Ozarks Voices

RANDOM DRUG TESTS WILL BACKFIRE ON US

When random drug testing first began, I felt it was a blatant violation of
our Fourth and Fifth amendments, but the majority outvoted me. Now the
Supreme Court has stated that any student that wants to join in any
extracurricular activity is subject to a random drug test, even if there
has been no evidence to warrant the test.

That means children who want to get into sports, band, etc., are all
subject to drug testing. Have we had a recent outbreak of chess club
members overdosing on heroin that I haven't heard about?

What's next? Are we going to start drug-testing people before they can join
our churches or social clubs?

When will we finally say that enough is enough? When will we finally say
that we have violated and invaded people's right to privacy too much?

I won't deny that we have an ever-increasing drug problem in our schools.
Is showing blatant distrust of a student simply because they want to excel
in school the right way to go about resolving the problem? I have four
children and I would love seeing them in band or choir, but I don't think
it's right to promote such blatant distrust against someone just because he
or she wants to join an extracurricular activity. Some of these students
are getting into these activities because they want to get away from the
drug scene. Should we penalize them for previous mistakes?

There are a lot better ways to help keep drugs away from our children
besides testing everyone who stands out from the crowd. I thought we were
supposed to be the land of the free. How is teaching our children that we
don't trust anybody endorsing freedom?

Most important, why are we focusing on the children who are the least
likely to take drugs in the first place? It seems to me that the only ones
that stand to gain from these drug tests are the drug-testing corporations
themselves.

Statistics show that those students enrolled in extracurricular activities
are less apt to experiment with drugs, and we all know that drug testing by
itself doesn't stop drug use.

This is just another way to waste the taxpayers' money in a way that won't
slow down the rampant drug use found in our schools.

This type of logic indicates to me that they are just one step away from
drug testing all of our children, or possibly everyone in general, which
still won't solve the problem.

I just don't get it. Do you?

We need to ask ourselves that ever-important question: What's next?

Joe Setzer lives in Seymour.