Suit Against School Over Drug Ritalin Goes to Trial
- Share via
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.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
