Students Tested for Tobacco Use

Newsday.com ^ | October 7, 2002 | By GREG GIUFFRIDA

[metesky]

VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. -- Breath mints won't cut it anymore for students who have been smoking in the bathroom -- some schools around the country are administering urine tests to teenagers to find out whether they have been using tobacco.

Opponents say such testing violates students' rights and can keep them out of the extracurricular activities they need to stay on track. But some advocates say smoking in the boys' room is a ticket to more serious drug use.

[Still Thinking]

And what about students who are exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke...

That's nothing. What about all the impressionable minds exposed to tyranny first hand!

[Still Thinking]

The irony is almost too thick to cut. I assume that enrollment in school is contingent on the students being willing to give a sample, as the district can't legally take it by force, so they would need some kind of club, or else all the kids, smoking or not, would simply tell them to FO. So the same "edjimicators" who I'm sure insist that all home schooled chil-run are damned to Hell, are now saying that if you're unwilling to give us a sample of your bodily fluids, you're not good enough to go to our school!! (Although we may still collect from your parents the taxes which pay to operate the school.)

[Anti-Bubba182]

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[The Other Harry]

pinging...

[Bobby777]

I hate smoking ... just HATE it ... gotta admit ... but this constant fascination with the bodily fluids and bodily wastes of strangers is beyond bizarre ...

one can now make a career out of this ...

"well, little Johnny, when you did first know you wanted to work with the waste products of another human being?"

[wingnuts'nbolts]

This a gross invasion of thier rights. I am horrified! Who the sam hill do these administrators think they are?

[ladylib]

Good for them!

[ladylib]

Public schools are public schools no matter where they are. They are actually government schools run by bureacrats.

[citizenK]

Drug testing is an industry. The testing of kids for nicotine (and other substances) represents a growth segment for this industry, which is in heavy collusion with our corporatist system of government. At the end of the day, kids have no rights and they have to be in school, so the bladder cops in our society see school kids as a captive target for testing. I foresee many social problems arising from these intrusive and overhanded policies, including the encouragement and fostering of even more rebelliousness in some teenagers and more conformity (to socialist policies) by others. If you treat teens as criminals don't be surprised if they act out in (other) more destructive criminal ways.

[ladylib]

You can be fined for disrupting the class in some districts in Texas. Don't do it!

[NittanyLion]

I don't think that my peers are criminals but in all essonce they dissrupt the people in the community. But my main concern is that the majority of the "cool" or "in" crowd pople park on residental streets where hard working individuals are trying to leave and make a living. They park in fron tof their houses and disrupt their lives by standing in congregations and lighting up.

Are the folks who live in these residences concerned about these "cool" crowd people? If so, I would suggest they petition for a parking change to these residential streets, disallowing school parking. This is clearly NOT a reason to nicotine test in the school. But I admire your concern for these "hard working individuals".

but you can see that huge cloud of smoke from at least 50 yards away and it gets on my clothes as well. people think im a smoker and its just not my thing and my group of "nerdy" or smart people tend to disown me because they think I smoke.

Ah, now we come to it! Your concern is not for the hardworking folks to whom you alluded earlier, but rather for yourself. Understandable in some respects, but why not simply come out and say so in the first place?

While we're on the subject, whose fault is it that the "nerdy" people disown you? Their fault, or the smokers'?

Most of the students who smoke actually disrespect students like me and even the teachers. But i also do that time to time correcting one of my liberal teachers when they go off on some subject liek attacking Iraq or this NJ thing.

Is the smoking itself the root cause of this disrespect? Will nicotine testing address the problem? If not, why are we advocating nicotine testing?

I'm also proud to have a part time job working 8 hours a week at out retirement community as a host. I see my money shrink as the taxes take more and more money. Welcome to a lifetime of misery. I'm already miserable I have to deal with teachers and grades, you don't know the half of it when i wear my SORE LOSERMAN shirt to school.

You should be proud. Always remember that a portion of that tax money goes to fund programs meant to dictate lifestyle choices to the rest of us. The very types of programs you're advocating here on this thread. One cannot logically advocate government intervention in certain behaviors, but not others. Something to think about...

[headsonpikes]

"Drug testing is an industry."

Not just any industry, but a key growth industry in a socialist economy, such as America's has become.

Not everyone can be a prison guard or lawyer, but everyone can profit from an active progressive state.

Well, that's the theory, anyway. ;^)

[Trailerpark Badass]

but hey at least they are making my taxes stay where they are and not go up.

You don't really think that cigarette tax revenue keeps other taxes from going up, do you?

Ah, the innocence of youth! ;0)

[citizenK]

Corporatism is a form of socialism.

Corporatism is a mode of operation for "capitalist" states whereby major interest groups (i.e., special interest groups) share power with the elected representative government. Actually, in our system, the government acts as the "power broker" between competing capitalist and labor groups. However, fringe groups attempting to control the behavior of others, for whatever reason, have entered the fray and for given issues hold various levels of influence over legislative agendas in our country. For example, the temperance movement reached its peak nearly 100 years ago, and their influence lead to the 18th Ammendment (Prohibition). Now these special interests run the gambit from racism (a.k.a., affirmative action or the more insidious term "diversity"), to environmentalism, to anti-smoking and prohibitionists of all kinds, each trying to influence and control various industries that make up the productive element of our society.

Socialists and busy-bodies by any other name, but if we want to be more specific, well, there you are.

[metesky]

If you treat teens as criminals don't be surprised if they act out in (other) more destructive criminal ways.

Like they say, got the name, play the game.

In for a dime, in for a dollar.

[metesky]

I see.

[Great Dane]

But some advocates say smoking in the boys' room is a ticket to more serious drug use.

Good grief, what nonsense.

[Great Dane]

And what about students who are exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke...

OH please, this one won't wash.

[maxwell]

"Students tested for tobacco use"... BWAHAHAAAAA! Yep, one smoke and they're on their way to HELL, y'all... They'll be doin' crack next...

[Great Dane]

but you can see that huge cloud of smoke from at least 50 yards away and it gets on my clothes as well. people think im a smoker and its just not my thing and my group

All this from 50 yards away, my my, can I interest you in a portable plastic bubble. ?