Elementary Years

Kindergarten year, 1988-89, was relatively uneventful. Report cards stated that Chris needed improvement in the following areas: writing, coloring, cutting, remaining in seat at appropriate times, working and playing cooperatively, and keeping hands, feet, and objects to self. In her final remarks for the year, the teacher wrote, “We are hoping to see more improvement in Christopher’s attitude and behavior in our classroom!” This statement was truly portentous.

Almost immediately Chris had problems in first grade. The school counselor observed him in class:

Chris walked over to a girl seated in the middle of the classroom. He wanted her book. She put the book in her lap, under her desk. Chris made faces in her face and walked away. He made mocking noises to a boy passing him. The boy tried to reach back and kick Chris. Chris wanted the teacher to see his finished bird. He ran over and showed it to her. She complimented him on his bird, but asked about the coloring of the worm. He said that he only had to color half the worm green. Another student said something about doing the trash. (Chris had asked to do this earlier.) Chris ran over and grabbed the can. He was asked to put it back and was told that students would do their own trash. He ignored the directions and began carrying the can around, doing trash. Chris began throwing the garbage in the can at other students. The teacher again asked him to put the trash can back. He ignored her. She walked up and helped carry the can over to where it belonged and (Chris) yelled on the way, “I’m going to keep it until I die.” The teacher announced recess. He said, ‘Oh goody’ and ran to the teacher’s desk. Chris took a Rubik’s cube and returned to his seat (apparently he was not supposed to do this).

His teacher said of Chris, “His temper is out of this world when he goes off.” Although I should not have been, I was shocked by this remark. After all I had seen his tantrums at home. But in my mind school was different. My son could not be behaving this way in school. However, he was.

His behavior was also dangerous. Angry with a boy on the playground, Chris reached under the boy’s glasses and pressed on his eye. Once as a passenger in a moving vehicle, he had a temper tantrum. He accidently kicked the gearshift with his flailing feet and put the car in another gear.

The school counselor thought that Chris might have ADHD. In the fall of 1989, a psychiatrist evaluated him. (Note: at this time we also moved from the farmhouse to the small town of Marysville, which was in the school district where I worked.) I told the psychiatrist that Chris had no respect for authority and would not back down in a confrontation. Chris told the psychiatrist that he liked getting in fights, and there were problems because he would not stay in bed when it was bedtime. He said he did not listen to his teacher because he did not want to do so.

The psychiatrist asked him if he could be granted a wish what would it be. Chris said not to be bad. When asked what made him mad, he said when he could not get his way and when his dad would not listen to him. The psychiatrist administered a test during which Chris was asked to draw a house, a tree, and a person. His findings:

Chris’s house tree person drawing was reminiscent of that which might be expected of a younger child. However, in addition, there were distortions particularly of the human figure, with huge balloon like appendages for hands, and six semi-circles which were supposed to be the fingers. The body was represented by two straight lines extending from a circle which was the head, the body also therefore representing the legs. He drew darkened circles for feet. There were no facial characteristics. He did not draw any windows nor other details in the house except for a door without a knob.

These distortions were a sign of organicity, or brain damage. However, I did not know it at the time, and it was not explained to me. Instead, I asked the psychiatrist about mixed dominance. Chris did most things with his right hand but kicked a ball with his left foot. In writing Chris would start with his left hand, and as he progressed across the paper, would switch to his right hand to finish the line. The doctor was non-committal about mixed dominance being an issue.

The diagnosis was ADHD, especially in group situations, with some oppositional tendencies. Play therapy and a prescription for Imipramine 10 mg were also recommended.

In retrospect this first contact with a child psychiatrist was an example of all those we were to see in the mental health system in the years Chris was growing up. Play therapy? Been there, done that. It didn’t work. I came to learn that psychiatrists put children on the lowest level of a psychotropic drug possible. The low dosage was said to guard against the possibility of negative side effects. A cynic might add it would guard against the possibility of lawsuits if there were any extreme negative side effects. Time and again Chris would be given a low level of medication that would prove to be totally ineffective.

As for the diagnosis of ADHD, the late eighties was the time of the great ADHD wave, or as it was called back then, ADD. Seemingly every student that had a behavioral problem in my school was ADD and was prescribed medicine (most of the time Ritalin). Chris got on the tsunami and became ADD as well.

In early 1990 Chris was on medication for ADD. He was now eight years old. An observational report from the school counselor indicates that his behavior at school had not changed in the least:

March 13, 1990

Observation in classroom 17 from 10:31 to 11:04

10:34

Chris was sitting in his chair, making farting noises with his mouth and leaning back. His back was against the student's desk located behind him and his toes were barely keeping him balanced under his desk. Chris was calling out an incorrect word to the student located behind him. He was rocking in his chair.

10:36

Chris was putting his feet on the girl (a different girl from last observation) sitting next to him, she was yelling at Chris to stop it.

The teacher called on Chris to read the next sentence. He read and answered the question loudly. The answer was chickie.

10:37

Chris got out of his seat and walked back and forth in a six feet area like a chickie. He also made the noises. The other students laughed. He was asked to sit down, he did. Chris scribbled all over the bottom of the opposite blank page with a pencil.

10:44

He sat in his seat. Chris put his foot in his desk, raised his pant leg, bit on his knee, and tied his shoe. He got out of his seat to get a pair of scissors and a container of glue. He returned to his seat and spun the glass bottle around on his desk. He was asked not to do that. The teacher stopped it with her hand.

10:45

Chris was playing with the scissors. He was spinning them in his hand like a gun while standing. He walked up to a girl and touched her on her side. She hit him. He talked to a boy two seats behind him. Chris was asked to go to his seat, he did.

10:46

He had the scissors open and told the girl next to him that he was going to poke her with this (the scissors). Chris had the scissors in a stabbing position. He put the scissor point up against her arm.

10:47

Chris was wildly cutting up the side of his assignment paper. He was told to read the directions. He had to do steps one through six, before he needed the scissors. He said, “I don't care.”

10:48

Chris had his pencil out of his desk, pointed it at the girl and said, “on guard.” He made a comment about butt to the girl. In response to a conversation with the girl he said, “blue, you dumb, dumb.”

10:55

He was doing karate moves with his hands and feet while balancing on his chair. Chris got out of his seat and stood behind the girl. She ignored him. He walked over to another student, who was coloring, and said, "Willy scribble, scrabble.” The student got upset. Chris went to the front of the room for something and on his way back he called the same boy a "faggot.” Chris returned to his seat. He sang “Willy, Scribble, Scrabble” loudly three times. The other student was yelling. Chris was asked to stop and did. A different student on the other side of the room said something and Chris yelled, “I want you to shut up.”

10:58

Chris got out of his seat and went over to the teacher. She stopped the individual work she was doing with a student to answer his question. He wanted to know if when he was finished with his assignment, he could play a game. (Chris had just heard the teacher tell another student that he could read a book quietly after he finished.) She said no, games are for recess;...