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White House pushes more schools to drug-test students
Reuters ^ | 3/19/6 | Andy Sullivan

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; doubleplusgood; drugs; drugtesting; education; govwatch; nclb; publikskoolz; schools; warondrugs; wodlist
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To: Ed_in_NJ

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.


41 posted on 03/19/2006 5:47:52 PM PST by MikefromOhio (aka MikeinIraq)
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To: FreeRadical
Your hysteria is amusing. No, I actually fought against the seatbelt laws. And I got into the habit of wearing a seatbelt LONG before "law" kicked in, and only because our dad was an absolute Martinet about seatbelts. He said he learned a lot from riding in Army Jeeps in Korea.

You buying my ticket to Cuba?

Seems to me... drug testing, to you, is like.... RAPE! How do you feel about school exams?

42 posted on 03/19/2006 5:48:04 PM PST by Alia
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To: Crackingham

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.


43 posted on 03/19/2006 5:49:21 PM PST by JerseyHighlander
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To: Kakaze

bttt


44 posted on 03/19/2006 5:50:19 PM PST by takenoprisoner
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To: unixfox
Tell ya what, let's make EVERY government employee, congress, senate, W.H., FBI, EPA, IRS, et al, piss in a cup and fire ALL of them that fail on the spot. That outta take care of about half of the riff raff we have.

That IS an excellent idea. However if I am not mistaken, Congress passed a law exempting themselves from random drug testing.

45 posted on 03/19/2006 5:51:07 PM PST by pray4liberty (School District horrors: http://totallyunjust.tripod.com)
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To: pray4liberty; unixfox

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......


46 posted on 03/19/2006 5:52:15 PM PST by MikefromOhio (aka MikeinIraq)
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To: JerseyHighlander
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.

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.

47 posted on 03/19/2006 5:52:15 PM PST by Alia
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To: Crackingham

This isn't the "Whitehouses' problem. It's a parental and at most a State issue. Get off our backs and fix the border.


48 posted on 03/19/2006 5:53:31 PM PST by n230099
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To: n230099

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...


49 posted on 03/19/2006 6:04:25 PM PST by Alia
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To: n230099
This isn't the "Whitehouses' problem

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.

50 posted on 03/19/2006 6:08:50 PM PST by Alia
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To: MikefromOhio

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.


51 posted on 03/19/2006 6:12:59 PM PST by Ed_in_NJ (Who killed Suzanne Coleman?)
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To: Crackingham

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.


52 posted on 03/19/2006 6:15:24 PM PST by NCSteve
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To: Ed_in_NJ
Not so. The students are in a "public facility" funded by state and Federal dollars. What you are suggesting is that taxpayers should have NO interest in their tax dollars going to rebuild New Orleans, for example: It's not their state or city. Federal Law doesn't work that way.

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.

53 posted on 03/19/2006 6:25:34 PM PST by Alia
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To: Kakaze
Raising kids to accept personal searches without question whether they be pissing in a cup or being inspected for their "safety" in a child seat on the side of the road, it instills in them a acceptance of always being taken care of by the nanny state.

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?

54 posted on 03/19/2006 6:27:24 PM PST by Alia
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To: Alia
Even though you are clearly of the Socialist mind set, did you read #32? Do you not understand that this DOESN"T WORK?!

Or are you one of those making your living promoting drug-testing?

55 posted on 03/19/2006 6:30:51 PM PST by Ed_in_NJ (Who killed Suzanne Coleman?)
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To: Ed_in_NJ
So you've given up debating my points in order to launch some kind of twisted-sisters personal attack which you pray will bring your buddies out of the woodwork so you can all engage in paranoid theories together?

Try a group hug.

56 posted on 03/19/2006 6:32:31 PM PST by Alia
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To: Alia
Drug dealers have been targeting younger and younger "kids"

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.

57 posted on 03/19/2006 6:34:55 PM PST by Jim Noble (And you know what I'm talkin' 'bout!)
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To: takenoprisoner
piss police will be by their homes for a sample and they wont think anything of it.

That's the plan.

58 posted on 03/19/2006 6:39:16 PM PST by genew (Fact: Political correctness is a deadly social disease.)
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To: Alia

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.


59 posted on 03/19/2006 6:42:22 PM PST by thoughtomator (Nobody would have cared if the UAE wanted to buy Macy's...)
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To: Alia

"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.


60 posted on 03/19/2006 6:42:28 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.)
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