This past Tuesday night, I had the "privilege" to attend a town hall meeting where I live (Bergen County NJ) to hear various "experts" give their opinions on the merits and pitfalls of random drug testing in our high schools -- specifically whether or not to institute this policy in the high school which my 14-year is attending. I refer to this as a privilege, because apparently in our country we still maintain the right to voice our opinions on important issues such as this one, although ultimately, I suspect that the school district will do what the school district will do.
The fact that we have this right is no small thing, as slowly but surely the Republican agenda is chipping away at our civil liberties, and random drug testing is just one more example.
I would love to go into all the specifics of the meeting, who spoke, what was discussed, but I have too many projects going on right now to go into the length that I would like, but suffice it to say, that I am totally against drug testing of high school students for several important reasons, the primary one being that it is the last time I checked, it is the role of the school to EDUCATE students not police them. While offering drug awarenes courses such as D.A.R.E. etc, may be considered educational, random drug testing does not fall into this category and in my opinion it is just "McCarthy-ism" in a new disguise -- this time "saving our children from themselves." During the fifties everyone was a suspected Communist -- now every high school student is a suspected drug-user much the same way every Muslim person is a "suspected" terrorist. It is amazing how this same pyschology plays itself out in our country over and over -- paranoia strikes again!
Needless to say, I have made the committment to changing my inquiry topic (originally "why so many new teachers leave the profession) as this drug-testing thing has really pushed my buttons both as a moral issue and on a personal level since this is happening in my town. Therefore my new inquiry question shall be:
"Random Drug Testing & Democracy .... Can They Co-Exist?" (It is interesting to note that with all the emphasis on "democracy" we get in our courses, that people in school administration would even consider something like this!)
By the way... if I wasn't pissed enough about this, I found out at the meeting that NCLB actually funds schools to do random drug testing! How outrageous is that!!!!
Stay tuned for the next rant, coming your way when I come up for air. (These last few weeks of the semester are always killer, aren't they?)
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2 comments:
I'm a little confused. Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but in my high school the only random drug testing conducted was done on athletes. I ran cross country and track in my high school, and we had the option to sign a waiver before the sports season began stating whether or not we were okay with being randomly tested. If the coach felt that someone needed to be tested and they had signed this form, then they could be randomly tested at any point. If someone did not sign the waiver there was nothing the coaches or the school could do, unless they found physical proof of drug use, and then the athlete would be kicked off the team. Is this random drug testing a new thing in your town, and can anyone be tested at any point without signing any waivers or forms?
I don't blame you for being confused. The drug testing you are talking about (athletics) was probably to check if team members were using performance enchancement drugs.
The drug testing now being discussed in some NJ high schools, called random or "suspicionless" drug testing could be applied to any student enrolled in ANY afterschool activity (not just sports), as well as any student who drives a car to school. If they could test all the students they probably would, but so far courts have only extended schools the right to test these populations. I am not sure why they can test students enrolled in activities and not the others but I plan to invetigate it further.
Also the drugs they are looking for here, at least in this school, are marajuana, nicotine, alcohol and other illegal substances. Steroid use was not discussed at this particular meeting, but I'll bet it is screened for on field and track teams as well. Oh and, no there is no such thing as a waiver -- if a student objects to it either out of paranoia or principle, then they just avoid afterschool activities -- a shame, if you ask me and counterproductive since these activites tend to keep kids occupied and out of trouble!
Thanks for you question.
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