How do you deal with a school, an elementary school, that tells a parent, "We want your child out. We would rather see your child fail than the whole class fail." We have a lot of difficult children at QUEST, but this little girl is not one of them. Pretty quiet, always needing hugs and prone to simple tears. But compared to the bedlam in the rest of the room, she is almost a model child. And, this is a biggie, she has a mom who cares, who goes to meet with teachers and sends her child for psychological intervention.

Then, there's another family. A beautiful child, also quiet, also prone to tears (tears over normal disappointments like not making the cheerleading squad). Selected to be a part of the Union College Roger Hull program that promises a full college education to the students who take the enrichment program offered at the SCCC site up until they complete high school. This very special child was chosen in third grade to be a participant. She is also going to family therapy sessions, where she is about to be put on the drug Abilify, a highly controversial drug, even for adults. "It's for mood swings." She's getting close to teen years, hormonal shifts and all that other baggage. Aren't most teens famous for moodiness? A very respected psychologist once said, "Beware the teenager who does not rebel. Rebellion is part of leaving your family and becoming an adult. If children don't rebel during teenage years, it will erupt at a later time and be on a much more serious level."

And then there's the little boy who brings a vial of pills. "If he gets too out of hand," mom says. "Give him half a pill." "Don't give him a whole pill," she remonstrates, "because then he'll just sit in a corner and go to sleep."

If you couldn't guess, this is a continued rant against agencies, social and otherwise, who "have the best interests of children" as their reason for existence.

Since when have we become a nation of super-conformists, fitting all children into slots and molds, killing initiative, uniqueness and creativity? The Beatles wrote a song about taking a "little white pill" to get through the day, but that song was about a suburban housewife, not a child.

We scream about kids smoking an 'L' or taking Ecstasy or methamphetamine, but yet parents and medical adults are pushing drugs on them from a very tender age. Untried drugs, and by that I mean not tested for use on children. The long-range effects of these pharmaceuticals on children are as yet unknown.

We all remember a few years ago when a very, very popular antidepressant was prescribed for children who were clinically depressed. That was a major oops, because these same children became more depressed and many became suicidal and quite a few succeeded in the act of self-destruction.

It took a group of hard-working, protesting friends and relatives of these kids to get serious warning labels on these medicines, and now, very few doctors will prescribe them for children under the age of 18. These are youngsters who are still growing, whose brains are in formative stages and who will at the very least grow up to think drugs are an integral part of life. Legal or illegal, it no longer matters. If you have an issue, drugs can bring you relief.

Frankly, I think the relief of prescription drugging belongs mainly to the teachers, the school system and the parents/caretakers. It would be most interesting to have a symposium of adults and children, a sort of moderated pro and con debate. We frequently talk about quality of life but in a nation that frowns on the use of medical marijuana, it seems strange to allow children to take habit-forming and potentially dangerous prescription drugs. Any drugs given to children 18 and under should be heavily monitored including six-month blood work and weekly therapy sessions, either group or family. Children are more apt to speak their feelings in a situation including like peers and/or complete (including siblings) family members.

I have a good friend who works at The Charlton School, and she tells me that children are frequently sent from various institutions so heavily medicated that (and I quote) "They pee their pants and don't even know it." She goes on to say that as soon as they are weened off their meds, they become involved participants in their own lives. There is no discrimination here -- male, female, black, white, poor and not so poor are all equally turned into walking wounded. The drugs these children are on were never meant for or tested for use on children. I say again, long-range effects on brain and body are at this point in time totally unknown.

People who are strongly in favor of drugging kids need to visit mental institutions and view first-hand the children who inhabit them. That's a real shocker. Seeing one child in a family or in a classroom does not register in the same way as seeing a flock of misplaced children stoned out of their mind (not, I repeat into their minds), totally out of touch with themselves and everything around them, sitting quietly on the sidelines of existence.

Will this be our future, the children of the nation's future? The snake pit is still with us but it has widened and deepened to allow space to accommodate our children. Here, in these spaces in our society, it is Halloween every day.