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What purpose does drug testing serve exactly? If you take action against those who fail the test, then it's counter-productive and absolutely without any merit. If you don't take action - then what's the point in the first place??
if schools are unwilling to admit problems about bullying which affects a large minority of pupils, yet is willing to random drug test students when drug usage is at most about 3% then they have the wrong priorities
and if a drugs test is a medical procedure klintock as long as the person is gillick competant they can refuse or accept treatment regardless of age - correct kermit?
its an invasion of privacy imo - as long as youre not under the influence of illegal drug in schhol why should it matter? amd back to the main subject, the more good exam results are expected, the more pupils will undergo exam training, simple really
i dont see kids helped deal with school by the school as a whole when theyre bullied in and out of school so why the fuck should i care if the school thinks illegal drugs are that serious an issue, and also theyre not even testing for solvents and alcohol abuse so theyre a bit screwed up
i'd moan like hell, but probs let em get on with it
but as has been mentioned, surely it'd be bettrer for the time to be spent on sorting out bullying and other problems than such a minority problem?
At the end of the day why the hell is it their business what kids get up to after school? That's their parents and the kid's issues, not the school.
Jesus, don't we have any freedom from suspician?
It is not for schools to abritrarily decide what pupils should or should not do outside of school hours. If a kid wants to pop a few E or snort some coke on a Friday night then it is of no concern to the schools.
What is of concern to schools is bullying. They, of course, do less than nothing about this issue, and state quite without irony that "we don't have a bullying problem here" when some girl is in the paper because she killed herself because of horrific bullying.
The "if you have nothing to hide you need not fear" argument holds no wash. I may not have anything to hide from this test, but the principle is set in place. The next time the government arbitrarily decides something is illegal or immoral I may be in danger, but who will support me then?
What the kid does out of school is a concern to the school if it effects how they behave in school, which is quite likely in fact........
A good example would be the tendency of drug addicts to resort to stealing to fuel their habit, if they are at school it is quite likely some of that stealling will occur at scholl, no?
I do not beleieve anyone complaining about this would be happy if it is was thier kid sliding into drug addiction and their school was doing nothing........
Schools are a fundamental part of determining a childs wellbeing, not something that is switched on and off so I do not think it is correct to say 'the school has no right'.......
Oh dear..you clearly have a misunderstanding of drugs and misuse of drugs.
A kid who smokes dope or takes a few E's at the weekend will not steal for their habit, only crack addicts and heroin addicts do that and if there are those type of people in school which I doubt there are many, it would aslready be evident that they have a drug problem as they probably wouldn't even turn up for the thing in the first place.
Oh dear..... and you have a misunderstanding of the need to read the link at the start of the thread.........
Yes and I already said, kids with a heroin or coke problem won't go to school in the first place. Such is the nature of drug addiction.
Well those guys who stole to buy weed must have addictive personalities and are not representative of the majority of weed smokers.
if this is to stop the big threat that is children abusing substances and ruining their lives, then why dont they test for solvents which kill far more? or actually help bullied children, which ruins 100s of times more lives out there
What if it were picked up on before they were addicts though, and extra pressure were applied that led to them stopping it? Surely testing is another incentive against taking it up in the first place?
Nice get out with the weed smokers, I am sure you like to pretend that weed smokers are all nice hippy tpyes who would never do anything nasty.
How on earth do you know that such behaviour is not representative of the majority?
Ok you really don't understand the nature of drug use then. Schools, drug tests in schools etc etc mean nothing to anyone who's tried hard drugs, even for the first few times. Plus why would it stop teens trying drugs, we've heard the endless amounts of "Just say no" tapes, lectures, from our parents and from schools, it's never stopped us then and it won't stop future teens experimenting.
No I never said weed smokers are all nice happy hippies who want to save trees, I know a lot of bad people who smoke weed, however it is not a drug that will make you steal for it, I mean, we all like to get pissed at the weekend, do you know many people who steal money to buy drink? Nope, same with weed.
I know because I've grown up my whole life around weed smokers and none have ever stole to buy it.
It is counter productive because the children who have problematic drug habits (even with cannabis) will just not attend when they think there might be a test. Is that going to help?
Its also telling that Drugscope, the largest drug research charity in the UK is advising against this, they are the experts and they object to it.
It will not stop kids using drugs of certain types and will not stop them drinking alcohol, in fact if anything it will push kids from cannabis to alcohol or even cocaine which leaves the body very quickly.
This is bollocks.........
But not evrrtyone uses drugs, so something stops some people that won't stop others, knew measures might stop more people, not everyone, but maybe a few more..........
I'm not too sure myself, I mean, when I first took cannabis I was drunk with a few of the older boys, the last thing going through my head were the preventative measures I was told my whole life and I'm sure most teens don't think of these things when they first try drugs, but it might stop one or two, still I don't really see the point of it anyway.
Surely it is worth trying to stop a few people going down the path of addiction that could well wreck their lives, even if it is only a few...........
Though I could say you're only prolonging the inevitable, i.e. when the leave school.
No it will do the opposite.
Those who take drugs won't go to college in the first place, to avoid the tests. Woohoo for the college, but for those who are sliding into drug use it will remove a strong social network and a chance at a better future.
Underpinning all this is the idea that you can't do decent work while using drugs, and it's bollocks. Most of the music and literature that's studied will have been made by people who were off their heads on something.
Well why do you test people unless you are assuming they are using drugs?
And you seem to be assuming that teenage use of things like cannabis set people on the slippery slope to addiction, this isnt true.
I'd agree that we should try and prevent harmful use amoung kids but the way to do that is education, not branding them as criminals.
It was used to illustrate that schools should spend more time protecting kids from the things that matter, and less time sticking their oars in things that don't concern them.
Is it?
Only the poor steal to fund drug habits.
A large proportion of drugs users are middle-class and with money. That's why one school in Illkley is one of the worst schools in West Yorkshire for drug misuse problems. But no theft, because daddy pays for the coke.
Using drugs doesn't make you addicted.
I wouldn't want the school shoving their nose in where it wasn't wanted.
Schools are not parents or police officers. Therefore they have no right to infringe on important liberties without a good reason.
Why should I have to give a drug test at random? I'm not suspected of anything, why should my rights be imposed on?
I know you believe that civil liberties are "outdated", and that those who have done nothing wrong have nothing to fear, but that is the very problem with this.
If those who are on drugs get tested at school, what happens? Do they get help, or do they get the police around, and get thrown out of school? I suspect it will be the lattwer- the head wants to "clamping down on drugs"- so what does this achieve? The social isolation of drug users, that's what. And as any fule kno, that is the worst thing to do to drug misuers.
Do you know that really, news to me...........
I beleive in civil liberties very strongly as it happens, but I only beleive in defending those that are real and important.
I do not consider 'the right to not be drugs tested in school' as a 'civil liberty' that requires defending........
The janitor?
The PTA?
Visitors?