Arizona School District Wants to Drug Test 7th Graders

America's hysterical war on drugs shows no sign of abating as it now looks to trample on the civil rights of 7th graders

If a student tests positive, law enforcement is not involved, and there are no disciplinary consequences at the school, but he or she isn't allowed to participate in the sport or club. Parents are also told.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but aren't after school programs and clubs a good idea for keeping kids engaged and OFF drugs?

This also seems like an effective way to inure the young citizenry to a further erosion of civil rights. If they are accustomed to peeing in a bottle when the authorities demand it, they should be more complacent and defferential to authority as adults.

I certainly DO NOT condone drug use for schoolchildren, however this is just another assbackward, counterproductive, stupid stupid stupid response that any reasonable parent should reject out of hand.

www.azcentral.com...

I disagree...

Drug dealers will sell to anyone, they don't care who it is..

I'm all for protecting our children and if that means that my daughter, who will be a 7th grader next year has to take a drug test at school, to attend, then I'm all for it.

I'm all for drug testing period. I've said it before and will do so again.....

I think drug testing should be mandatory for everyone...

to get a job, regardless of what job.... McDonalds, streetsweeper, grocery clerk... anything.. if you are earning a pay check you should have to be drug tested..

I know that sounds tough, but I'm against drugs of anykind....

just as Pro Athletes, getting 2-3 even 4 chances after testing positive.... bull, fire'em, do drugs, then you're not playing anymore....

You shouldn't test everyone. Several reasons:

1. Mandatory tests of everyone is what it would boil down to. Everyone would get tested on a schedule, and since there would be a shedule, you'd be able to figure out when to be on/off drugs. Don't tell me it wouldn't, lol becuause that's how beaurocracy works, in all it's glory.

2. As it is, those test DO every once-in-a-while backfire (somethign was done faulty) and people get fired for it. And those people would have to go and get re-tested and drag big companies through court.

3. You want to get at someone? You tamper with their test. You get paid by someone? You tamper with their test. Basically, you make this into anoter social security card argument. As it is, I can't get anything done without my card, and I don't want to carry around another card that I have to enter on everything.


They switched over to uniforms my senior year, theoretically, to keep the drugs out of the school. Guess what? One of my uniformed friends was a drug dealer to the sports players, and he was thier waterboy, lol...he was NEVER caught, in spite of everything they did to stop it.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty by a trial of your peers?

Drug testing of all students (in this case the 7th grade, but if it flies, all will be)
Assumes you are guilty and trying to prove it. This is just plain wrong. If I were still a student, I would feel betrayed and very angry.

Another case of our constitutional rights being eroded away. Yes, students have constitutional rights too.

I wonder, do all the teachers, administrators and such from janitor to district superintendent get tested too?

That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, what are "THEY" smoking???

I dont do drugs anymore. I did back in the 70's. There were a lot of kids smoking weed and even shooting dope like heron and coc aine in my junior high school and high school.

That said, even though I no longer do drugs I will never take a drug test.

One of the reasons I'm self employed is because I dont have some clown telling me to piss in a cup. I am firmly against drug testing because it is a total violation of my civil rights. The same goes for kids.

If you test kids for drugs that wont stop them from doing dope. It will just make them more prone to rebel and do more drugs because they will feel that they are not trusted. I'm no shrink but that is the way I see it. When I was a kid if the school would have drug tested me then I would've smoked a lot more weed than I did.

Drugs are illegal....

People who do illegal things should have to step up and pay the price...
I don't see it as a violation of civil rights...

you're saying that you have a civil right to do a drug that is illegal ?


Drug Testing for ALL .... I think I'll start a petition...

I am anti-drugs and will do whatever necessary to keep my children off of drugs. However, if the school district required that my children be tested for drugs I would have a problem with it. I don't think it's appropriate to have someone standing over my child while they are urinating in a cup on school grounds. I would rather pay and have it done in a private setting than have my child be forced to do this at school.

And assuming that all 7th graders are guilty until they prove themselves innocent is wrong.

Jemison

Originally posted by elevatedone
Drugs are illegal....

People who do illegal things should have to step up and pay the price...
I don't see it as a violation of civil rights...

you're saying that you have a civil right to do a drug that is illegal ?


Drug Testing for ALL .... I think I'll start a petition...

What I said is it's a total violation of my civil rights to be forced to take a drug test.

Drug testing wont solve the problem of kids doing drugs.

Let us remember back to when we were in junior high school. I dont know about you because I didn't go to school with you but I do know I was hard headed. I wouldn't listen to anyone and if someone were to tell me to take a drug test it would have made me even more rebelious. Of course I grew out of it but at the time, I was 13 or 14 and when a person is that age they are not grown up but they think they are. They're teens.

Originally posted by elevatedone
Drugs are illegal....

People who do illegal things should have to step up and pay the price...
I don't see it as a violation of civil rights...

you're saying that you have a civil right to do a drug that is illegal ?


Drug Testing for ALL .... I think I'll start a petition...

People that DON'T do drugs would also be paying the price.

I'll be DAMNED if I pay any price for anothers' actions.

Not to mention, who's paying for this? Like the gov can afford it? Like I'm going to pay for it? pphhfftt

Misfit

[edit = can't speel today. Need another hit, I mean coffee]

[edit on 26-10-2004 by Misfit]

TexasCN...

when I was in school, yeah there was drugs around, but I didn't want any part of it... why, because if I got caught, I knew that I would have to go home and answer to my Dad! He made it clear to me that I wasn't to do drugs and get into trouble, and I didn't.

So, yeah, I see you points everyone, but I guess it also goes to the parents again... take a stand, talk to your kids, and yes even scare them into not doing drugs, it worked for me.

I still would vote for mandatory drug testing though...

That's right, it must start at home. This is what I mean.

I'm sure drug testing may help keep some kids off drugs. But I dont think it will make a big difference and could even backfire because some parents may let up on the kids at home because the kids are being drug tested at school. Some parents may not keep as close of an eye on their kids because they may feel like they are now sharing the responsibility to keep their kids off drugs with the school instead of them being the first line of defense as they should be.

Originally posted by elevatedone
Drugs are illegal....

People who do illegal things should have to step up and pay the price...
I don't see it as a violation of civil rights...

you're saying that you have a civil right to do a drug that is illegal ?


Drug Testing for ALL .... I think I'll start a petition...

Unregistered weapons are illegal. Would you object to a random frisk at the mall? If you're not packing what's the problem? Less violating than peeing in a bottle (while being watched so you don't use borrowed urine with a prosthetic member)

Aside from that, kicking kids OUT of extracurricular activities where they are supervised until their parents get home seems to be an insane contradiction. (No more chess club for you Billy, go hang out on the street untill you learn drugs are bad)

Ya know, this is strikingly similar to Bush wanting to screen all kids for mental illness.

Which I don't know which way to think about that one - profiteering for his own stocks, or screening OUT the ones not to par for his dictatorship I mean nation.

Misfit

Originally posted by deevee
Unregistered weapons are illegal. Would you object to a random frisk at the mall? If you're not packing what's the problem?

I can honestly say I would have no problem at all...

I'm not carrying, so there's nothing to worry about !!!

A good way to create a person who respects you is to respect them back. What's sad isn't the kids who are on drugs and heading for testing, it's the kids who aren't on drugs. By testing them, you have sent the message that they are not to be trusted, and not trustworthy. If you assume they are bad people and on drugs, then why not have a little fun? They are already in trouble if guilty or not.

Testing also violates privacy issues - and yes even teens deserve privacy. You can fail a drug test for perscription drugs also, and having them proclaim disorders they would rather keep private, requiring stacks of documentation, and asking them to incur the cost of additional doctors visits to get that documentation is crazy.

If a student is on drugs, its between the student and the parents, and the school. The entire school should not be put through such a circus.

As Misfit pointed out: Someone has to pay for this. The money could probably be better spent on making after school programs that keep kids occupied and involved.

I never understood how society works. Do they want to keep kids off drugs, or just off drugs when they know they're gonna be getting tested? Threatening people doesnt work. The kids will find a way around the tests, then continue to use drugs afterwards. So really, whats the point? If they want kids to enjoy their lifes without depending on drugs, then maybe they should teach alternative methods for doing so, instead of backslaps and threats.

I can say for a fact that drug testing makes things worse. Group of stoners used to always hang out together and smoke pot at parties. Did this for about a year. Kid's didn't drink alcohol, didn't deal or do harder #. Then the mall where they all work made it mandatory to have drug tests. The drug tests, like the vast majority of ones used for schools and workplaces, only tests for weed, and a few other designer drugs. Weed actually stays in the system longer than almost any other drugs. The stoners couldnt't all quit their jobs because the mall is the only employment in miles, so did they quit smoking weed? You bet their ass they did. And they replaced it with meth. The dealers all keep scene, and their weed dealers turned them to meth pushers. Decent meth doesn't show up on tests after only 3 days of use, so it is a perfect drug to use when you are being periodically tested. As the kids became total tweakers, the tweak started messing up their lives. Friendships were lost, including several of my best friends from grade school, families torn apart, and they became different people. Only one of them still has his job, because of their tweak addictions all lost thiers. They went from smoking pot and having jobs to becoming tweakers and having no jobs. All because the misguilded good intentions of drug testing.

My case is not rare at all, in many areas it is the norm. These drug tests are full of #, they make problems worse. If the weed was really becoming a problem in their life, then that problem would show up in extracirricular activities independent of drug testing. But the tweak that does not show up on the tests does show up in the quality of their extracirricular activity. So then the kids get kicked out of that, and often school as well, which only further pushes them into their addiction and isolates them from friends, family, and the outside world. But at least they don't smoke weed anymore.

Exactly. If its not causing problems, then why do they care? If a parent doesnt want their child to do drugs, then they should have open honest talks with them about it, but not to the point of brainwashing them. I think people are more reasonable when they are honestly talked to, instead of told lies and being fed scare tactics. I think certain drugs should be illegal, but I think people go overboard on certain things. If children are taught responsibility, then it shouldnt be much of a problem.