“The only way to have a drug free school is to follow the successful program of the military and workplace”. This is stated by Rep. John E. Peterson in 2005. In today’s volatile times, drug use is becoming more casual in high schools around the country. Many schools are having to face this struggle against drug use. Thus, I affirm that Resolved: Drug testing of high school extracurricular activity participants is justified.To aid clarification in this round, I now present the following definitions asdefined by the Webster Dictionary in 2005:Extracurricular activity: not following or related to the curriculum, outside of one’s duties. Drug: a non-prescribed, illegal chemical substance that affects the central nervous system causing changes in behavior and strong dependency, addiction. Consistent: holding true as a group, not contradictory. Justice: The principal of moral rightness, fairness. The upolding of fair treatment, honor, standards, or law. My value will be safety. Safety can be defined as freedom from danger, risk or injury. Therefore, my criterion will be compliance of participants. Students joining these activities must fulfill certain responsibilities to themselves and their fellow teammates. Only with this compliance ensured, can safety of the student be upheld.Contention One: Drug testing of participants is relevant to the lowering of crime rates, and prevents threats against the safety of their fellow students. As stated in Wikipedia in 2005, One high school in Oceanside, California, conducted a study in 1997 in which they started drug testing extracurricular participants before joining the activities. Positive outcomes occurred in the school’s programs. The study showed that dr... ... middle of paper ... ...they quit and then they were to be retested in ninety days. If the student tested positive again after the ninety days, he or she would be expelled from school and forced to enroll in substance abuse classes. These policies offer consequences to scare students, but more need to be added. The new policy would allow students three strikes before they are expelled. The first time a student fails the test, the student’s parents would be notified of what their child has done and the student would be retested. If the student fails the second test, they would be suspended and forced to attend a substance abuse class while on suspension. If that did not work and the student failed the test for a third time, the student would be expelled and put in a detox program. With those consequences, the students would decrease their use of illegal drugs if not stop it all together.
Fay, Calvina L. "Student Drug Testing Is Part of the Solution." Behavioral Health Management 24 (2004): 13. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Kids of all ages are aware of and trying drugs. Most kids feel they have to join in to fit in, when a better solution would be to tell someone who can help. As children we are taught not to tell on one another or we are a tattletale or snitch. We need to stop the drug use before it stops our children. We need the kids to tell us where it is coming from and how we can help.
I think that the system where they only test high school athletes is good. These students and their parents are informed and have to sign consent papers. This means that all parties are informed of what is expected and the consequences. If we were to do this with all of the school, it will cost a lot money, time, and paper work to get the approval of parents. Random drug testing will cause major problems in school attendance. I honestly believe that some students would rather not go to school if they knew that they could be randomly selected. Teacher’s opinions and suspicions of a student can bring up issues as well. For example, a teacher can mistake a teenager going through a hard time as a student using drugs. This can cause more problems for the student. Issues like these will definitely cause mistrust between students and teachers. Despite being caught many students will still continue their drug use. I believe that they have to choose to stop their drug use or else it won’t work. Random drug testing might be able to work with a system that somehow informs everybody of what can happen and the process of the drug testing. This can involve a signed agreement of confidentiality between the faculty and families. Also referrals plan for the parents to use to help make a decision for their child if tested positive for drug
My value criterion is The Rule of Law, which states that a government should be ran by the law, not arbitrary decisions, because it is the best tool with which to measure if my value is being upheld in this debate.
The procedure of testing student for drugs, alcohol and tobacco before every school day should be allowed. The fact that the subject of drug testing has even been brought up is a sign that illegal substances have become troublesome in high school environments. Therefore, school officials should be allowed to use any means necessary to discourage the use of these illegal substances, even if it means that the school officials could become dangerously close to violating the students’ constitutional rights. A student under the influence of drugs or alcohol could endanger his or her fellow students or faculty and that student should not be allowed to attend that school. School officials must protect those who are at that school, so having a student whose actions are being controlled by illegal substances would not be the best way to protect the students and faculty. Students should be tested everyday for drugs, alcohol, and tobacco so that the students are healthier, the students have better grades, and the students never start doings things that could have a negative impact on their future.
In a study done in 2015, Dr. Levy of the AAP, said approximately there is only 1 positive for every 125 students. So if the school spends $20,000, there would only be 6 to 7 students who would test positive (Levy). Also another study was done in 2013 by Dan Romer, PhD, and Dr. Sznitman. The two conducted 361 interviews with high school students. The study shows, that most students are not impacted by the drug test and also Romer has noted that most students who take substances, don't do extracurricular activities. So the tests would be useless on students who don’t even take drugs. Another reason why drug testing students is bad because it is a waste of time. To get the results back, it takes approximately three days, in the three days, many things can be done. For an example, football, the school could hold practices for the students to improve on their skills. But, the school would be waiting on the results to come back in.
About six years ago, The University of Mississippi recruited a quarterback by the name of Jared Foster who was kicked off the team and arrested in 2008 for distributing anabolic steroids (Associated Press 7). Foster doped in high school which led to him gaining over 25 pounds in two months to impress college recruiters. Foster was then recruited by The University of Mississippi, where he was soon arrested and served jail time for giving a man an anabolic steroid called Nandrolone (Associated Press 7). The use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs is rising due to the extreme competition in college sports. Jared Foster did not think he was doing anything different than
In an editorial published by the Washington Post titled “School Drug Tests: Costly, Ineffective, and More Common than You Think,” Christopher Ingraham states that drug testing students in middle or high school is costly and ineffective. Drug tests do not work and do not influence the students to stop using drugs. Leading them to become a waste of money. Schools waste $20,000 worth of taxpayers’ money just for it to go to hundreds of drug tests and only 6 of them to show positive. The money could go to better the school, renovate classrooms, or buy computers and textbooks for the school and students.
“An aggressive drug-testing program would cut down on certain abuses, but it’s never going to catch everyone, or even close to everyone” Malcolm Gladwell. The above quote demonstrates the ongoing debate concerning mandatory drug testing in schools. Issitt and Ballaro, two of the many people engaged in this debate, provide articles on the different sides of the argument. On one hand, Issitt strongly believes that drug tests are effective and that schools should enforce drug testing on all students. On the other hand, Ballaro agrees with the above quote that drug testing “is never going to catch everyone”. She strongly disagrees with mandatory drug testing as a measure to reduce drug abuse. Both Issit and Ballaro provide an abundance of reasons
The second reason why students should be drug tested so parents can be aware of their kids and ask their child/son why they are doing those types of drugs at school or outdoor. Once the child tells their parents why they do it then they might stop doing drugs due to a healthy behavior lifestyle
The school district takes on a tremendous responsibility to watch over other people's children, many would expect a safe environment. According to Graham Boyd ¨Just as parents and students can expect schools to offer protection from violence, racism, and other forms of abuse, so do they have the right to expect a learning environment free from the influence of illegal drugs.¨ The learning environment should be safe for everybody. Many people often question what happens if a school does find a student using illegal drugs. The goal of the school district isn't to punish the student, but to stop the use of drugs amongst the students. John Walters wrote in his paper ¨ It is important to understand that the goal of school-based drug testing is not to punish students who use drugs.¨ However consequences would not be a bad idea, for example, the school could limit playing time or suspend the student from extracurricular activities. The punishment could help the student stay further away from drugs. Another responsibility of the school district is to respect the student's rights of privacy. While people say the drug test are an intrusion of privacy, the test results are only shared with the student, parents, and school administrators. According to John Walters ¨Schools have a responsibility to respect students' privacy, so it is vital that only the people who need to know the test
The people for drug testing believe very strongly that it will help fix today's drug epidemic. Their main points are to say that random drug testing can prevent student drug abuse, while also stating how necessary they believe it is. According to John Walters, the nation’s drug czar who is in charge of fighting illicit drug use, “Drug testing is not a punishment, but a way to identify and treat young drug users” (“Student Drug Testing is Necessary”). Studies have showed that random drug
According to teenrehabcenter.org, eight percent of 8th graders in the U.S have done drugs. The website compiled this information because of drug tests. The New York Times, reported that some middle schools are demanding student athletes to do drug tests. While most people disagree with middle schools testing athletes because it violates their privacy, middle school athletes should be drug tested, and also all students including athletes should be randomly drug tested.
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.
Mandatory drug tests have proven to help teenagers reduce the use of drugs and alcohol in their daily lives. If young people get used to it when they are young, it’s proven that they would have a difficult time trying to loss their addiction to the substance. Helps the person without any criminal chargers but with all the help needed. They even have different types of drug tests to show the time period of when the person might have taken a drug recently.