On March 21, a victory for parents' rights was enacted when Senate Bill 208 in Utah was signed into law. As an amendment to the state's Human Services Code and Judicial Code, it prohibits a state or peace officer or child welfare worker from being able to remove a minor from his or her school or home—with or without a warrant or court order—unless the minor's parent or guardian consents. It also vacates (cancels or rescinds) prior law that permitted a child to be removed from a home for "educational neglect." Nationally, scores of parents testified that school personnel have threatened to report them to Child Protective Services (CPS) for charges of educational neglect if they refuse to give their child psychiatric drugs as a requisite for being in school.

The abuse by Child Protective Services giving rise to these amendments in the law has contributed to children needlessly being removed from their homes or being permitted by parents to be drugged who allow such treatment only out of fear of losing their child. Parents who have fought to keep their children psychiatric drug free have had their rights brutally violated and had their children wrenched from their homes. When forcibly removed, children frequently end up in Foster Care, and the chances of them surviving this system without being prescribed the very drugs their parents fought to protect them from are grim.

In 2001, a Los Angeles Times investigation found that thousands of children in state foster or group homes were being administered powerful psychiatric drugs, mostly for the purpose of making the kids easier to manage. In LA County alone, dependency court judges approved requests to medicate 4,500 children per year.

The Miami Herald also reported that one in three Florida children in state care were prescribed psychotropic drugs. In their files were pre-signed, blank documents that provided "consent" for children to receive both medical treatments and psychotropic drugs. The files also showed that child protective service caseworkers routinely were allowed to provide consent for treatment and psychotropic drug use for children in their care—a violation of state law.

The Smiths of Michigan exemplify the threats being leveled at parents, and their often-tragic consequences. At seven, Matthew Smith was diagnosed through his school with "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" (ADHD) because he "fidgeted " and was "easily distracted." Parents, Lawrence and Kelly, were warned that unless they agreed to put Matthew on a psychiatric drug, they could be criminally charged for neglecting his educational and emotional needs. The Smiths acceded to the pressure and lived under fear that Child Protective Services could remove their son from their home if they took him off the psychiatric drug. On March 21, 2000, while skateboarding, 14-year-old Matthew died suddenly from a heart attack. The coroner determined that Matthew's heart showed clear signs of the small blood vessel damage caused by Ritalin and concluded that he had died from the long-term use of the stimulant.

In 1997, New York school psychologists and psychiatrists coerced Mrs. Patricia Weathers into drugging her 7-year-old son, Michael, after he was diagnosed with "ADHD." Within six months, he was withdrawn, stopped socializing with children, started chewing pencils, lost his appetite and couldn't sleep properly. He ran away from home. Mrs. Weathers withdrew Michael slowly off the drugs. Child Protective Services charged her with medical and educational neglect, despite medical tests having determined Michael suffered from untreated allergies and anemia. The charges were later dropped.

The Utah law should send a warning bell to all states that unlawful seizure of children by a state agency or agents, especially those with the power to force children onto powerful psychotropic drugs without their parent's consent, or threaten to or act on that threat to remove a child from his or her home if parents refuse to put their child on psychiatric drugs, is simply unconstitutional.

The Utah law was prompted by a 2002 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision (Roska vs. Petersen) where CPS had removed a child, without a warrant, from the home of a mother, Connie Roska, said to have a "mental disorder"—a "disorder" that is surrounded by controversy because there is no scientific evidence to substantiate it. The court ruled the action violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The court found that the seizure of her child violated a right to liberty in the family relationship between the parent and child.

This report was issued by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, which was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.