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Drug Testing

In: English and Literature

Submitted By nursybeth
Words 697
Pages 3
Beth Mack
Prof. Wayland
English B50 T/Th 1-3
8 March 2014
Essay #1
Drug Testing in High, Pro or Con? There is a lot of controversy today on whether or not drug testing in high school is appropriate. There are many things to consider when making this decision, like constitutional rights and privacy, cost, and even if doing random drug tests will change the problem (drug problem). Los Angeles Times writer David G. Savage asks in the article “Justices Consider School Drug Tests,” “Could routine drug tests, like metal detectors, soon become an accepted part of daily life at many American high schools?” Drugs have become a major problem with children, but not all of them are experimenting with them. Many people believe that it is against the child’s 4th Amendment rights, which we all know protects people from unreasonable searches and seizure, that being said, unless the child is coming to school either “high” or “stoned,” has actual drugs on his person or has been known for drug use, doing a drug test is intrusive and a waste of time. Economic cost is another issue. According to M. H Davis in “Facts and Statistics on Random Drug Testing of High School Students” website www.everydaylife.globalpost.com, “The average drug test cost between $15 and $35, and at high schools administering tests to all students, the costs add up quickly.” So if there is a class of 1000 children, there is a bare minimum of $15,000. I’m sure the school systems have a lot more educations things that the school could benefit from rather than drug testing. Besides the costs you have to factor in the accuracy of the drug tests. While most drug test are fairly accurate, there can be false positives. If a person wanted to try and change the outcome of his test, there are certain ways that he may try. For instance, drinking an excess amount of water will dilute whatever’s in his body, including sodium levels, which is not safe. There are vitamins like niacin and B3; these vitamins help metabolize your body, in return cleaning his system out. Some will go as far as using someone else urine or buying synthetic urine, but nowadays people are not getting away with the last one as easily. That I know from personal experience of being a nurse who has done drug testing on patients and from having many friends that are nurses that do drug testing on a daily basis. Then there is even the question if doing drug testing will change the problem. Just like Justice Antonin Scalia said, “Students are kids. You’re dealing with children. You’re not dealing with adults” (qtd. in Savage). You have to remember that you are just dealing with children, and unless you go at things in the right way, you could cause more harm than good. Say your child does have a drug problem and you bombard them with a drug test; that could cause the child to push farther in to other things, harder drugs, try different ways to approach the problem if there is one. Try positive communication versus just throwing a drug test his way. If your child doesn’t have a drug problem and you drug test him, he may think you don’t trust him and think, “They think I’m using drugs, so I might as well try them.” Then you have the beginning of a whole new problem that could have easily been avoided. Drug testing, if done in the proper way and with proper reason, can be beneficial toward the student, the student’s family and the school. While the 4Th Amendment protects them legally, we as parents and society have to protect them physically, and while I nor my son were never put in this situation, many have. We just have to make sure that it is done in a manner that is effective and protective.
Works Cited
Davis, M.H.” Facts and Statistics on Random Drug Testing of High School Students”. globalpost. 2014. Web. 9 Feb 2014
Savage, David G. “Justice Considers School Drug Tests.” Los Angeles Times 29 March 1995: n. Pag. Print.
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