spini4
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 795
What Maryellen Stratmann heard at her youngest son’s freshman orientation a few weeks ago was music to the Springfield, Mo., mother’s ears: His Catholic high school would be conducting random drug testing on all students.
Her older son also has random drug testing at his public high school, but only for kids who participate in extracurricular activities. To Stratmann and her husband — both physicians who have worked in ERs and witnessed firsthand the effects of drug overdoses and other drug-related problems — the more testing the better.
“It might help identify a teen who needs help,” she reasons. “We also think it makes the campus a safer place, since drugs can interfere with an individual's ability to make good decisions.”
After two Supreme Court decisions upholding the constitutionality of random drug testing and an increase in funding by the Bush Administration to administer the urine tests, more schools across the nation are starting to consider this a feasible method to convey an anti-drug message. Many private schools are testing entire student bodies, and numerous public schools are testing students involved in extracurricular activities (e.g., sports, yearbook committees or even to obtain a parking pass).
Last year, a survey of superintendents by University of New Hampshire researchers published in the journal Education Law Reporter found that about 12 percent of school districts nationwide now drug test students. An additional 10 percent were considering adopting such policies. Parents can opt out, of course, but that means either their child won’t be able to attend the private school or won’t be allowed to participate in the public-school extracurriculars.
Yet, despite the growing popularity, many experts have misgivings.
“I’m a firm believer kids shouldn’t be using drugs, but I don’t think drug testing is giving people the information they think it is,” says Dr. Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. “I hear people talk about drug testing as if it’s a pregnancy test. People think it’s the simplest thing — pee in a cup and run the test and it says yes or no.”
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20631668/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/
Her older son also has random drug testing at his public high school, but only for kids who participate in extracurricular activities. To Stratmann and her husband — both physicians who have worked in ERs and witnessed firsthand the effects of drug overdoses and other drug-related problems — the more testing the better.
“It might help identify a teen who needs help,” she reasons. “We also think it makes the campus a safer place, since drugs can interfere with an individual's ability to make good decisions.”
After two Supreme Court decisions upholding the constitutionality of random drug testing and an increase in funding by the Bush Administration to administer the urine tests, more schools across the nation are starting to consider this a feasible method to convey an anti-drug message. Many private schools are testing entire student bodies, and numerous public schools are testing students involved in extracurricular activities (e.g., sports, yearbook committees or even to obtain a parking pass).
Last year, a survey of superintendents by University of New Hampshire researchers published in the journal Education Law Reporter found that about 12 percent of school districts nationwide now drug test students. An additional 10 percent were considering adopting such policies. Parents can opt out, of course, but that means either their child won’t be able to attend the private school or won’t be allowed to participate in the public-school extracurriculars.
Yet, despite the growing popularity, many experts have misgivings.
“I’m a firm believer kids shouldn’t be using drugs, but I don’t think drug testing is giving people the information they think it is,” says Dr. Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. “I hear people talk about drug testing as if it’s a pregnancy test. People think it’s the simplest thing — pee in a cup and run the test and it says yes or no.”
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20631668/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/
