Posted on 03/19/2006 4:30:53 PM PST by Crackingham
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 non-profit group that has frequently criticized U.S. drug policy.
Requiring students to produce a urine sample 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 U.S. 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.
I wasn't talking about THIS proposal.
It's crap.
But until the kids are NOT taking the drugs, there has to be consequences. He brings up athletes in high school. You know that something approaching 10% of all HS athletes are taking some type of steroids? You want to guess what will happen in 10-20 years to those kids? You know that drug use amongst the kids is SKYROCKETING because of laissez-faire attitudes towards drugs and the borders they are flowing through?
What do we want? Another Toronto? another Amsterdam? There is a better way to be sure, but drug-testing has it's points.
Also, Don't align yourself with a troll like Takenoprisoner. If anyone like him trashes the US military, he isn't worth my or YOUR time.
You buying my ticket to Cuba?
Seems to me... drug testing, to you, is like.... RAPE! How do you feel about school exams?
This program started in NJ under Christine Todd Whitman.
It will rip your communities apart. Star athlete or gifted musician caught with marijuana in their urine, will be ineligible for ALL federal and almost all state grants/loans for college thanks to the Republicans in Congress.
Any student charged as an adult for drugs in NJ find it almost impossible to expunge teir records, and are thrown into the permanent underclass during their late teens and early twenties.
This is an extremely negative reactionary approach to this problem, and one that will cause undue suffering to tens of thousands of students.
It also has serious underlying racist implications in the real world application of this law. In NJ star white athletes found with drugs are routinely given plea bargains, while black athletes, even from private parochial schools are given the hardest sentence allowed, and pretty much banned from acquiring a college education.
The best part is that the "randomness" of the testing is set up by school policy that allows vindictive school system employees to "randomly" have specific students they have grudges against tested.
Many NJ high school athletics have moved over to private clubs because of this law, examples of golf, the retreat of mostly wealthy white and Asian students, to soccer, which is a big mixed bag of private club teams in working class towns akin to what is common elsewhere in the world, (Polish football clubs, Brazilian clubs, Portuguese, Haitian Society clubs, etc.)
The entire concept of schooling in NJ, including this program, is so far outside the concept of "school" to most Americans it's strange to try to describe it. Mandatory fingerprinting, rfid chips on laminated passes worn around the neck on outside of clothes at all times while in school, private security firms with divisions specializing in school security contracts and hire most guards straight off of workfare rolls, "random" drug testing, restriction of out of school activities, various points where students are encouraged to turn in parents and friends for various crimes, multiple attempts by the NJEA to remove all Revolutionary War. BoR Constitution instruction from the cirriculum, etc etc.
bttt
That IS an excellent idea. However if I am not mistaken, Congress passed a law exempting themselves from random drug testing.
You want to know the best part?
They make Contractors pee in the cup when going for jobs working with the military and the military is, of course, subject to drug testing as well......
You've just described Pub Schools in the Blue Zones of California. Been this way beginning in the late 80s. And no matter what anyone tries, the CA Dems have too damned much vested interest in keeping the PROBLEMS GOING. It brings them votes, and federal dollars.
This isn't the "Whitehouses' problem. It's a parental and at most a State issue. Get off our backs and fix the border.
Problem is larger than just a "border" issue. Before I left CA, my farming pals in the foothills of the Sierra had been reporting more and more meth labs opening up. Farmers lands and produce were going up in smoke if they were anywhere near an "accident" at a meth "domestic residence". Some of these "domestic residence owners" fall under a bizarre "catch and release" program. Heck, they're probably digging tunnels...
Hmm. fascinating.
We know from a SCOTUS ruling, that illegal drugs aren't illegal in some parts of the states, according to STATE LAW. Amazing; and you may find this information; but the Federal Government has a NO ILLEGAL DRUGS policy on the books.
Listen closely now. I mean READ closely.
IF A SCHOOL, A HOME, BLAH BLAH TAKES one PENNY of Federal dollars, it is SUBJECT TO FEDERAL LAWS.
Shall I write that one out again? Tell the schools to STOP TAKING FEDERAL tax dollars, and you'll get what you think you are wanting: NO FEDERAL INTERVENTION.
The FEDS in this case are DOING WHAT WE PAY THEM TO DO. Whether you like it or not.
It isn't "personal". It's the LAW.
Raising kids is not the job of the schools, nor is it the financial responsibility of taxpayers; any parent that wants to drug test their kid can just have it done - without the school (or other government entity) being involved in ANY way.
By all means, while we're indoctrinating them into socialism, multiculturalism, and humanism, let's be sure they gain an appreciation for the finer points of the police state as well.
And testing for drugs is not about RAISING CHILDREN.
Further, you've just made my point: You don't like random drug testing in the schools? Take your kids out of pub ed schools -- to private or homschooling. Any parent can do this. And sure, you'll stay be paying for "testing" in the schools while coughing up extra funds to educate your children additionally.
And how are you on the subject of very personal survey questions being jammed down the throats of students? Asked if their parents have guns at home? Or being ferreted out for an abortion sans parental consent?
Or are you one of those making your living promoting drug-testing?
Try a group hug.
Drug dealers don't target anybody.
Drug dealers don't create addicts, addicts create dealers.
The problem is that high schools are full of low IQ people who don't belong there. Let them go, and the drugs go with them.
That's the plan.
I don't want my paycheck going to fund drug-testing kids. The schools should be employed in schooling, not introducing kids to life in a nanny state.
"I'm all for vouchers. You too?"
No. They're a sham. The courts knock them down at every opportunity, yet so-called "conservative" politicians continue to tout them. I guess it allows them to appear as if they favor school choice.
I would much prefer to see a tax credit or large tax deduction for children that roughly approximates the cost of tuition, while charging tuition at government schools.
People don't value something that they don't think that they have to pay for. It's different when you're the one who actually has to scratch the check. I personally think that most parents if given the choice would use the funds from a tax credit for private tuition or to homeschool. But the important part is they would actually have the financial wherewithal to make the choice.
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