TPP 428: ADHD Activist Sarah Templeton on the School-to-Prison Pipeline
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
35 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 15 hours ago
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the urgent issue connecting ADHD, schools, and the prison system?
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This is my dream that these kids who are being excluded, that we screen them when they're thirteen, fourteen, rather than twenty one, and they've been in prison for the last three years. Let's catch them when they're first doing something wrong, when they're first excluded, when they're first kick off in school. Screen them then, not when it's too late.
I'm Debbie Rieber, and welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. Today we're diving into an often overlooked issue: the connection between ADHD, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the critical need for early intervention. My guest for this conversation is Sarah Templeton. She's an ADHD activist, counselor, and author who's Whose personal and professional experiences have made her a passionate advocate for mandatory ADHD screenings in schools and in the criminal justice system. Sarah herself was diagnosed with ADHD, severe dyspraxia, dyscalculea, and sensory processing disorder later in life.
And as a psychotherapist working with incarcerated individuals, she made this startling discovery. An overwhelming majority Of inmates have ADHD that was never recognized or supported in childhood. This realization led her to create ADHD Liberty, a charity focused on increasing awareness, advocating for policy change, and ensuring early intervention for kids who might otherwise fall through the cracks. She's actually got a book coming out soon about her work in the prison system called The Prison Counselor. Sarah has written two books for parents. They are How to not murder your ADHD child and how not to damage your ADHD adolescent. And for teachers, she wrote Teachers, How to Not Kill the Spirit in Your ADHD Kids.
So for this conversation today, Sarah will unpack for us why ADHD is so prevalent in the prison population and how mandatory screenings in schools could change the trajectory of countless lives. We discussed the role of Teacher training, the need for mental health teams in schools, and the systemic barriers that prevent ADHD from being taken seriously in both education and the justice system. This is an eye-opening, informative, and powerful episode. It's really a call to action for parents, educators, and policymakers alike. I hope you find it interesting. Here is my conversation with Sarah Templeton. Hey, Sarah, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm I think we're gonna have a very interesting conversation.
It's been almost nine years of doing this show, and I love it when I have another fresh topic to bring to the listeners. And this is such a critical topic, actually. And so I'm really looking forward to getting into your work. But could you take a few minutes and introduce yourself? Tell us what you would want us. to know about your personal why and why you do the work that you do.
Yeah, okay, with pleasure. So out of the blue, when I was fifty one, nearly fifty two, a counselor said to me, Has anybody ever suggested your ADHD? And I said, No, why? And she said, Because I think you've got it. Go home and Google it and see what you think. And I went home that night and it's not underestimating it to say that my entire life suddenly made sense. So I then uh got diagnosed. That's that's a bit of a story in itself. It wasn't easy, but I did get diagnosed. And then later in my 50s, I was diagnosed with severe dyspraxia, sensory processing disorder, and dyscalculea. And that really did make sense of my entire life. So at the time I was still working in prisons as a counselor. I retrained to be a counsellor when I was I started training when I was 49.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the urgent issue connecting ADHD, schools, and the prison system?
0:00–7:43
2
How did Sarah’s late‑life ADHD diagnosis change her view of the prison population?
7:43–14:40
3
Why do 75‑85% of inmates appear to have undiagnosed ADHD?
14:40–21:51
4
How could mandatory ADHD screening in schools stop the school‑to‑prison pipeline?
21:51–24:59
5
What teacher training and mental‑health team changes are needed to support ADHD students?
24:59–27:58
6
Why are police forces now offering ADHD screenings and how does that work?
27:58–31:30
7
What resistance do advocates face from parents, schools, and government?
31:30–35:00
8
What practical steps and resources does Sarah recommend for families and educators?
35:00–35:18
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids