Suicide and Antidepressants- the Candace Downing Story

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995

Many parents are pressured to medicate their children who may exhibit symptoms of depression, so they can allegedly do "better" at school or in life.  Here is a video which parents should watch before they ever pursue antidepressants for their kids based on their school functioning or otherwise.  Know the side effects before proceeding with any medication.

Popular posts from this blog

Filing A CIF Appeal On Sports Denials, How Does The Hearing Process Work?

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Has your son or daughter been banned from playing sports by the local CIF office due to an alleged "sports motivated" t ransfer?  Is your initial sit-out period being denied on your first change of schools?  Or is your child banned for some other reason which you dispute?  If so, it may be time to move forward with a formal appeal to the State  CIF  Appeals Office .  How does this process work?   How things go with an individual school/site/student can vary, but usually the process starts before most parents realize the seriousness of the situation.  Let's take transfer eligibility as our example.  Other issues may also be sent to the local CIF office and a similar process would occur. If a parent is lucky, they may be notified that their child's transfer eligibility is being sent up to the local CIF Commissioner.  If they are really lucky, they may be notified that ...
Read more

Be Careful Not To Break the Transfer Rules of the California Interscholastic Federation or You May be Banned from Playing Certain Sports

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Please note, CIF rules have changed and the below is based on rules prior to July 2012.  See my new blog here on the new "improved" rules. Sports issues are plentiful in the school arena.  A frequent issue which arises involves the transfer rules under the California Interscholastic Federation, aka CIF. CIF governs public school sports at the high school level and in some junior high schools as well.  They write various rules and bylaws which govern how students play, who can play, and other items.  The rules can be seen here  http://www.cifstate.org/governance/constitution_bylaws/index.html . One of the most frequent areas with which my clients have trouble involve the CIF transfer eligibility rules, Rules 206 and 207.  These are important as they can prohibit a student from playing certain sports if they change schools without meeting the CIF eligibility requirements.  The rules...
Read more

Imitation Firearms, School Discipline And Changes To Penal Code 16700

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 On January 1, 2016, Penal Code section 16700, regarding "imitation firearms," changed and will potentially help students facing discipline for possession of "imitation firearms."  Air soft guns, BB guns and other similar devices have proven irresistible items for some students. What fun to get one of these "play" guns and go shoot some targets, right?  Unfortunately, these students have ended up in the school office and usually in front of expulsion panels when possessing these devices on campus or within the zone of a school's area of control (to/from school, field trips, near school, etc.).   Schools look toward many legal codes to get their guidance.  Often, definitions in the Education Code are vague and other codes may need to be looked to for clarification.  The California Penal Code (lists the criminal statutes applicable in California) is a frequently used reference.   Per ...
Read more