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Just say no to drug testing in schools
■ OUR OPINION:
Mandatory drug
testing for schools
delivers more
problems than
benefits
Schools have been teaching kids that
drugs are an expensive habit for
years. Now, some schools are
learning that drug testing is just as
costly, if not more.
The Vernonia School District is learning
this lesson the hard way. The district first
began mandatory drug testing for athletes
in seventh to twelfth grade in 1989 as a
way to deter drug use among teens.
Only two years after the policy was
enacted, seventh grader James Acton
refused to take a drug test, claiming it was
a violation of his Fourth Amendment
rights. The Vernonia School District soon
found itself in the midst of a U.S. Supreme
Court battle that would last four years.
Finally in 1995, the Supreme Court
ruled that mandatory drug testing was not
a violation of a student’s privacy, and
Vernonia was allowed to continue
mandatory drug testing. That could have
been the end of the story, but it wasn’t.
In an ironic twist, after spending about
$350,000 fighting for the right to give
students drug tests, the Vernonia School
District is finding out that mandatory drug
testing is too expensive and time
consuming to actually enact.
Through January, only the women’s
basketball team and cheerleading squad
had actually been tested for drugs. After a
long struggle to gain the right to test
students for drugs, the schools in
Vernonia aren’t doing it.
Trying to cut down on teenage drug use
is certainly an admirable goal. And while
drug testing may sound like a great way to
discourage teenage drug use, as the
Vernonia School District discovered, the
costs usually outweigh the benefits.
BACKGROUND
■ 1989: The Vernonia School District f
starts a policy of testing all seventh i
through twelfth graders who want to play f
sports for drug use.
■ 1991: Seventh grader James Acton |
refuses to take a drug test. He claims it |
is a violation of his Fourth Amendment jj
rights against illegal search and seizure.
The case is taken to the U.S. Supreme l
Court.
■ 1995: The U.S. Supreme Court rules jj
the Vernonia School District has the j
right to test students for drug use be
cause the school’s right to stop drug
abuse is greater than the student’s right j
to privacy.
■ 1997: As of January of this year, only j
the women's basketball team and the j
cheerleading squad have been tested j
for drug use in the Vernonia School Dis
trict. No random testing has been done.
The Vernonia School District estimated
that mandatory drug testing would cost
$2,600 annually. While that makes up
only a fraction of the district’s $4.9
million budget, with education budgets
tighter than ever, that little bit matters.
Consider the fact that, in the wake of
Measure 47, many schools are considering
cutting athletics all together. Other
schools are now using a “pay to play”
philosophy where students must pay
money to play sports.
It doesn’t make sense to spend extra
money on drug testing for athletics when
many schools don’t even have enough
money for the athletics themselves.
Passing a drug test is meaningless for a
student if there is no team to play on.
In addition to the financial costs, there
are administrative costs as well. It takes
time and energy to organize and institute
mandatory drug tests. Time and energy
that could better be spent on academics.
Even the benefits of mandatory drug
testing hardly make it a worthwhile policy
for most schools. Sure, random tests will
cut down on the number of athletes who
use drugs while they are playing sports,
but what about the rest of the school?
Certainly there are plenty of drug users
who have no interest in sports. For them,
mandatory drug testing for athletes really
doesn’t have much of an effect on their
drug use. And even athletes can use drugs
during the off season.
If the concern is in athletes using drugs
while they’re involved with sports, there is
a better solution than mandatory drug test
ing. All students are required to take a
physical before they play sports, so why
not make a drug test a part of the physical?
This would shift the burden of cost from
the school to the perspective athlete, sav
ing the school time and money, while ac
complishing the same goal as school en
forced drug testing.
The Vernonia School District’s experi
ence should be a lesson to other districts
that are thinking about mandatory drug
testing. While there are benefits to such a
system, it takes too much time, energy and
money to make it a worthwhile policy.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board
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To President
Clinton:
With a strike by
American Airlines !
pilots imminent, j
President Clinton ’
flexed his execu- ;
tive muscle by
stepping in and
ordering a 60-day
cooling off peri
od. The strike
would have cost
$200 million a
day and left
40,000 travelers
stranded, not to
mention 90,000
airline workers
out of work.
ToU2:
The Irish mega
stars are on their |
waytoAutzen
stadium. As Eu
gene scurries to
make prepara
tions for the
band's arrival, in- i
eluding remodel- i
ing Autzen stadi- j
urn, U2 fans must j
wait patiently for j
the band's much !
anticipated per
formance in May. |
To Congress:
While most of the
nation worries
about social secu
rity, welfare and
foreign policy,
members of con
gress are plotting
to push for an
amendment to
ban flag burning
in the United
States. The ques- j
tion to be an
swered—why?
To Tonya Hard
ing:
Oregon's favorite
figure skater is
back. Her new
claim is that a
mysterious man
tried to abduct
her.. It might be
time for Tonya to
step out of the
spotlight for the
rest of the century
so that people
forget how much
they don't like
her.