drug testing in schools

[Xojins]

I don't see anything wrong with it. You want to get high, do it outside of school and don't do a bunch of extracurricular activities. I mean, I'm sure using weed once or twice wouldn't affect things too much, but the constant potheads have chosen their path, and they need to deal with the consequences.

So basically you're saying that teens who smoke weed with any regularity shouldn't be allowed to participate in school activities? Not everyone who smokes goes to school/school activities while high, so why should they be excluded?

Because they're breaking the law/school rules?

So the response to that is to isolate them? When most people break the rules, they get a detention or have to do community service. And how would they be breaking school rules if they never came to school or school events high, and didn't have any paraphernalia?

What students do in/during school definitely is the school's business, but what goes on outside of it is most certainly not (unless it's negatively affecting someone at school in a serious way).

 

[Zykon TheLich]

However, as Methamphetamine is "only" a schedule II drug in 49 states (It's schedule I in CA) it legally has an "acceptable medical usage" though I'm clueless as to exactly what that is. (Severe ADHD and bad reaction(s)and/or high tolerance to normal Amphetamine would be my only guess, though that sounds unlikely.)

Look up Desoxyn (althogh it is not, as you put it, the 'fun kind')

 

[Enigmers]

I think the testing is a step in the right direction.

why? the people I went to school with who were the school kids that were drinking and doing drugs are now working in a Cinema serving people popcorn, thats not such a bad thing, people need popcorn while watching transformers. The higher class intellects certainly will not serve popcorn or work in a Cinema.

Pah to those high brow people, pah I say, well wheres your education now?, I get all the popcorn I want while working in Virgin Cinema, so HAHA! I win.

Because if they got kicked out of school sooner, they could have been serving popcorn potentially years earlier than they did.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I like the idea. Maybe they might not do it well, but I still like the idea.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Well seeing as my friends only get high out of school (I don't smoke so I'm the exception) (and yes, I know that cannabis can stay in your system for quite a while), and ALWAYS act weird anyway, I don't think it's going to be much of a problem for them.

 

[jebbo]

To be honest I think that the idea of schools implementing a mandatory drug test must, or at least should, breach some kind of privacy rights, whether they are legal or just moral.

Its been a good few years since I was at school/college but I knew plenty of people, myself included, that partook in either underage or illegal drug taking. And that was at a grammar school, god knows what it was like at the local comps! It didn't massively affect anyone I knew, in fact a joint before Religious Education always encouraged a healthy debate and in the case of my Business Studies GCSE exam an A*!!! =)

I can understand perhaps the purpose behind a drug test in the event of antisocial or dangerous behaviour, but to impose one on anyone just wishing to join a particular social group just seems wrong. But then again I am a bit of anti-establishment hippy type haha

 

[GothmogII]

I love the idea. Furthermore, I hope they make a harsh example of the kids who test positive. The hardest thing for a parent to do (this according to friends I have who have kids, and some of these friends are Boomers with kids close to my age) is to trust that your kids won't fall victim to peer pressure or see that there are no consequences to the actions you try to teach them not to do. Good kids go wrong because discipline outside the home breaks down so easily.

Create a regime where there are real penalties for drugs, underage drinking, teen sex (apart from pregnancy, a penalty in itself), and various other teenage acts of rebellion and you invariably force teens to stop acting like spoiled children and start acting like the adults they so desperately want over-thirty folks like me to think of them as.

Umm...you mean all the things adults regularly apply themselves too? -_^ So, punishment for the things that, were you a few years older for the most part would be perfectly legal and acceptable? Right.

They could -tell- you about these things, and how to engage in their use properly, but no, that clearly would cause you to take them up in the first place, so, beyond a seminar or two telling you how these things are terrible and evil you'll get nothing useful. (Which by the way seems contradictory, why have such seminars dissuading people off certain things -because- they're younger, and yet keeping fully with the expectation that most will make use of the same once they reach an arbitrarily defined age.)

 

[ffxfriek]

I see no real problem with it. Too many kids these days getting hooked in high school and wasting away the rest of their lives with the stuff.

Once they're on their own, they can do whatever they want. When they're at a phase where they need to be educated, they should lay off.

If there are school rules against smoking/drinking at such a time where alcohol will affect your ability to perform at school/taking drugs, then why not?

Either you're guilty, in which case you're breaking the rules and are afraid of finally getting caught or you're innocent and thus have nothing to fear.

both are excellent answers. if you have done no wrong then you have nothing to lose.

 

[GothmogII]

I see no real problem with it. Too many kids these days getting hooked in high school and wasting away the rest of their lives with the stuff.

Once they're on their own, they can do whatever they want. When they're at a phase where they need to be educated, they should lay off.

If there are school rules against smoking/drinking at such a time where alcohol will affect your ability to perform at school/taking drugs, then why not?

Either you're guilty, in which case you're breaking the rules and are afraid of finally getting caught or you're innocent and thus have nothing to fear.

both are excellent answers. if you have done no wrong then you have nothing to lose.

There is the issue of engendering trust between the students and faculty. Though many of you would state that, being under 18 etc. they have minimal rights, and that having these kinds of tests is only a benefit in that, it can vindicate the students who haven't used drugs and give the possibility for providing help/care or on the more extreme side, weeding out those who have.

The other side of the coin is, this is basically the school authorities saying: We don't trust you. Whether you want this or not is irrelevant, if you refuse you are guilty. If not and you test positive measures will be taken against you, regardless of the circumstances (bar medical reasons of course).

I don't particularly understand it though, what makes these measures okay in a school but not the general populace of a country? Is it that schools being generally more condensed, that it is simply easier and more cost effective? Would government's issue mandatory testing to everyone else if only they had the resources to do so? As a few have stated, that's not legal. So..why is it here?

I mean, again, minimal rights, students are technically under the care of the staff in loco parentis, however, what's the lesson here? That you can be illegally searched and tested? That, not only do you not receive the same rights as a minor that you would as an adult, but that the few you do have can be violated in the name of your safety?

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

That's wrong we live in a country with civil liberties. The government cannot search us without probable cause. This is one big step to having big brother telling us what to do.

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

I love the idea. Furthermore, I hope they make a harsh example of the kids who test positive. The hardest thing for a parent to do (this according to friends I have who have kids, and some of these friends are Boomers with kids close to my age) is to trust that your kids won't fall victim to peer pressure or see that there are no consequences to the actions you try to teach them not to do. Good kids go wrong because discipline outside the home breaks down so easily.

Create a regime where there are real penalties for drugs, underage drinking, teen sex (apart from pregnancy, a penalty in itself), and various other teenage acts of rebellion and you invariably force teens to stop acting like spoiled children and start acting like the adults they so desperately want over-thirty folks like me to think of them as.

Umm...you mean all the things adults regularly apply themselves too? -_^ So, punishment for the things that, were you a few years older for the most part would be perfectly legal and acceptable? Right.

They could -tell- you about these things, and how to engage in their use properly, but no, that clearly would cause you to take them up in the first place, so, beyond a seminar or two telling you how these things are terrible and evil you'll get nothing useful. (Which by the way seems contradictory, why have such seminars dissuading people off certain things -because- they're younger, and yet keeping fully with the expectation that most will make use of the same once they reach an arbitrarily defined age.)

Yeah because it's not like any adults did those things when they were teenagers. That guy needs to realise that some parents may be fine with what their kids do. I know my parents would not have mind me smoking pot as long as I didn't do it with their money. This is just another way for the government to instill "morals" into its populace.

 

[Amnestic]

That's wrong we live in a country with civil liberties. The government cannot search us without probable cause. This is one big step to having big brother telling us what to do.

Still wondering if people learned anything in debate classes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope_fallacy]

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

That's wrong we live in a country with civil liberties. The government cannot search us without probable cause. This is one big step to having big brother telling us what to do.

Still wondering if people learned anything in debate classes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope_fallacy]

I was also taught that slippery slopes can happen and when dealing with things that infringe on our rights it's better for us not to find out.

 

[neoman10]

I like the idea!
I'd be ok with taking a drug test, and I'd totally permit them to test my kids, provided I had any that age.

this, and also in my old school in DC, we all did it, ALL

 

[Malkure]

It's really not a big deal... Seriously for sports you need a physical which with it comes a drug test. Adding a drug test to the other extracurricular activities does not seem that bad to me.

*addendum* Seriously just don't smoke a month before your damn test. That easy.

 

[neoman10]

That's wrong we live in a country with civil liberties. The government cannot search us without probable cause. This is one big step to having big brother telling us what to do.

learn your Supreme Court cases

 

[Slayer_2]

I go to school and I think its a great idea. Only morons or crackheads go to school high.

 

[ThreeWords]

Whew! For a moment I thought drugs testing meant testing drugs on pupils.

As for the real question, it makes sense, and they have the right to, but I disapprove because I'd rather be high at school, should I choose to be (Does that make sense?)

Go back to the old school way of education, that if your grade is bad, you FAIL. You get held back a grade, having to repeat the grade over and over until your marks merit a pass. No more of this bullshit of passing a student so they don't feel ostracized for being a dumbass in a class full of kids younger than them. No more of this worthless education system where a successful completion of your GED is meaningless because an honor roll student's GED is the same as the kid who simply showed up every day and slept through class. And when all the druggies are being held back while their classmates progress, maybe they'll quit the drugs and clean up their act. If they don't, well, enjoy your McBurgerflipper job because that's what is in store for failures.

Oh, and bring back truancy officers. No letting kids simply drop out, or not show. If Johnny Potsmoker wants to waste his time being a loser and a failure, he still has to be at school under supervision until he turns 18. If he doesn't show, the cops go looking for him.

At the risk of sounding like a contrary idiot, I agree with you on these parts. If you don't learn something well enough, you should do it again, despite feeling like a fool. In fact, fear of embarrassment might help people pay attention in school.

Truancy officers are also a good idea, because being truant either wastes your own money or that of the public (depending on the type of school in question). Either way, people will appreciate kids being made to put said money to good use

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

I go to school and I think its a great idea. Only morons or crackheads go to school high.

You do realise that you don't have to had just smoked pot for it to show up in a drug test right? You could have smoked it over the weekend during spring/christmas break and have it show up in a drug test. I don't do drugs but I do see an infringement on my rights.