Suit Against School Over Drug Ritalin Goes to Trial
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In what has been described as the first lawsuit of its kind to go to trial, lawyers for a Glendale woman and her 11-year-old son on Monday told a jury that the Glendale School District and a Los Angeles County doctor forced the boy to take a harmful hyperactivity drug, causing permanent and severe side effects.
Adelia Lorenzo, who is seeking $5 million, claims that her son, Michael, suffers headaches and depression because he used the controversial drug Ritalin for three months in 1987. Ritalin is a brand-name, amphetamine-like drug used to treat hyperactive children. Lawyers on both sides said this is the first Ritalin case to go to trial in which a school district is a defendant.
Lorenzo’s attorneys charged that Diane Hawley, principal at Balboa Elementary School, threatened to expel Michael if he did not take Ritalin as prescribed by Dr. Alvin Yusin, of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
Attorneys for Hawley, the district and Yusin denied that the boy was coerced into taking Ritalin.
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