Drug Testing In Schools

The right of schools to randomly test students for drugs has been debated in the courts for years. In a landmark 1995 decision Vernonia School District v. Acton, the US Supreme Court ruled that schools could test student athletes for drug use. Three years later the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (covering Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin) extended the right to test all participants in extracurricular activities, but in 2000 the Indiana Supreme Court banned such testing where the student concerned was not suspected of taking drugs. In 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that drug testing was permissible for students involved in “competitive” extracurricular activities. Does society’s desire to combat a growing drug problem override the right to privacy?

PROS
Drug use among teenagers is a clear and present problem. Current measures to tackle drugs at the source (i.e., imprisoning dealers and breaking the supply chain) are not succeeding. It is especially important to protect teenagers at an impressionable age and at the time when their attitude to education greatly affects their entire lives.

Some sacrifice of human rights is necessary to tackle the drug problem. Students who do not take drugs have nothing to fear. The purpose of random drug testing is not so much to catch offenders but to prevent all students from offending in the first place. Peer pressure is the primary cause of experimentation with drugs.

Discouraging drug use among athletes, model students, etc., sends a powerful message to the entire student body. Urine, hair, and breath samples can be used to detect use of most common drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines.

CONS
 Our justice system is based on the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty. To enforce random drug testing (thereby invading the privacy of students who are not suspected of drug use) is to view them as guilty until proven innocent.

Nothing justifies the sacrifice of the human rights of innocent people. Innocent students do have something to fear—the violation of privacy and loss of dignity caused by a drug test. Other methods of preventing drug abuse are less invasive. These include encouraging extracurricular activities, fostering better relations with parents, tackling the problems of poverty and safety, and so on.

Teenagers, especially drug-taking teenagers, are attracted by rebellion and the chance of beating the system. Draconian, Big Brother–style tactics of random drug testing will only provoke resentment and encourage students to break the law. Peer pressure increases as they unite against school authorities. Drug users will only turn to drugs that are more difficult to test, such as “designer” drugs, or use masking agents before being tested.
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