Random Drug Testing May Become a High School Reality

January 3rd, 2010

More and more high schools are looking at ways they can limit underage alcohol and drug consumption. They have looked to alcohol high school testing and urine alcohol testing to help. However, some schools are now looking to random drug testing while students are participating in sports and other activities. Many administrators are specifically targeting students in sports and are abiding by a two strikes and you are out policy.

In 1995 the Supreme Court made random drug testing on student athletes legal. In 2002 they expanded that rule to include competitive extracurricular activities. Schools can make this testing mandatory and not allow students to participate unless they agree to the random drug testing. Schools want students to understand that there are big consequences to drug use. They feel that this is one way they could impress upon students the serious nature of using drugs.

Every time a student joins a team, they would be added to a random drug pool. Each month a group of students would be chosen for random testing. And, if the results came back negative, then consequences would be handed out as appropriate and depending on if it was the first or second offense.

Along with providing school authorities the ability to find those students who are breaking the rules, it may also give students a way out when dealing with peer pressure. If random drug testing becomes a normal practice in schools, students may find peer pressure or drug use at all to become less commonplace in high schools. While it may be a dream, perhaps with random drug testing, we will find that drug use in high schools is eliminated altogether due to the fact that students will hopefully want to participate in activities more than they want to break the rules.

While there may be no easy answer to the problem of teen drug abuse and alcohol misuse, we need to start somewhere. Random drug testing may be the first step to helping students come clean. By putting measures like this into place, schools can not only weed out those students that are using, but allow other students to resist peer pressure they may be facing. We all want our students to excel academically and in extracurricular activities. By putting programs into place we can begin to protect our students.

We may find this same mentality working in the workplace as well. Many types of programs already authorize random drug testing and it has been a success. In fact, many jobs even require drug screen testing when you first start a new job. This is becoming more and more commonplace in today’s world. Employers want people that they can count on and trust. Drugs impair people’s abilities and put the people around them at risk as well. By first creating these programs in our schools and then allowing them to carryover to our workplaces as well, we will be creating a drug free mentality and buffer. It will not only allow some people a way out, it will also set a standard in both our schools and at our workplaces.