From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: [alt.activism et al] PAT Bill - an assault on our rights?
Keywords: Legislation, education, rights, senate
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 00:01:19 GMT

A repost from alt.activism,talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns:

From: adamsr@netcom.com (Rick Adams)
Subject: PAT Bill - an assault on our rights?
Keywords: Legislation, education, rights, senate
Date: 23 Sep 92 21:56:01 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism


	The following information is extracted (with permission) from a
message I received on a mailing list I participate in. It has also, to my
understanding, appeared in at least one Libertarian list in circulation.

	I cannot attest to the accuracy of the information except to say
that it originated with a normally very accurate individual. Any information
that anyone can share concerning this issue - or a pointer to an ftp site
where the actual text of the bill mentioned in the message itself could be
found will be appreciated.

	Clearly, this is a direct attack on rights of a magnitude not
previously seen (if it is accurate). I have seen no mention of it in the
media, and cannot help but question why.

	It was noted today in the distribution list that the bill has been
sent bact to committee - and it was suggested that if actually voted into
law, it would only be applied to home-schoolers. Even if this is true,
however, it is still scary - and unless it is specifically =written= in a
manner that would limit it, there is no reason to assume that it would not
be expanded in the future.

	I know nothing whatever about the bill under discussion, apart from
the information contained in the message which follows. 

================< INCLUDED MESSAGE BEGINS HERE >=================
Fellow Activists:
 
There is a bill currently in Congress that will limit our basic rights 
even further. Read this carefully, it's pretty convoluted.
 
S.2 is the Omnibus Education Bill. S.2 was amended to include HB.4323, 
the house version of the Omnibus Education Bill. S.2 has also had S.1275 
amended to it, and S.1275, as amended, includes a program called the 
"Parents as Teachers" program. Sounds innocuous, right? Keep reading.
 
"Parents as Teachers" means that a family will have a social worker assigned
to it if:
        o a woman is pregnant
        o there is a child age 0 to 3 years
        o there is a teenager at risk of becoming pregnant
 
The social worker will come into your home, unannounced, up to 8 times a 
year for an individual family "session", and 4 times a year for "group" 
sessions. While in the home, they will assess your family to see if the 
children are "at risk."
 
"At risk" has many possible definitions. There is a document published 
by the Department of Health and Human Services called "Healthy People 
2000" and written by The American Academy of Pediatrics and other 
busybody groups, which includes a long list of criteria, and this is the 
document being referenced by the lawmakers when they consider these 
definitions. This document will be the template on which the regulations 
promulgated by this bill if it passes will be based. This document 
defines that a child can be "at risk" if any of  the following 
conditions exist:
 
    o The parents aren't using "positive parenting", which means
 
       - no physical punishment
       - no verbal abuse (defined as embarrassment, humiliation, ordering,
         labeling, nagging, threats, begging, sarcasm, scaring, spoiling,
         or making the child feel guilty)
 
    o Either parent has a military background
    o Either parent is a "Fundamentalist Christian"
    o A recent move has occurred in the family
    o a recent career change has occurred in the family
    o the parents are divorced or separated
    o the home is being renovated
    o there is no gate on the stairways
    o there are sharp objects in view
    o any firearm can be accessed in 10 minutes or less
 As the bill is written, "at risk" will be judicially defined. Health 
and Human Services has indicated that they will implement the list above 
as regulations.
 
If your children are deemed by the social worker to be "at risk", there 
is mandated foster care, for a minimum of 2 days. (This is under a 
section entitled "Forced Parent Support Activities")
 
Note that as this is written along with current law in NH, a NH social 
worker would then initiate a termination of parental rights petition in 
District Court. Other states may have similar laws. We already know of 3 
families where they were forced to get rid of guns in order to get their 
children back. What will happen if these social workers get into every 
home where there are children? As we know, 1/2 of all households have a 
firearm. Parents will be forced to choose between their guns and their 
children!
 
This is a very serious threat to liberty-loving people everywhere, and 
it's also very bad for gun owners, especially those of us with children. 
We must call our senators and congressmen to tell them we oppose the 
"Parents as Teachers" program in the Omnibus Education bill. We can also 
oppose the huge costs involved with this bill, as it forces the states 
to pick up the full costs of this intrusion into our lives by year 5 of 
implementation.
 
The bill is currently in conference committee, with BOTH parties working 
to get it out and onto the floor of both chambers very soon. There will 
probably be a vote early next week. It's being kept under wraps (notice 
there is no media coverage?).
 
Call your congressman and Senators today to oppose this bill. Tell them 
to vote against the conference report if it has the "Parents as 
teachers" language in it, to vote to sustain a filibuster (i.e. not 
invoke cloture), and to vote to sustain a Presidential veto). Bush will 
veto it if it has the School-based abortion clinics in it, but will sign 
anything else (so he doesn't look like he's not the "Education 
President").
 
The following is a exerpt form FAMILIY PRACTICE NEWS (March 15-31 1991)
 
        "The message is clear - spanking and other forms of physical
        punishment are unnecessary and may be HARMFUL.
 
        "American Academy of Pediatrics states: Too often PARENTS
        CONFUSE DISIPLINE WITH PUNISHMENT.
 
        "The National Committee on the Prevention of Child Abuse
        states that:  We will not be able to stop the current
        epidemic of child abuse until WE NO LONGER BASE OUR
        DISIPLINE OF CHILDREN ON PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT.  WE MUST
        ABANDON PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT.  Equally unecessary are:
        EMBARRASSING a child, HUMILIATING a child, ORDERING a
        child, LABELING a child, NAGGING a child, THREATING a
        child, BEGGING a child, Using SARCASM with a child,
        SCARING a child, SPOILING a child, or MAKING A CHILD
        FEEL GUILTY."
 
As you can see from the previous exerpt it is a STEP by STEP removal of 
all forms of disipline/punishment.
 
 
Exerpts from AMERICAN MEDICAL NEWS (January 20, 1992)
 
        "American Association of Pediatrics is calling for a ban
        on handguns, air guns ( B.B. and pellet ) and assult
        weapons. 
 
        "In two recent statements, the academy also urged
        pediatricians to counsel children and their families about 
        the IMPORTANCE OF REMOVING OR AT LEAST SAFELY STORING
        FIREARMS IN THEIR HOMES.
 
        "The academy recommends:
                
                - Regulating handgun ammunition.
                - Discouraging the media from romanticizing gun use.
                - Identifying HIGH RISK TEENS to give them age-
                  appropriate services.
                - Developing community-based coalitions to address
                  issues of public education, protective interventions
                  social action."
 
The Union Leader (January 14, 1992):
 
        "A state Child Abuse Prevention Leadership Team has been created
        by executive order...The team includes parents, lawmakers, state
        agency officials and professionals from community programs.
 
        - "[E]stablishing local child abuse and neglect prevention
          councils.
 
        - "Advocating  for needed community-based prevention programs."
 
The American Medical Association News (January 1992), "Violence in the
Family":
 
        Dr. Murray Straus, director of the Family Research Lab at UNH in 
        Durham stated: "I want to focus not on physical abuse of spouses
        and kids, as I have until now, but on ORDINARY PHYSICAL 
        PUNNISHMENT OF KIDS."
 
The following is an update from Senator Bob Smith R-NH on the status of 
S.2.  HB 4323 has been incorporated into S2.  They are planning on 
voting on this by 00 hours Saturday.  We must call all our Senators and 
tell them that this bill is very bad and that we do not want it to pass.
 
This bill provides seed money from the Federal Government.
 
This bills purpose is to encourage States to develop and expand parent 
education programs.  This will increase parents knowledge of appropriate 
child rearing activities, strengthen partnerships between parents and 
schools. 
 
Definitions for this bill are:
 
Developmental Screening - Process of measuring the progress of children 
to determine if THERE ARE PROBLEMS or POTENTIAL PROBLEMS.
 
                This translates into invasion of privacy due
                to the remote possibility that you may be
                raising your children in a way that is not
                POLITCALLY CORRECT according to the "NEW
                WORLD ORDER".
 
Eligible Family - A parent with one or more children between the last 
trimester of pregnancy and three years of age.  
 
                This has been changed so that now ALL families
                are required to participate.  The non-participatory
                clause had been omitted.  For many families their
                are multiple children.  You may have a child under
                3 for a decade.  So you fall under this program.
 
 
Lead Agency - The office or Agency in a State (NH it is the Department 
of Children and Youth Services) designated by the Govenor to administer 
the program.
 
                This means Social Workers, many who are just out of
                College and have an idealistic view of parenting
                because they have never been parents.
 
Parent Education - Includes PARENT SUPPORT ACTIVITIES, educational 
guidance, and learning experiences for the PARENT and child.
 
                Parent Support Activities are those which have
                been accepted by the National Committee on the
                prevention of Child Abuse.  Any parent who
                exhibits the following are PARENTS AT RISK. These
                families then qualify for PARENTAL RE-EDUCATION.
 
                        Disipline with Physical Punishment
                                    or
                        Embarrassing a child
                        Humiliating a child
                        Ordering a child
                        Labeling a child
                        Nagging a child
                        Threating a child
                        Begging a child
                        Using Sarcasm
                        Spoiling a child
                        or making a child feel guilty.
 
                PARENTS AT RISK confuse disipline with punishment.
                
                Dr. Murray Straus, University of New Hampshire -
                Durham.
                States - I want to focus not on physical abuse of
                spouses and kids, as I have until now, BUT ON ORDINARY
                PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF KIDS. 
 
The Text of the bill S.2 defines AT RISK PARENTS to include:
 
                Teenage parents
                illiterate parents
                economically disadvantaged parents
                offenders and their families
                unemployed parents
                learning disabled parents
                non-english speaking parents
 
Any STATE operating this program shall be eligible to recieve a grant under
thispart.   
 
                MONEY FOR YOUR STATE WHEN THEY PARTICIPATE
 
Section 4706 PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
 
Operates PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS including DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING of
children.
 
REQUIRE that the STATE provide for each family:
                
                A MINIMUM OF 4 GROUP MEETINGS AND 8 HOME VISITS.
 
 
        
Section 4708 Evaluations:
 
        "The secretary shall complete an evaluation of the STATE PARENT
         AS TEACHER programs with 4 years from the date of enactment of
         this part."
 
 
Section 4710. Payments and Federal Share
 
        " For the first year for which a State receives assistance under
          this part shall be 100 percent."
 
        " For the second such year shall be 100 percent."
 
        " For the third such year shall be 75 percent."
        
        " For the forth such year shall be 50 percent."
 
        " For the fifth such year 25 percent."   
 
        " The non-federal share of payments under this part may be in 
          cash or in kind fairly evaluated, including planned equipment
          or services."
 
Section 4711 Appropriations
 
        $ 20,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1992,1993, 1994,1995
        and 1996 to carry out this act.
 
--------
 
        SENATE BILL 2 (Omnibus Education Bill).
 
        These bills have been amended to include a "Parents as
        Teachers" program which is nothing more than "CRADLE TO
        GRAVE SOCIALISM".
 
        Amid the well meaning platitudes, you will find parental
        re-education, child-surveillance from birth, intrusive
        child interrogation in the home, destruction of family
        values through programs of value-clarifiction, replacement
        of all local control with Federal control for education
        thereby circumventing elected school boards, deceptive
        methods of gun control and removal to circumvent POTENTIAL
        family violence. Your children will be held hostage for your
        guns. 
 
        In fact, these bills are so broad that they can plug in
        anything they want or anything they don't want and
        hold your children hostage until you follow their way
        of thinking or behaving.
        
        If you are a LOW-RISK family (you will be screened to
        determine if there are problems or potential problems)
        you are only required to have 8 home visits a year and 4
        group meetings per year.  However, if you are concidered
        HIGH-RISK, the pschotherapy alone will cost approx
        $ 5,000 to 10,000 per year per child. 
 
        Your Taxes will be increased due to the shear magnitude 
        of this new army of social workers. Now all families are
        at risk and will have to be visited by a state-trained
        social worker (parent re-educator).
         
        You will be concidered HIGH-RISK if you meet a specific
        profile which is tightened on a regular basis.  You may
        never have had any involvement with the LAW, you maybe
        a Military Family, A Fundementalist Christian, you may just
        have a particular ethnic background and you may be poor
        or rich.  Any combination of any of the previous factors
        increases your risk profile.  
 
        If you teach your children that the constitution is the
        law of this land, or that the constitution of the U.S.
        does not support or allow for the "New World Order" you 
        will be concidered High-Risk.  The government can no
        longer allow the patriot spirit of Liberty to exist in
        the United States.  
 
        Families used to be the smallest unit of government and
        as such handled many low level functions of government,
        (such as raising children), however, now the government 
        has become so large that they must increase their bureaucratic 
        monopolies and in so doing they usurp functions not given 
        them and monopolize all individual entities.
 
        To claim people are free to choose their own government,
        but then insist that the government determine the very
        attitudes and values by which the people choose becomes
        the most insidious and pernicious form of tyranny.  It
        gives the people the illusion of freedom, while all
        along controlling them through a form of mass governmental
        programming.
 
        Bills such as these are nothing short of tolitarianism.
 
  =========================< END INCLUDED TEXT >====================

	I apologize for the length of this message, and for its redundancy,
but I felt it more important to share the entire communication (apart from
the personally identifying segments) than to attempt to edit it and possibly
remove relevant information.

	I am a liberal and support any reasonable measures to protect
children from abuse and neglect. But this sort of measure is so far beyond
anything reasonable that it would seem impossible to support it on any
grounds other than a desire on the part of the supporters to eradicate the
last of our Constitutional rights and to dictate the religion, family
status, and private (legal) behavior of everyone.

	If this bill actually exists in the form this message depicts, it is
the most abhorrant and dictatorial piece of legislation ever introduced in
the United States Senate!

-- 

                       -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
            The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised
      over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to
      prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is
      not a sufficient warrant.                         John Stuart Mill
                       -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
        Rick Adams -=*=- adamsr@netcom.com -=*=- adamsr@norwich.bitnet
Newsgroups: alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.politics.usa.constitution,alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,alt.psychoactives