Scientologists are fiercely opposed to psychiatry and the idea that mental illnesses have physical, biological causes. This is due to their religious doctrines and, now, it seems that they are trying to have those doctrines enshrined in how Florida public schools deal with mental illness.

A St. Petersburg Times editorial explains that the law sponsored by Tampa Republican Sen. Victor Crist and Miami Beach Republican Rep. Gustavo Barreiro would:

...try to keep students from ever getting psychiatric treatment, even those who might be contemplating suicide. The bills would require that any mental health treatment become part of the student's permanent record and that schools tell parents that mental illness cannot be diagnosed through a medical test.

Crist tries to discount the role of Scientology in his bill by suggesting he is concerned with psychiatrists who too often turn to medication. His bill, however, is directed not at improving mental health medicine but at belittling it.

"No matter how far we have come in understanding depression as a biochemical disease, there is still a certain amount of shame attached to it," says Donna Sicilian, president of the Florida Association of School Social Workers. "Bills like these, particularly with the wording that was chosen, perpetuate that."

At the behest of the Christian Right, the GOP has been battling the science of evolution for years. Are Republican politicians now going to start battling the science of mental illness at the behest of Scientologists? Is the GOP for sale to any religious fringe group that comes along and dangles a few votes or donations in front of them or is the GOP merely interested in supporting pseudoscience and superstition regardless of who benefits from it?

Read More:

• What is Science?
• What is Scientology?
• Scientology News
• Scientology: Critiques
• Scientology: Spoofs & Books
• Scientology vs. the Internet
• Scientology: Court Cases
• Scientology: L. Ron Hubbard