Greater Missouri TSA

The Greater Missouri TSA is joining with other organizations to advocate for a change in state law that would prohibit the use of corporal punishment (spanking) on special needs students, including TS students.

This issue was brought to our attention by a Poplar Bluff family whose TS child was threatened with spanking in the sixth grade.

Missouri is one of the few remaining states that does not prohibit corporal punishment in its public schools. Instead, the state leaves the use of corporal punishment to the discretion of local school districts. However, the use of corporal punishment on special-needs students could have particularly damaging psychological effects and severely undermine educational progress for these students.

In addition to our organization, the Joshua Center for Neurological Disorders, Missouri NEA, Belle Center, and St. Louis Arc support this change in state law — and we are currently reaching out to other, similar organizations to ask for their support.

If you are affiliated with a special-needs advocacy organization, please ask them to join us in this effort. For more information, contact Missouri TSA Government Liaison Pete Abel.

The National Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) is looking for input on three topics:

(1) Pending regulations for the Mental Health Parity Act
(2) Application process for Social Security disability benefits
(3) Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

Additional information is offered below the fold.

If you or someone you know wants to offer input on one or more of these topics, please send correspondence to Elridge Proctor at both her email address (elridge.proctor@tsa-usa.org) and primary fax number (202-408-3260).

For five years now, Congress has allocated approximately $2 million in annual funding for the Tourette Syndrome Public Health, Education and Research Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among other vital functions, this program enhances knowledge and understanding of Tourette Syndrome among educators, medical and allied professionals throughout the country.

With budget pressures mounting in Washington, we need your help to maintain funding for this program. Will you take 10 minutes or so out of your busy schedule today to make your voice heard? Visit this page to learn how.

Despite much progress in the last 20 to 30 years, there remains a substantial lack of awareness and understanding of Tourette Syndrome (TS).

The national Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) and its Greater Missouri Chapter are working diligently to help close this knowledge gap. One such effort involves annual visits with members of Congress. During these visits, individuals with TS and their families can share their stories with the men and women who write our nation’s laws and establish funding for initiatives like the Tourette Syndrome Public Health, Education, and Research Program.

Last summer, five TS families, including three young men with TS, visited with Congressman Todd Akin at his District office in Ballwin, Mo. This spring, the Greater Missouri TSA is actively working to schedule local visits with Sens. Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond, as well as Reps. William Lacy Clay, Russ Carnahan, and their counterparts in the St. Louis Metro East area, Reps. Jerry Costello and John Shimkus.

If you are a constituent of any of these members of Congress, have a TS story to share, and would like to participate in the visits we are attempting to schedule, please contact Pete Abel — the government relations liaison for the TSA’s Greater Missouri Chapter — at 314-315-9346 or abel.reply@gmail.com.