Drug Testing In Public Schools

Student Drug Testing

Many schools across the country have brought attention to the idea of drug testing students. The interest in student drug testing may be the result of the recent increase of drug use among high school students. Many teachers, parents and community’s members are for the drug testing, while most students and some parents feel that it would be a violation of students’ rights, trust, and view it as not effective. Although some benefits may come from drug testing students in public schools, those benefits do not outweigh the problems that result in mandating drug testing.

History of Drug Testing

In June 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in support of random interscholastic student athlete drug testing( Franz). In 2002, the

Typically, it uses different drug testing kits to detect the presence of drug metabolites in the person’s body such as urine test, saliva test, and hair test. Many schools have turned to urine testing as their testing option because unlike hair and saliva it can be defendable in court. The certain drugs screened for may vary from school to school, but most often drugs like: amphetamines, valium, cocaine, marijuana, methadone, opiates, tobacco, and alcohol are screened for (“All you Need to Know About School Drug

Drug testing is for early detection. Drug testing helps detect those who are abusing drugs find help quickly. School drug testing minimizes the possibility of students getting in trouble. Tiffany John the author of “Should students be drug tested?” says “students have a built-in reason to resist peer pressure, a well-known reason why kids experiment with drugs” (“Should students be drug tested?”). Students may use school drug testing as a reason to say no to drugs. Many people believe drug testing is an invasion of privacy, but the results of the test will always remain private. Many also believe the results are turned over to police which also is false. Results are not turned over to the law enforcement instead discussed with parents so as a family they can decide the type of drug treatment necessary. Drug abuse is a problem all over the United States. In “National Institute on Drug Abuse” it is stated that in 2013, there was an estimate of 24.6 million Americans aged 12 or older (9.4 percent of the population) has used an illicit drug in the past month (“National Institute on Drug Abuse”). Drug testing is to solve the drug abuse problem at such a young age. Ryan Lacey the author of “The K12 Testing Dilemma” focuses on a town that is struggling with an opiate abuse problem. In 2015 a Belpre, Ohio student lost their life due to a drug overdose. This would be the last straw for