so they can report threats to schools.

DeKalb County, GA: Autistic 13 yr old stabs another student with a scissors at school today. 

Ireland: An autistic child costs $41K (US dollars) per family. $21K in social services.

UK: New SPED school to cost $4.5M (US dollars). Kids who can’t be educated in regular schools.

UK: SPED teachers in Ireland are asking for training in restraint use with out-of-control students.

By Anne Dachel

(UK) Bath and North East Somerset Council: ‘We are all on the autistic spectrum’

Britain has surrendered to the loss of its children. They’ve given up without a fight, much like the U.S. has done. Nothing could make that fact clearer than what happened at a meeting of the Bath and North East Somerset Council on September 13^th when the subject was autism.

The meeting was covered in Somerset Live  in a piece entitled, Motion backed to ensure people with autism in Bath and North East Somerset get the help they need.

“People with autism” makes it sound like autism effects all ages equally, yet the article was almost exclusively about children with autism and their needs.

The words “child” and “children” were both used throughout the piece.

“He said he knows of a child who needed…”

“…children waiting years for a diagnosis.”

‘Every child deserves an equal chance…’

‘We have to get children suspected of having autism …’

The only reference to adults on the spectrum was from one council member who mentioned that his partner recently was diagnosed with Asperger’s (as if an independent adult with a claim of high functioning autism is comparable to the non-verbal, aggressive 16 year old still in diapers).

‘We are all on the autistic spectrum’

Bath council member Tim Ball went so far as to declare, ‘We are all on the autistic spectrum at some point’—a  statement that showed he either has no understanding of what huge numbers of parents are dealing with, or he’s trying to make autism into a normal and acceptable part of the human condition. 

By Anne Dachel

Here is my update on childhood in the 21^st century as shown in news coverage from the past week. It’s impossible to think that officials are blind to what’s happening everywhere. What will it take for them to admit this is an absolute disaster that simply can’t continue?

Here are ten stories that prove my point.

Austin, TX: School nurses have to deal with the decline in children's health. Children today have problems unlike anything kids experienced a decade or two ago.

Aug 24, 2018, Austin (TX) Statesman: What does the school nurse want to know about your child? A lot.

If you think school nursing is just about taking temperatures and handing out bandages, a visit to the Kids First workshop at the University of Texas School of Nursing proves you wrong pretty quickly.

During the course of two days earlier this month, about 300 nurses from districts around Central Texas learned the latest in managing ADHD, diabetes and mental health disorders, how to recognize child abuse and how to look for signs of stress and sleep deprivation in students…..

What has changed is some of the things that are coming into nurses’ offices that weren’t decades ago. Mental health crises, particularly depression and anxiety, and problems with stress management come into the office more frequently, says Violet Filley, who has been a nurse for 23 years and works with sixth-graders to 12th-graders at Round Rock Opportunity Center. …

Laconia, NH: Parents are asked to fill out ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE forms about their children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has supplied the “science” showing that trauma at home is profoundly affecting children. Parents are responsible for disruptive students.

Aug 25, 2018, Laconia (NH) Daily: Laconia school tackling challenges of childhood trauma

By Anne Dachel

Welcome to a two part Skype talk with New York attorney Patricia Finn.  Patricia explains her work in vaccine court representing children injured by vaccines, and she advises parents seeking a religious or medical vaccine exemption in New York State.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQBx-1I_tPo&t=11s

Hi everybody. My name is Patricia Finn. I’m an attorney.

I’ve been an attorney for fifteen years. The minute I got out of law school, I hung up my shingle, and I was looking at constitutional issues, First Amendment issues, religious freedom things that were very important to me personally.

Right out of the gate I was flooded with requests from parents seeking religious exemptions to vaccination.

To be honest with you, I didn’t at the time know very much about autism and vaccine injury.

I knew about the constitutional issues involving parental rights… I didn’t know how big it is and how hard it would be—and it has been hard. It’s been very, very hard, but rewarding. …

I represent about 10,000 families right now. We’ve been very successful. I’ve brought about a hundred law suits in vaccine court for vaccine injuries, civil rights cases involving religious exemptions.

I’m a litigator, and I’ve cut my teeth. I’m here to help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QGEOMgwWg&t=2s

“I’m going to talk to you a little bit about the school exemption process. What that means is, if you’re a parent, and you do not want to vaccinate your child, and you want them to go to a public school, …  If your child is not vaccinated, you cannot participate in these programs unless you get an exemption.

“I’m going to talk a little bit about the exemption process in New York, which is a little unique in that it is highly exercised….There’s been a ton of litigation here in New York. I’ve brought multiple cases, and there was lawyer before me named James Filenbaum, who brought a very important case called Sharon Levy v. Northport .

By Anne Dachel

Over the past week science has once again spoken on the declining health of children in the 21^st century. And like the autism epidemic we celebrate every April, it’s nothing to really be concerned about, besides no one can explain why it’s happening anyway.

I’m talking about the findings that CNN, CNBC, Fox News, TIME and other sources announced recently, namely that 10% of kids today have ADHD, up from the previously accepted 6%.

The headlines sounded worrisome.

ABC NEWS: ADHD rates in kids have increased over the past 20 years, new study says

CNN: 10% of  US children diagnosed with ADHD, study finds

Fox News: ADHD diagnoses may be rising in US

TIME: One in 10 U.S. Kids Has Been Diagnosed with ADHD    

No need to panic. In the actual text, all of the reports immediately downplayed the new rate with a whole host of reasons that disprove any real increase. Most of them were right out of the THERE AREN’T REALLY MORE KIDS WITH AUTISM playbook that officials have used for years. And it always helps to have folks with lots of credentials from big name institutions to back up the claims.

ABC News:  (The old “expanded spectrum” explanation.)

The way the disorder is evaluated likely plays a part.

"The diagnosis and assessment for ADHD has evolved over the past few decades. The diagnostic criteria that we use is now a little more liberal and captures cases that the older criteria would have left out," said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, a child psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Stanford Brainstorm, in an interview with ABC news.

by Anne Dachel

One of my favorite historians is Thomas Cahill who’s written all kinds of books on European history, including Jewish history and Irish history. It’s very insightful and revealing writing. 

One book covering the 20^th century had a couple of lines that stood out to me. They were on the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 30s, which eventually led to the tyranny of Nazism and the savagery of World War II.  

"To us, reading history backward, the rise of Fascism in Europe has all the goosestepping inevitability of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. But through the twenties and thirties many Europeans refused to acknowledge the direction in which events were heading." 

This is what all the stories I’m collecting seem like to me. We will eventually pay a huge price for the decline in the health and behavior of our children that we see happening everywhere. Coming up with all kinds of programs and innovations while pretending nothing is really wrong can’t prevent the inevitable. 

How will we accommodate today’s children when they reach adulthood? All the issues in these stories will still be here. Mental health and behavior problems are the most critical topics to educators today. Adding more security, guidance counselors, psychologists, sensory rooms, and therapy dogs won’t change things at all.

Looking over the past week I picked out ten stories from Loss of Brain Trust that really prove my point about what’s happening in schools.

(New Zealand) "A growing number of young people...[suffer] from some form of mental illness"

Aug 17, 2018, Stuff: The rise and rise of mental illness among our young 

In the 15 to 25 age group presentations increased from 209 to 330 in the same time period. And there was a 154 per cent increase in people from that age group calling the Mental Health Crisis team, now called the Assessment and Brief Care team (ABC), for help - up from 854 in 2013 to 2168 in 2017. 

In Taranaki the number of people in the 10 to 14 age group being prescribed anti depressants went up from 240 in 2013 to 417 in 2017, and from 1063 to 1944 in the 15 to 19 age group. 

Nationally, 10,146 children in the 10 to 14 age group were prescribed antidepressants in 2017 and 56,700 in the older age group. And 1788 children under the age of nine were also prescribed anti depressants.

And of course parents are receiving the blame for the way they raise their kids.

By Anne Dachel

On August 4^th the New York Times published an opinion piece entitled, Anti-Vaccine Activists Have Taken Vaccine Science Hostage.

In that article, science and health writer Melinda Wenner Moyer sounded worried about the increasing number of parents who don’t vaccinate their kids. Moyer is sure these parents have nothing to worry about, but “what drives these wrongheaded decisions is fear — fear that vaccines are somehow dangerous, even though research shows the opposite.”

Despite her belief that no one needs to question the ever-expanding vaccine schedule, Moyer did talk about “hitting a wall” when she tried to discuss vaccine efficacy and safety with researchers. “When I did get them on the phone, a worrying theme emerged: Scientists are so terrified of the public’s vaccine hesitancy that they are censoring themselves, playing down undesirable findings and perhaps even avoiding undertaking studies that could show unwanted effects.”

“The goal is to protect vaccines”

Moyer made it sound as though pressure from “anti-vaccine activists” makes it impossible for scientists to openly talk about possible problems with a vaccine. She cited vaccine developer Dr. Paul Offit who feels that “worrying studies” shouldn’t be published.

It seems that public faith in vaccines is so precarious that EVEN TALKING about side effects scares people away from vaccinating. AND the anti-vaccine community is to blame for this situation. They will go after anything that raises questions about vaccine safety.

Moyer concluded:

There’s no question that bad vaccine science does not deserve a forum — and much of the research cited by anti-vaccine activists is very bad indeed. But good science needs to be heard even if some people will twist its meaning. One thing vaccine scientists and vaccine-wary parents have in common is a desire for the safest and most effective vaccines possible — but vaccines can’t be refined if researchers ignore inconvenient data. Moreover, vaccine scientists will earn a lot more public trust, and overcome a lot more unfounded fear, if they choose transparency over censorship.

So is vaccine research really open and honest? Can any legitimate concerns be raised?

I contacted Dr. Chris Shaw, Canadian neuroscientist and professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Shaw’s research on the use of aluminum vaccine adjuvants had been retracted from the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry in 2017. 

(In 2012 I interviewed him about his research.)

Here’s what Dr. Shaw had to say about the NY Times story.

Dr. Shaw, what is your opinion of the Times piece? Are “anti-vaccine activists” to blame for shutting down legitimate debate on vaccines?

I think religion adds a lot to human affairs, in many cases, but also goes to extremism.

I was in Mosul as a medic in 2017. We were there to support the civilians coming out of Mosul, and support the military forces that were taking the city back from ISIS.

ISIS is an example of taking religion to an extreme. If you were not one hundred percent what they believe, you were an apostate and you had to be killed….

WHAT YOU SEE IN THIS ARTICLE—you can see the author is struggling really hard to make it come out a certain way—everything in this article points to the fact that the scientists who are honestly trying to do their jobs and find whatever there is to find, whether it’s good or whether it’s bad, or ambiguous, they are being penalized for being honest scientists—even by their own.

In some people’s eyes, they have crossed a path, they’re going against the creed of the religion. And Paul Offit typifies it perfectly.

Everything has to be one hundred percent pro. It cannot be ninety-nine percent pro, that’s not good enough. Papers should never be published if they’re critical, …they might scare the people, the ignorant unwashed masses who won’t get their vaccines.

Offit, as you know, he typifies what I think you’d call MEDICAL FASCISM.

By Anne Dachel

Week update: July 28 to Aug 4

While no one in the national media and no one in the federal government have taken any interest, our schools continue to decline. Here’s a sample from the past week from my big collection on LossofBrainTrust.com . 

I look for stories on INCREASES in numbers and cost. This is proof that the situation isn’t stable, it’s only getting worse. STILL, there are no calls for answers. No alarms. New schools for special needs kids are described with words like ‘exciting’ and ‘fantastic.’

My friend Louis Conte called the situation “a slow moving catastrophe.”  I have over 2,700 articles gathered over the last year and a half, and they’re all frightening. I feel like it is a ticking time bomb, as one piece described it. Eventually schools will be unable to accommodate all the kids with learning disorders, behavior problems and mental health issues, and still educate kids. It’s that simple.

We’re being told that schools in Massachusetts spend 20—30% of their budgets on SPED, Prescott, AZ reports, “The special education student population has outpaced overall student growth,” in  Bridgwater, England they’re spending $24M (US dollars) for a SPED school for 160 students, and in Belfast the school budget is overspending by $25M (US dollars) because of special education costs. So when things finally just collapse, no one will be able to say that we weren’t told it was happening. It’s out there every single day. No one cares.

July 28, 2018, (UK) Isle of Wight County Press: Isle of Wight school dog Poppy receives top award

STUDENTS aren't the only ones achieving at St George’s School.

School dog Poppy — who has been supporting students at the special school for three years, helping to boost their self esteem, reduce anxiety and comfort them when they are upset — has been awarded 'Pets as Therapy' status….

July 28, 2018, Las Vegas Review Journal: 2 new psychologists to provide autism diagnosis in Las Vegas

Clinical neuropsychologists Erin Honke and Caitlin Cook will provide diagnostic services for families needing initial and follow-up evaluations for their autistic children at, respectively, Touro University Nevada’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and UNLV’s Ackerman Autism Center.

Both say they look forward to being a part of the solution to long wait times for families desperate for early intervention. …

 “It’s also crazy to see how many families have gone without and are waiting to be seen, and that’s certainly something I’m excited to be a part of.” …

There are 3,200 children waiting for help from the UNLV Ackerman Autism Center alone. …

July 29, 2018, (UK) Somerset Live: Here's what Bridgwater new £18M [$24M US] specialist school may look like 

Bridgwater residents have been given their first tentative glimpse of what their town's new £18M [$24M US dollars] specialist school may look like.

Somerset County Council announced its intention in May to build a new 160-place special school on Bower Lane Somerset County Council, not far from the community hospital….

Elmwood school, meanwhile, will be converted to provide more capacity at Robert Blake school.

This project is part of the council's strategy to ensure pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can be educated closer to home. …

By Anne Dachel

School districts are working on their budgets, and they have to deal with some huge money issues. First of all, security is foremost in the minds of the people running our education system.  They have to be proactive, doing everything possible to prevent another tragedy like the Parkland from happening in their schools.

Teachers are being trained to recognize possible perpetrators among their students. News reports tell us about districts screening students for mental health issues, hiring more social workers, counselors, psychologists, and partnering with local mental health agencies.

It’s abundantly clear that sending your child to school today involves a risk. Teachers face the real threat of violence from their students. The media off-handedly tells us that one in every 5 kids has a mental illness.  (No explanation given. It’s just the way it is.) Teachers need to worry every time they walk into a classroom.  They better be prepared for the worst.

So while districts spend millions on security and hiring more staff to make schools safer, the special education numbers keep on growing and that means higher costs too.

Here’s a sample of what’s happening from my site, Loss of Brain Trust—Childhood Lost over the past week.

July 22, 2018, North Andover (MA) Eagle Tribune:  Surging costs prompt new approach to school funding

… Last week, the House approved spending $500 million over the next five years to help districts better cover the costs of special education and employee health care. At the same time, lawmakers opted to study the issue of helping English language learners and poorer students.

Special education costs contributed to a nearly $4 million school budget deficit in Methuen last year….

In fiscal 2018, the district covered costs for 136 special needs students in residential, private day or collaborative programs -- about 25 more students than during the prior year.

July 22, 2018, Carroll County (MD) Times: Editorial: Getting to root of behavioral issues in elementary school students 

For the past few years, Carroll County Public Schools has asked for additional funding in its budget to repurpose several teaching positions to behavioral specialists. But despite the county’s overall funding for public schools increasing, shortfalls in meeting the Board of Education’s total funding request have left those positions from becoming a reality.

By Anne Dachel

Over the last 18 months I’ve posted hundreds of disturbing news reports about mental illness and young people on my site LossofBrainTrust.com , but this one from NBC News is especially chilling.  I had to give it individual attention. It’s about children in desperate need of emergency psychiatric help, with nowhere to turn. The NBC News people, including anchor Lester Holt, show concern, they call for better insurance coverage, more accommodations, BUT in the end, they willing accept the two terrifying statistics they give us:

“A 40 percent increase in [pediatric] psychiatric visits to emergency rooms,” and the graphic displayed behind Holt in the newsroom, “1 in 5 kids at risk.”

Where did these incredible numbers come from? Over how long a period did ER psych visits increase 40 percent?

Notice that boy in the report has non-verbal autism along with disruptive mood disregulation disorder. Could there be link? How many other behavioral disorders are concomitant with autism? 

(Actually disruptive mood disregulation disorder is a relatively new condition, having been added to the DSM in 2013.)  

June 29, 2018, NBC News: Shortage of in-patient psychiatric beds puts kids at risk as more seek care 

With a 40 percent increase in psychiatric visits to emergency rooms, many families are struggling to find help

Video:

… “My brother can’t actually speak. He has that kind of autism.”

“Twelve-year-old Jake has a sweet disposition, but also suffers from disruptive mood disregulation disorder, which can result in terrifying, violent outbursts.

“The episode [was] so frightening that Don and Suzanne made the girls go to their rooms and lock their doors. Finally things got so bad that Don called the police.” …

By Anne Dachel

Thanks to my friend Wayne Rohde, I now have a site where all the stories I’ve collected on the decline of kids' ability to learn and their behavior over the last year and a half are filed, totaling almost 2,500. I call it Loss of Brain Trust: Childhood Lost,  because kids today bear no resemblance to young people from past generations.

We're all numb to the fact that the media consistently throws out shocking statistics without even a hint of alarm or even concern:

“Northern Ireland is experiencing an ‘autism wave’ with one in 34 school-age children being diagnosed with the condition - and an expert says that services are now ‘at breaking point.’”

“24 percent of students on Staten Island are special needs.”

"One out of every 34 children in New Jersey [one out of every 22 boys] is affected by autism, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

“Raleigh [NC] schools also dealt with a 75 percent increase in student chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes and food allergies from 2002-2015.”

“It's a sad fact that one in seven children have asthma in New Zealand and therefore we are really focussing on helping to support and educate children in school.”

By Anne Dachel

The phony science never ends.  

I just finished a piece about a new study blaming social media for kids with falling IQ scores all over the world. CNN covered it.

It seems that when anyone in the scientific/medical community uses the term environmental cause today, it really something social, not some toxic exposure like cigarettes causing lung cancer.

The IQ findings go hand-in-hand with another official explanation for all the kids with chronic illnesses, behavioral/mental health problems, learning problems. There the blame is place on adverse childhood experiences, otherwise known as toxic stress/childhood trauma. It’s all the bad stuff happening to kids at home.

In case anyone is still looking for answers, here’s the newest “environmental” reason for kids today being so different from children in the past: it is the “overcontrolling parent” at fault for all those with emotional problems.  Not only that, but these ‘helicopter’ parenting “seems to be increasingly prevalent.”

June 18, 2018, WebMD: How 'helicopter' Parenting Impedes a Child's Development

Overcontrolling moms and dads -- so-called "helicopter" parents -- can stunt their children's emotional development, new research warns.

Directing every move a toddler makes may undermine a child's ability to manage their emotions and behavior on their own, explained Nicole Perry, lead author of a new study.

"We found that overcontrolling parenting at age 2 was associated with poorer emotional and behavioral regulation at age 5," said Perry, a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development.

At age 10, this parenting approach also was tied to more child-reported emotional and school problems, fewer teacher-reported social skills, and less teacher-reported academic productivity, she added.