Pubdate: Tue, 28 Dec 2004
Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright: 2004 Courier-Post
Contact:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

SCHOOL BOARD SHOULD DROP DRUG-TESTING PLAN

Proposal to randomly give drug tests to teens at Washington Township
High School who want to join any extracurricular club would cause many
kids to make the wrong choice.

For the last six years, teens at Washington Township High School who
want to join one of the school's athletic teams have been subject to
random drug testing.

Washington Township is one of just a handful of schools in New Jersey
that does this.

Now, district officials are considering a plan that would greatly
expand drug testing to students who want to join any extracurricular
clubs as well as to those with parking permits and to any student
whose parent voluntarily signs them up. The board addressed the issue
at its Dec. 13 work session.

This is a bad idea.

It's not that the district shouldn't be making efforts to keep
students off drugs. It should. Drug and alcohol education are an
important part of what is taught in public schools.

There are two reasons, however, why this is a step too far in the
fight against drugs.

For one, it serves to further push any children, whether they are
regular drug users or simply a teen who decided to try something once
at a party, away from the mainstream in their school.

Most kids who use drugs do so in a casual way and stop using them once
they are older and have more responsibilities.

But the random drug testing proposed in Washington Township presents
them with a choice: Smoke pot or become interested in some of the
things the school would like to encourage.

If a student chooses the former - and some kids will, especially the
ones most in need of guidance - what has the district really
accomplished?

The student is just being further alienated and pushed away from the
mainstream in school. Now, this student is all the more likely to fall
into a crowd of kids who use drugs regularly.

Secondly, while minors don't have the same civil liberties as adults,
they should not be without some rights. If the Washington Township
school board approves random drug testing for any student who wants to
join any club or sports team, how far away is random drug testing for
all students?

That sort of intrusion into a teen's body, something the government
has no right to do randomly to adult citizens, smacks of big brother
keeping too close an eye on young citizens.

If the school wants to give parents the option of having their
children tested for drugs, then that's a choice parents, as legal
guardians, should have the right to make.

But the district shouldn't expand drug testing in such a way that's
too much of an intrusion on civil liberties and serves to simply push
away those students who could use the positive experience of playing
on a team or joining a club to keep them away from the lure of drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin