Posted on 03/21/2006 7:17:50 PM PST by MRMEAN
WASHINGTON -- Student athletes, musicians, and others who participate in after-school activities could increasingly be subject to random drug testing under a program promoted by the Bush administration.
White House officials say drug testing is an effective way to keep students away from harmful substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, and have held seminars across the country to promote the practice to local school officials.
But some parents, educators, and school officials call it a heavy-handed, ineffective way to discourage drug use that undermines trust and invades students' privacy.
''Our money should be going toward educating young people, not putting them under these surveillance programs," said Jennifer Kern, a research associate at the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group that has frequently criticized US drug policy.
Requiring students to produce a urine or hair sample for laboratory testing is a relatively recent tactic in the United States' decades-long war on drugs, along with surveillance cameras and drug-sniffing dogs in school hallways.
Adults in the military and many workplaces have long been subject to testing, but courts have ruled that public schools cannot impose random tests on an entire student body.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that schools can randomly test student athletes who are not suspected of drug use, and in 2002 ruled that all students who participate in voluntary activities, like cheerleading, band, or debate, could be subjected to random tests.
Since then, the Bush administration has spent $8 million to help schools pay for drug testing programs. The White House hopes to spend $15 million on drug-testing grants in the next fiscal year.
Roughly 600 school districts of about 15,000 nationwide use drug tests, according to officials from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
White House officials liken drug testing to programs that screen...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Yes, we need more drug testing... let's start with the politicians!!
Fine.
After Bush approves random drug testing for Congress.
Someone please explain to me again why the federal government has any business telling local schools how to operate. Maybe some of the Bushbots can enlighten me as to how increased federal intrusion into education is a good thing.
All Federal employees should be checked once a year on a random basis with zero tolerance. Pee dirty and they are gone with any pension stripped.
I can't explain it. W is leaning more and more to the Left. I don't get it.
By the end of his second term, he'll sound just like any other Liberal. Sad, because I voted for him twice as a Conservative. I was a Bushbot until he started signing gigantic spending bills, and never stood up to the Democrats and the MSM until recently.
I don't get it.
(In my Nomex and Kevlar suits)
You're right. I also voted for him twice. I also used to vote strictly republican. Won't make that mistake again, it's the Constitution Party for me now. And I don't buy any of that garbage about it being a "wasted" vote.
Drug testing is not a leftist plot. They don't have a problem with kids using drugs.
The federal government is NOT mandating drug testing in schools. What gave you the idea that they were?
No, of course not. They are just strongly encouraging school districts on what policies they should adopt.
Next you'll probably tell me that the federal government doesn't tell states what their legal drinking ages should be. That is unless they want their highways maintained.
This craze to drug test everyone (especially people who are not in trouble) is some conservatives' answer to the leftist craze of "zero tolerance" for just about everything.
It is absurd that a free people can be compelled to urinate in a bottle for government inspection at any time.
If you think that random drug testing is a good thing, just think what your great-grandfather would say to somebody who demanded that he urinate in a bottle for government inspection.
This is one of many means of conditioning the next generation to be even more subservient to government. It is also evidence of the failure of the WOD to effectively address the problem of drug abuse and its grave threat to liberty.
This reminds me of the movie "Gattica"
When Reagan first started doing this stuff it was pretty bad. It shows there is clearly a part of the Republican party that has no more regard for the Constitution than the left.
So how do we determine if the person driving your kid's school bus is high every day? If we don't, then one day he decides, in his omnipotent state, to try to beat that semi to the intersection.
No, let's start with the judges.
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