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Extensions of Remarks - September 10, 2004 GARRETT LEE SMITH MEMORIAL ACT Mr. Speaker,S. 2634, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, contains some very important language that I would like to point out to my colleagues. The bill requires written, informed parental consent before a child may participate in the programs funded under this bill. The bill provides an exception for this in cases where there is an emergency and the safety of the child or other students is at risk and in cases where parental consent cannot reasonably be obtained. Mr. Speaker, this language is very important. The topic of suicide and death is very sensitive, especially for younger children who are very impressionable. I believe that parents, not schools, should be the first line of defense for educating against and preventing their children from considering suicide.Studies have shown that in some cases, suicide education has actually led to suicides. Parents should have the option of keeping their child out of such classes. In addition, if parents are aware that their child is in such a class or program at school, they will be able to look for any warning signs that their child is considering suicide. The exceptions included in the parental consent requirement are intended to be very narrow--emergency situations and cases where parental consent cannot reasonably be obtained. Emergency situations will be obvious--this would be a situation where a student is threatening his life or the life of someone else. Obviously, in such a case, the counselor or teacher should immediately counsel the student to stop the threatened activity.Some may wonder what is meant by cases where parental consent cannot be ``reasonably'' obtained. This is intended to mean situations where the parent, despite the best efforts of the school or other organization operating a suicide intervention program, cannot personally give consent. One such situation would be where a single parent in the military has gone overseas for duty and the child is temporarily staying with grandparents. But let me be clear--this is not a loophole for those who find obtaining parental consent to be inconvenient or time-consuming. It is for those rare and very limited situations in which a parent simply is not able to provide consent. I would like to thank Chairman Barton for working so diligently on this important language. |
