Pubdate: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 Source: Whitefish Pilot (MT) Contact: 2008 The Whitefish Pilot Website: http://www.whitefishpilot.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4740 Author: Casey Malmquist Note: Casey Malmquist lives in Whitefish. ASK WHY KIDS CHOOSE DRUGS I believe the mandatory drug testing for our children who choose to pursue extracurricular activities in our schools is simply brilliant. In fact, I believe we should apply this philosophy in a much broader approach. Why stop at the schools? I think all of our children who choose to participate in church youth groups should also be drug tested prior to participation. Clearly this will keep these troubled kids from mingling with any of the more spiritually-secure kids and make it much easier for the church staff and volunteers to do their jobs of providing guidance and support to those kids who survive the testing. Why stop at drugs and alcohol? Why not test for eating disorders? If we find a student who has been binge eating and is endangering themselves with obesity, we should suspend them from these same extracurricular activities. This will certainly help them. In fact, I think we should test kids for any type of behavioral dysfunction, and for those kids who test positive, suspend and isolate them from any kind of support, counseling, spiritual guidance or positive lifestyle changes. In this way we could greatly improve the statistics of children who have behavioral and/or drug and alcohol problems who are participating in extracurricular activities. What in the world are we doing? There has been an enormous effort and countless dollars directed towards catching kids experimenting and using drugs and alcohol. The current statistics are staggering, and there is a message in those statistics, if we are only willing to listen. Have we really taken the time and energy to consider why? Do we have the courage and honesty to really dig into and reveal why our kids are choosing these behaviors? I am sure it has nothing to do with us, their parents and guardians, or this crazy world we have handed them. Rather than spend all of this energy and money on a system based on the "guilty until proven innocent," why can't we direct these same resources to developing a system that gives our children a network of opportunities to seek help and support with dignity and confidentiality? Trust begets trust. Respect begets respect. What if we stopped arresting, testing and stressing our kids and provide them with more love, understanding and support? Who knows, maybe they will turn out better than us?