The Prison Called School

The debate about if students involved in such activities such as Theatre, sports, and Debate through the school system should be required to undergo drug testing is a very controversial topic. Some find drug testing in schools useful believing that it discourages children from using drugs to enhance their ability to gain muscle or for personal use; however, this is not always the case. Drug testing in schools does discourage some students from using drugs for sports, and is useful in keeping many sports teams clean.                                                                        Drug testing students may be effective, however it is immoral. Schools are given the right to drug test students at will, and the student cannot refuse without risking severe punishment. Adding this to extracurricular activities will take the fun out of the activity and diminish the amount of students who sign up for such activities. (Dougherty)                                                                Students may fear a false result from simple tasks such as eating poppy seeds. The simple task of eating a poppy seed bagel or a lemon poppy muffin could cause disastrous results for the student. Eating poppy seeds in excess is known to produce a false result in drug tests for opium, which means that testing results could end up in false expulsions or detentions for otherwise innocent students. (Erowid)                                                                                        Criminals undergo drug testing as well as people in lower end jobs such as fast food and restocking in retail. Since some students already have drug testing in the work place, to test again is redundant. The students that do not undergo drug testing already are still as capable of doing drugs as the students already working. The students with jobs are just as capable since many times the student has inside sources which tell them when the drug testing will be, giving the student enough time to purge the drugs and all traces from their system. Some drugs, like marijuana can be purged from the system in very little time with intense detoxification. Other substances like Opium can be flushed from the system in as little as four to six hours notice. Drugs such as heroine are very risky to purge in such little time, sometimes resulting in death, therefore a student’s chance of passing a drug test on this drug is very unlikely. However since fewer students use heroine, the main problem is with marijuana.(Haley)                                                        Students who obtain information from inside sources may be able to detoxify their system in as little as 24 hours with the aid of ample amounts of water as well as the occasional use of supplements which claim to purge the system faster or more effectively. Water however, is the best known form of detoxification as it over hydrates the system causing the body to purge extra water, taking along with it some unwanted substances including the same chemicals which would cause the student to test positive for illegal substances. With a little notice to the student of the impending drug test, the purpose of the drug test is rendered useless.                                                Students already deal with having their lockers and personal property searched at random. Many schools bring in police dogs to sniff the lockers, suddenly putting the school in lockdown. Doing this can intimidate or scare many students, and confuse others. Students are not criminals, this is clear. Yet dogs are sent into schools, and in others the students are forced to walk through metal detectors on their way to class. Every public school has its own armed police officer, with more troublesome schools having more than one. Schools are continually resembling prisons more and more, from the stark walls to the strict teachers. Drug testing the students seems to be the next logical step for the school board towards making the schools resemble federal detention centers and less like a warm, comforting environment which best promotes learning.                                                                                                                                              The worst part of drug testing students for extracurricular activities is it seems to be going through a loop hole in the students’ rights. Outside the walls of the school, not a single person could force the student to take a drug test, not even the government without reasonable suspicion of the student being under the influence. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Veronia v. Acton that the students’ rights could be diminished so that drug testing could occur in an attempt to bring drug use down amongst the student body. (Drug Testing Students) Yet law clearly states that drug testing may only be forced when there is reasonable suspicion that the suspect is under the influence of an illegal substance. Further diminishing the student’s rights seems immoral. To treat the student like a convict is wrong.                                                               There are cases in which the Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional on the basis that it does not cause the unsupervised student any more risk than they would have been in while supervised. This logic is just. The testing of students at random for drugs is unjustified search. Many students would be tested which exhibit no signs of being on an illegal substance. This diminishing of the rights of the student is unconstitutional and yet it is being carried out regardless of the fact that it is both unnecessary and illegal. Drug testing is perfectly acceptable if the student is showing signs of being under the influence of illegal substances like that of hallucinogens, methamphetamines, or steroids. (Wilson)                                                                                In conclusion, testing students under the pretense that a great number of students are under the influence is immoral. Few students use drugs in actuality, and we should focus on those few who are exhibiting signs of drug use instead of testing the many students who are innocent. The students who do use drugs may find inside sources as to when the drug testing may be, and quickly flush what is left out of their system. The constitutionality of testing students at random during extracurricular activities is debatable, and therefore it is better to assume the student is innocent than to treat the student like a criminal.         

Citations:

Dougherty, Candidus K. "Rights of Students." Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ed. David S. Tanenhaus. Vol. 4. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 240-244. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Erowid . “Poppy Seeds” Drug Testing.  The Vaults of Erowid            http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/poppy_testing.shtml

"Rehabilitation and Treatment." Drugs. James Haley. Ed. Robert N. Golden and Fred L. Peterson. 2nd ed. New York: Facts on File, 2009. 173-181. The Truth About. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.

“Drug Testing Students” Drug Policy Alliance. Drugs, Police, and the Law. http://www.drugpolicy.org/law/drugtesting/students/

"Drug Testing." Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law. Ed. Jeffrey Wilson. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 615-619. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.