We all know that mental health in kids as well as adults is important. And according to the American academy of pediatrics, one in five kids is depressed. And that’s sad. But it’s a family issue, not a government one. Here’s one of the most outrageous ideas out apparently nurturing legislators are mulling as we speak: Lawmakers in New Jersey are trying to pass a bill that would require students from the seventh grade through high school to be tested for depression at least once a year.

How is our children’s depression the state's problem? As a result of rising suicide rates in the pediatric population, Assemblyman Herb Conaway, proposed the bill which calls for a public school nurse or physician to administer the annual screening which would include a hand-written questionnaire. If this isn’t big brother-or should I say big mother?-at its finest, I don’t know what is. Public schools in NJ have enough to worry about trying to educate our kids properly with the enormous tuition we fork over from our tax dollars. How bout we concentrate on that and leave family issues to families?

If you’re not enraged just hearing about this proposed law, there’s something wrong with you. In fact, test me for depression right now because living in this nanny state -with its eagerness to jump on stupid laws and unwillingness to solve its real problems-gets more and more depressing every year.

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