White House pushes more schools to drug-test students

Reuters ^ | 3/19/6 | Andy Sullivan

[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.

[wireplay]

Yeah, but society has had alcohol forever but we manage.

Never underestimate the human being's capacity to do what is right versus what is easy. Human's tend to underestimate the next generation and overstate their own contribution. They've done this for as long as we have recorded history. Always trust the human spirit and what we can accomplish.

No, I won't introduce my kids to drugs: that was wrong conclusion/assumption on your part.

Forrest Gump is on. I would want my kids to be like him. Honorable even if everyone else doesn't understand at times.

- Alan

[wireplay]

Yeah, it is really that simple. I raise my kids, I don't delegate it.

[thoughtomator]

The part of "illegal" that I "don't get" is that laws are bounded by the basic contract (the Constitution) and while laws against illegal immigration are stipulated therein (Art. 4, Sec 4) in a clear and undisputable manner, the best the WoD can do is hang its hat on the very same "general welfare" clause responsible for every other aspect of socialism in the USA.

[Alia]

Those who do drugs in high school are not the ones doing after school activities at school

I'm not so sure this is true. I began listing off all the types of groups who meet after school, and in various parts of the country -- and I'm not sure that is true.

[Alia]

No, I won't introduce my kids to drugs: that was wrong conclusion/assumption on your part.

Not for a second did I think or posit that's something you would do. I was asking you your thoughts on the subject about parents who do introduced and condone their kids taking drugs.

And there are plenty of kids, annually, who lose their lives to alcohol. I do trust the human spirit. I just don't trust a lot of adults who would take advantage of kids.

[Paul C. Jesup]

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

Actually it is 'rape', the 'rape of trust'.

This teachs children that they are held to a harsher standard than previous generations. That they are "guilty until proven innocence", instead of "innocent until proven guilty".

If you teach children that they don't have any rights, nor freedoms; they in turn will not respect, nor acknowledge anyone else's rights and freedoms.

It is a recipe for disaster that is probably going to burn the older gennerations.

[Rudder]

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.

Sheer idiocy!

[Alia]

Children not having any rights? Are you being serious?

It's part of the reason education has gotten so awful: The kids have rights, so many rights, education is not education. Grade inflation, subjective tests, rainforest math, ad nauseum. And somehow drug testing is going to hurt their feelings? They are taught America is evil. They are taught their parents are stupid. But that old drug test will definitely destroy their fragile egos.

Mr. Jesup: I cannot follow your line of thinking.

And I think the "battle" on preserving public ed is over and done with. Pub ed lost. And its a sad tragic tale of so-called adults corrupting the system.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Children not having any rights? Are you being serious?

Yes, children have no rights from Zero Tolerance to the Surpreme Court ruling in early 90's that children had no rights.

The problem is teachers and school boards have to many powers and a complete lack of responsiblity and accountablity for their actions, or lack there of.

[R. Scott]

The push should be for a 100% accurate test. Even a test that’s 99.9% accurate will result in one false positive out of 1000 samples. Another push should be to have mandatory random testing for all politicians.

[MineralMan]

"Somehow, I don't think that the students who participate in after school activities are the ones using drugs.
"

Hmm...meet the band geeks.

[ccwoman]

"Somehow, I don't think that the students who participate in after school activities are the ones using drugs"

EXACTLY!! Study after study shows that children involved with afterschool programs are much less likly to use drugs.
At our school any student caught using alcohol,drugs or even tobacco, in or out of school is removed from the team.

[TKDietz]

"Somehow, I don't think that the students who participate in after school activities are the ones using drugs."

Maybe if they turned things around drug tested the kids that don't participate in in these extracurricular activities they'd encourage more of them to get more involved in school activities and stay out of trouble. It seems like drug testing just the kids participating in these activities will discourage at risk kids from doing these things that might help them stay out of trouble and get a better, more well rounded education.

[steve-b]

It is simply conditioning for further socialist nationalist control by imbeciles

*** DING DING DING *** No more calls; we have a winner!

(And, surprisingly, some of the imbeciles are right here instead of their natural DUmpster habitat....)

[jmc813]

Youngsters, in the drug culture, grow up to be VERY EXPENSIVE adults.

Why not kill welfare instead of becoming the pee police?

[jmc813]

It would be really nice if Bush would come clean about his own past drug use before forcefully finding out about everyone else's use.

[Nate505]

What do we want? Another Toronto?

Yeah, god forbid our cities are as awful as Toronto, with their 1.whatever murder per capita rates (as opposed to the US national average of 5.whatever).

The US would be a much better place if more cities were like Toronto over here. Maybe I could walk in just about any area of my city without the fear of getting killed or mugged.

[Just another Joe]

Ah yes, boil that frog.
But don't dump the frog into boiling water, just ratchet the heat up a little at a time.

The frog thinks he's in a hot tub having a good time - until he dies.

[TKDietz]

"During the Clinton years, especially, the borders were made porous. Drug dealers got light sentences in activist judiciary courts."

snip

"Drug dealers have been targeting younger and younger "kids"."

What are you basing these claims on? Did the borders become more porous during the 1990's or have they always been porous and we are only now starting to worry about it? Seems to me that they've always been porous. And drug laws actually became tougher and the level of enforcement of these laws actually increased in the 1990's. Just look at prison statistics, drug interdiction budgets, and drug arrest statistics. We saw huge increases in the number of people being arrested for drugs along with huge increases in the number of people imprisoned for drug crimes during those years. I'm talking huge increases. We didn't go soft on drugs in the 90's. And as for the claim that drug purveyors are targeting younger and younger kids, if that is the case, why have average ages for initiation into drug use been increasing while per capita drug use overall for teens, especially younger teens, has been going down? I'm not sure what you are basing your claims on, but I don't think they are based in reality.

"What rights, do you think, a student is losing in taking these random drug tests?"

I don't know what to think about drug testing kids. I don't like it very much because in order for it to work they have to test them frequently and they have to actually watch them pee in the cups. If they'll only get maybe one drug test a year few will be deterred. If the people administering the tests don't actually watch them fill the cups with pee, those that use drugs will bring someone else's urine in. People cheat on these tests like crazy. They do things like bring a bag or a bottle of someone else's urine in keeping it warm with a disposable hand warming packet. at least one lady in our local drug court was actually sticking a bag of someone else's urine up inside her and then poking a whole in the bag so it would look like she was actually peeing in the cup when they watched her. Teens aren't stupid and those who use drugs will cheat on the tests if they aren't watched carefully and the whole thing will just be an ugly exercise in futility.

I don't want my kids using drugs, but I don't like the idea of the school forcing them to drop their pants and watching them go to the bathroom. I don't like the sound of that at all. I'd want to have good reason to believe that they were using drugs before I put them through that. I don't know that teens have the right to keep law enforcement or school officials from looking at their genitalia without probable cause, but they ought to have that right. If I find out they're going to start doing that at my children's schools I'll jerk them out of there in a second.

[Alia]

Because welfare would be re-invented by another name.