Article October 12, 1912 Issue

In a recommendation headed "Pupils, Parents, Teachers,"...

Avery Coonley

Chicago (III.) News

In a recommendation headed "Pupils, Parents, Teachers," and signed "A. R. M.," in a recent issue of the Daily News, the statement was made that physical examination of school children has been placed in the hands of "school doctors and nurses" by "the authorities." Readers should be advised that this has been done without warrant of law. Examination cannot legally be required, and there is no authority for the expenditure of the large sums of money involved. The order of the board of education which will send three hundred thousand patients to physicians this fall, is a step toward an end, and that end should be recognized when the steps leading to it are under consideration. As stated by the health commissioner of Chicago, in a recent bulletin published by the extension division of the University of Wisconsin, we may expect nothing less than compulsory medical treatment.

To quote: "The vision, the hearing, the speech of pupils, their physical deformities, their mental defects, their nutritional status, all have come to be matters requiring attention by medical inspectors of schools, and justifying correction at the expense of the community if the circumstances make it necessary." This treatment will obviously be according to the theories of that particular system of medicine which dominates health boards throughout the country. The important question is not whether one method is as good as another, but whether any may be compulsory in a free country. This question will face every parent of Chicago upon the opening of school.

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