Should High School Athletes Be Tested for Drugs?
Recently, I ran across an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionwhich brought a controversial issue up again for me. Should high school athletes by randomly tested for drugs? In my opinion, yes.
The story focused on the recent death of a high school quarterback in Georgia, who died in a car accident. The 17-year-old student was legally drunk and had cocaine in his system the night of his accident.
For many parents of teenagers, this brings up the issue of who is truly responsible for their children. I understand that issue. Being the parent of a 16-year-old myself, I feel that it is, ultimately, my responsibility to regulate my daughter’s behavior. That being said, however, when a child is representing the school by taking part in school-sponsored activities, I feel they have the responsibility to make sure the students representing them are doing so in a dignified and legal manner.
My daughter is not an athlete, but she does represent the school in marching band, as well as on the math and academic teams. If the school system decided to require drug testing for these activities, I would have no problem with it. No, I’m not in favor of taking away freedoms from our teenagers or anyone else. But I am in favor of teaching kids responsibility and, in my mind, showing them the consequences of participating in an illegal activity falls directly into that category.
The consequences for positive drug tests by schools mentioned in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article were as follows:
First offense: mandatory follow-up testing and drug counseling with the student’s parents
Second offense: suspension from activity or sports for 30-45 days
Third offense: suspension from activity or sports for a year
I can promise you that, as a parent, the consequences I would hand out would be more severe. What about the rest of you out there? Do your teens participate in sports or activities where drug testing is required? Do you feel drug testing for school sports or other activities should be mandatory? Let me know how you feel.
teens, teenagers, teen athletics, high school athletics, drug testing, mandatory drug testing, high school sports, high school drug testing
July 18th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Testing for drugs in schools should be mandatory, however we do not need to test our children. There are other technologies available today, and other companies in business around the country that provide a rather unique and non-invasive means to determine drug use amongst our youth. I highly recommend any parent looking for anti-drug solutions in schools to research DrugWipe. There are numerous regional providers of DrugWipe throughout the country that can help schools fight drugs, without the risk of violating personal privacy rights.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:26 am
PDB,
I’ve heard of these technologies, but I do have a question. Since they test property for drug residue, how can they prove how the residue got on books, notebooks, etc., i.e. who last touched this item, and isn’t it possible that someone other than the owner left the residue?
Thanks for stopping by.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:00 am
You are correct Gayle. These technologies are not meant to identify individual drug users. They are used to identify overall drug use. You see the problem with standard drug testing methods is that by law you are only able to test students involved in extra-curricular activities. This therefore doesn’t really give you an accurate picture of what the entire student body is exposed to. With technologies such as DrugWipe, the focus is on testing school owned property, such as lockers and desks. This allows school administrators to test their entire facility, resulting with data that is representative of the entire student population, not just select groups. I think this information is critical in educating school officlas about the exact risks that all of our students are exposed to, not just the athletes, club members, and student drivers. The data can be used to design more targeted initiatives programs that focus on prevention and detterence. I just think that simply drug testing students without gathering information ahead of time (information that DrugWipe type technologies can provide) is like driving without headlights.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
i think that students should be tested for drugs because it could really hurt their health, and if their using steroids t hen its not fair for any of theh other teams that their playing against