Patricia Sabato, a Newtown mother, is the lone voice struggling to be heard amid the cacophony calling for stricter gun control laws after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Sabato believes the battle for tighter gun control laws is just a diversion away from the real reason Adam Lanza committed the biggest school shooting in U.S. history.
An advocate certified under the state General Assembly, Sabato suspects Lanza may have been taking psychiatric drugs that triggered the mass shooting. She's organized a petition drive and garnered more than 200 signatures in two days around Newtown calling for the state to release Lanza's autopsy/toxicologyrecords. She's also testified before a state legislative sub committee studying mental health services in the wake of the Dec. 14 shooting.
"Adam Lanza wasn't born evil," Sabato said. “We want the records before they ask for more money for mental health, which could be dangerous. We want the records to know what kind of mental health treatment he was receiving. We need to know what he was taking."
Sabato is under a ticking time clock. Lanza's arrest warrants will remain sealed for 90 days, well after the current legislative session ends. Sabato fears lawmakers are going to pass mental health laws without knowing Lanza's mental health at the time of the shootings.
Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky has sealed Lanza's arrest warrants. Several newspapers in the state have gone to court seeking their release.
Sabato said her quest comes from her own experience with a troubled child who was put under state care and heavily medicated.
“I watched my own child turn into a monster on medication. I know first-hand the affects of this type of medication," Sabato said.
Sabato sites evidence that 9 out of the 10 mass shooting suspects were on some type of psychotropic medication.
Jeremy Richman, who lost his 6-year-old daughter, Arielle, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, agrees. In January the Associated Press reported that Richman told a legislative subcommittee that "shooters in Sandy Hook, Tucson, Aurora, Littleton, Blacksburg were not not in their right minds." Richman and his wife have started a foundation in their daughter's name to understand the connection between mental health and violent behavior.
Sabato has joined forces with ablechild.org, a national nonprofit parent organization that focuses on informed consent and the right to refuse psychiatric screening and drug treatment, to spread the word. She and members of ablechild will be gathering petition signatures around Newtown and will be in Sandy Hook at the Iron Bridge at 100 Church Hill Road on March 2 and3.
To view the petition visit the ablechild website.
US Concerned Parents | Mar 3, 2013 | 4:42pm
I wholeheartedly agree with Patricia about the psychotropic drugging of children and young adults, as it messes with their ability to function properly and it inhibits children’s cognitive development. NO ONE SHOULD BE PUT ON MORE THAN ONE PSYCOTROPIC DRUG AT A TIME, AS IT PROVED IN NEWTOWN IT WAS DEADLY. Gun control has nothing to do with why this youngster had this ravage rampage into this school on innocent victims. As it has to do with seeing the toxicology report and the psychiatrist who was seeing him prior to the tragic event. We demsnd to know and have the right to know as a citizen of Connecticut (Corrupticut). someone should supeona the records immediately for public safety as we know the psycho drugs are harmful and deadly. I know Ihave done the research. Ask any biochemist.
John DiBiase | Mar 3, 2013 | 7:13pm
This is about parental responsibility and control over one’s children. Then mother must have given the permission for the son to take whatever medications.
John DiBiase
PsiCop | Mar 3, 2013 | 7:32pm
Am I the only one who’s disturbed at the idea that we need to make mental-health treatment ... which is currently tough to get ... even harder, by making it more difficult for people to get psychiatric drugs? Where will this campaign end?
Let’s get things straight: We have absolutely not one speck of information that confirms Adam Lanza was mentally ill. The worst that’s been heard is that he had Asperger’s, which is not a mental illness but a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum, and that he had something referred to as “sensory integration disorder,” which doesn’t actually exist and therefore is also not a mental illness. Neither of those has been confirmed by any compelling evidence.
We have even less evidence than that, that Adam Lanza was taking any psychiatric medication. We have no information that he was taking one, or several. The amount of verified information we have about Adam Lanza, is virtually nil. A bit of demographic information, but nothing more.
The Newtown massacre was horrible, but it’s really not a good idea to build an anti-psychiatry campaign on it. The mentally ill need better treatment, and more of it, not less. Where will this effort end? Should we ban all medications for mental illnesses, and banish the mentally ill to institutions for life, in order to “protect” society?
I submit this is the worst kind of a bad idea.
Richard Haworth | Mar 4, 2013 | 3:11pm
If you don’t think there is a connection between certain psychiatric drugs and violence / suicide, take a look at www.ssristories.org. There you will find 4800 media documented stories of the connection between ONE type of psychiatric drug and violent events where people were killed or injured.
All you need to do is read the FDA Black Box warnings for these drugs. It is all there - anger, violence, suicidal thoughts etc. etc.
Unfortunately, regardless of what Lanza suffered from, he may have been given one or more these drugs, even for autusim. Thus, we need to know.
Certainly people need access to good mental health help. These days to most MDs and psychiatrists that means medicating them. Not a good answer.
If we are ever to solve this violence problem, psychiatric drugs need to be part of the discussion. Otherwise we will be condemning future generations to be the victims of these shooters.
Harry Johnson | Mar 4, 2013 | 3:34pm
47 Y.O. grandmother Debra Denison just murdered her two very young grandchildren in Preston, CT while also on psychiatric drugs. An Associated Press story says,”
“She [Denison] would go along and have seasons where everything was A-OK, and other times when she would be depressed, running to the doctor and getting prescriptions,” said Marcia White, a paternal great-grandmother of the slain boys. This Connecticut shooting could be very similar to the Lanza shooting in that the bizarre act of violence was likely caused by psychiatric drugs.
dan s | Mar 25, 2013 | 10:15am
This book by Dr Breggin explains the connection between psychiatric drugs and violent crime.
There is absolutely a link between psychiatric drugs and violent crime. Even the corrupt FDA agrees. Several years ago the FDA required SSRI drugs to have a black box warning about suicide and violent behavior.
Lanza’s drug history should be made public. Absolutely.
http://www.amazon.com/Medication-Madness-Psychiatric-Violence-Suicide/dp/031256550X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364220712&sr=8-1&keywords=breggin+violence
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