DRUG TESTING

Starting next school year, the Goose Creek school district will
implement random drug-testing program for high school students in
grades nine through 12 who participate in school-sponsored
extracurricular activities or have a permit to drive and park at the
campus. Why? Because school officials want to take whatever steps
necessary to protect the health and future of these same students.

In fact, we believe the school district is obligated to use every
means at its disposal to deter kids from drug use.

Drug testing is not a substitute for all efforts to reduce student
drug use, but it does make all those efforts much stronger and more
effective.

The truth is, too many of our children are getting lost in drug and
alcohol use.

It is our responsibility to help children make the right choices. One
of the worst decisions children can make is to gamble their lives and
futures on drugs. Parents and educators have a responsibility to keep
children and teens safe from drug use.

For many students, drug testing will serve as a wake-up call. For
these students, a positive drug test is so embarrassing that the test
itself becomes an intervention.

There are others, however, who have begun using alcohol and drugs,
who are not responsive to prevention messages. Many of these users
have not yet experienced the adverse health effects of their drug
use, academic decline, and trouble with law enforcement agencies. But
they will.

One of the best ways to block the spread of drug use is through early
intervention. The idea is to identify users, through drug testing and
other means, then steer them from drugs to counseling, if necessary,
before they become addicted or entice others to use drugs.

Drug testing not only helps identify students who use drugs; it also
creates a deterrent to use. It helps young people cope with peer
pressure, giving them a convenient reason to say no.

There is no one thing that will keep kids off drugs; it's a
combination of strategies. It starts with home education: talking to
our kids about alcohol and drug use and the consequences of such use.

The bottom line: We need to get between our kids and drugs any way we
can.

Editorial written by David Bloom, managing editor of The Baytown Sun,
on behalf of the newspaper's editorial board.