Should drug testing in school be allowed?

[msbrunnettemickey]

JUST PRETEND

As a group, all of you have been selected to be part of a task force to decide whether random drug testing should be allowed in your school. It is your job to ensure that the student body is fairly represented in all decisions that the administration makes. Because of increased drug use in your school, the principal wants to start randomly testing students for drugs who wants to participate in any kind of school activity, such as band, athletics and even debate. Your duty to the students is to investigate whether this is legal, as well as, whether it should be allowed in your school. Remember, you are the voice for all the students in your school and your position on this issue should be the result of careful, thoughtful research and what is best for the school as a whole, not just personal opinions.

Would you take this job?

What do you think of random drug testing? Is it fair?

Just think of all those people who do so well in all those activities!

Imagine that the best football player (does only good in football, no other subjects in school) does drugs, and then one day the principal wants to drug test, and finds out that he uses drugs? Football is the only thing he has!

[Hackerboy603]

RE: Should drug testing in school be allowed?

Sadly, I have to say that random drug testing is fair. If you get caught taking drugs, your life is screwed by the drugs and the school.

No, I would not take that job. The thing is, I don't want to be the one to see the looks on their faces when their dreams are crushed before their very eyes. And another thing, I don't want to bust some popular kid and be jumped on the way to school everyday.

[Cenright]

RE: Should drug testing in school be allowed?

Interesting Hacker. During my years in school, I myself got 2 busted for Speed, 2 for Marijuana, and 1 for Cigarettes. You could say I was a 'rat', but the only thing that I know, is that I have an allergy to a lot of the illegal narcotics, so it is almost like being a drug dog, being able to sense drugs, of course it is an allergic reaction, not a good sense of smell.

I don't feel bad for busting a single one of them, and I wouldn't have even cared if they had known it was me, although, no one in my school would have touched me, unless they were so drugged up that they were to stupid to understand what they were doing.

I carried a multi-pliers tool around school for band and networking work. I carried it for 2 years and never got busted. There weren't very many rules that I had to adhere. I could roam campus almost whenever I wanted, and even said "hi" to the security guards as I walked by, as they are busting people for being out of class. I had the administrative password to the computers and everything. No kid was going to touch me. That would have been like hitting the class president.

I had a different HS experience though. And although I wouldn't be on that committee, I would be fine with random drug testing.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Should drug testing in school be allowed?

Imagine that the best football player (does only good in football, no other subjects in school) does drugs, and then one day the principal wants to drug test, and finds out that he uses drugs? Football is the only thing he has!

Tough shit.

One big issue I have with this is that the types of schools aren't specified. I'm all for letting private schools do whatever the hell they want. Public schools, though, are a different matter. This would just be an extension of the war on drugs in a public school. I would have to say no for public shools, though. Their job is to teach the students, not to make sure they're not doing drugs.

I would like to vote as a part of this committee, but just by my personal feelings. I don't see how random drug testing could better a school, anyway. As for its legality, that wouldn't be hard to find out. I also don't understand the "Is it fair?" question. Those participating in the illegal act don't deserve fair either way.

Oh, and Hacker, I'm with Cen. I would actually like to see the faces of the people who just got busted.

Basically, the REAL question is: Should public schools be cracking down on drug use among their students?

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[msbrunnettemickey]

We just had a debate about that, against the other town's HS.

We lost.

They were the affirmative, and we were the negitive.
So i guess the school does not care whether or not you do drugs?
They said how it will give the school a "better" name if all the student were clean, and not doing drugs.
They said how no one would actually care if the person that is found to take drugs is ashamed, or embarrassed.

But then i looked at their paper and i realized...
"The main purpose of random school drug testing is not to catch kids using drugs, it is to keep them from ever using them. Once their using drugs its harder for them to break their addiction. With many employers drug testing its very important for a kid's future not to use drugs. Drug use is responsible for many crimes. Its worth the inconvenience for all our future.
Peer pressure is the greatest cause of kids trying drugs. If by testing the athletes or other school leaders, we can get them to say no to drugs, it will be easier for other kids to say no."

But we started blabbing about other things!
"One of the fundamental features of our legal system is that we are presumed innocent of any wrongdoing unless and until the government proves otherwise. Random drug testing of student athletes turns this presumption on its head, telling students that we assume they are using drugs until they prove to the contrary with a urine sample.

The constitutional prohibition against "unreasonable" searches also embodies the principle that merely belonging to a certain group is not a sufficient reason for a search, even if many members of that group are suspected of illegal activity. Thus, for example, even if it were true that most men with long hair were drug users, the police would not be free to stop all long haired men and search them for drugs.

Some also argue that students who aren't doing anything wrong have nothing to fear. This ignores the fact that what they fear is not getting caught, but the loss of dignity and trust that the drug test represents. And we should all be afraid of government officials who believe that a righteous cause warrants setting aside bedrock constitutional protections. The lesson that our schools should be teaching is respect for the Constitution and for students' dignity and privacy, not a willingness to treat cherished constitutional principles as mere platitudes."


I don't know how we lost, but i sure did learn stuff.


And i'm not only talking about an individual person, there could be more then just one person in a school doing drugs.

[blahblah18]

It isn't the school looking out for the students as much as it is the school looking out for themselves. If you did this in an actual debate the crux of it would be arguing the status quo of being [/i]in loco parenti[i] or in english, in lieu of parents. That is what a school is for minors, and that is the legal term for it. It is due to that that makes it legal for schools to open up student's lockers and look inside, in the same way it i slegal for a parent to go into their child's room and look in the closets. Now a drug test can be argued either for being otuside those acceptable bounds of what we call probable cause, or you can clarify it as a necessary measure for the safety of our students at a small cost to civil liberty, and since the children are minors and the school is acting as loco parenti, that the students aren't reallly offered any civil liberties anyways.

hope that was a taste of what you were looking for

[Hackerboy603]

Wow, this is getting deep. You'd think the legality of this issue would be easier to find, no?

[jewpinthethird]

I dont think random drug testing should be allowed in public schools. What one chooses to do outside of school should not be the school's concern.

However, I totally agree with searching of a student's personally possessions while they are on campus. Lockers, cars, purses, backpacks, etc. The school has the right to make sure illegal substances are not brought to school.

[osufan]

I do agree with the random drug testing, as long as they keep it random. I think they have the right to do it with a reasonable suspicion. If they're just pulling every kid in the school in, and drug testing them, that's more of an evasion of privacy, and then it's no longer random. To counter what Jewpin said, some kid could come to school every day high as a kite, but since he didn't do the drugs on school property, you think that should be alright?

EDIT: LOL I said evasion of privacy, I meant invasion.

[GuidoHunter]

To counter what Jewpin said, some kid could come to school every day high as a kite, but since he didn't do the drugs on school property, you think that should be alright?

Yes, so long as his high-ness isn't disrupting anything else. ANY sort of distraction, though, and there's a problem.

But also, how would random drug testing make this better? All drug testing proves is whether or not someone's used drugs recently, and I bet some people could tell you when someone's high before a test is ever needed.

So, this debate becomes: Should the schools be able to punish people who have used drugs off-campus?

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[purplepopcorn]

I dont think random drug testing should be allowed in public schools. What one chooses to do outside of school should not be the school's concern.

However, I totally agree with searching of a student's personally possessions while they are on campus. Lockers, cars, purses, backpacks, etc. The school has the right to make sure illegal substances are not brought to school.

exactly. schools shouldn't give a sh** about what goes on outside of school unless it's affecting the way you learn inside the school. search all they want, but a public school doesn't have the right to look into what people are doing out of their grounds. THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T CONTROLL US

private schools are a different matter. By paying them touition (sp) you are forced to follow the rules and laws that they enforce, similar to a mini country. Even then, the government has a small amount of control, which means that the school can't murder someone for taking drugs

[esupin]

A few Massachusetts schools are looking into random drug testing for athletes(most parents were supportive of it). I don't mind that, but extending the policy to the whole school seems overkill...Although if you did do drugs, why would you risk bringing it to school?

[jewpinthethird]

I'm all for the drug testing of Athletes...but mainly because I want to see the athletics department fail. Which I know it would.

[msbrunnettemickey]

Also...

This is quite surprising.. (maybe)

Younger kids are caught with any type of drug in their body...

And they won't even know they were taking drugs.

Let me give you an example... 1st day of school when i was a freshman.. A senior walked up to me and my friend offering us candy.

YAY JOLLY RANCH THINGS.
My friend gladly takes one, and i get suspicious so i didn't take one.

She ate and and after 5-10 min or so she started to act strange and started sweating.

I didn't know why she act that way until the middle of my freshman year, newspapers come out.

Senior, of Tenafly High School is charged.. blah blah blah blah...
...
Drugs in candy, most likely jolly ranchers.

I have done my research then, and i found that teenagers would do anything to get money, and do anything to get the thing that they are addicted to.

The senior was being nice to us, he would give us the candy
then he would give it to us again...
Then we would get addicted and come back to him begging more
and then he would ask us money for it.

Younger kids have been caught during random drug testing because of those things...
Maybe it's rare, but you never know.

[ckj846]

^ You have good instincts not to take candy from strangers. Anyways, I wouldn't take the job because I don't think I could crush an athlete's dream at a sports team just because of a drug test. Do I think it is right? Of course I do, without constant pressure against drugs, less kids will do them. As a result, test scores will rise and so on. They just have to keep the screenings random and the screenings should not interfere with school. I'm saying, they shouldn't have the whole school line up before school to get screened for drugs. That is just my opinion.
O_o