School Based Health Center Gives Teen Zoloft Without Parental Knowledge

A teen at a Maine high school was reportedly given a bag of unlabeled Zoloft by staff at the school-based health center (SBHC). Zoloft is an anti-depressant and carries a black box warning, which means serious adverse reactions can occur, such as suicide ideation. When the teen’s parents discovered the medication, they kept their daughter home from school and made appointments with doctors and therapists. This triggered the school to report the parents to Child Protective Services, which investigated the family.

This is the exact scenario that advocates of informed consent have been worried about with the expansion of services provided by SBHC’s. At the beginning of each school year, parents are presented with a stack of papers to sign and many have no idea what they are signing. At best, parents think they are giving rights to the school to treat their child(ren) for first aid injuries only. This story illustrates why it is so important to have guardrails in place so that parents have truly informed consent about what professional services children are receiving at school.

Read the full story on The Defender.