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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin