'NO' TO DRUG TESTING

I do not want our children tested for drugs. All three have
participated in science clubs, honor activities, scholars bowls, math
and sports teams, and more. Often it is the children who are doing the
right thing who end up getting punished for the few.

I spent almost 28 years in the Army having to undergo numerous random
drug tests, no matter that all the previous ones had come back
negative. They only made me annoyed and resentful.

No matter how it is done, drug testing is invasive, degrading,
discriminating, and, although slim, there's always a chance of a false
positive whose stigma will remain. In a school district crying for
money and asking for fees and dues and doing an untold number of
fundraisers for the same students it is targeting, it would be a waste
of money that could be used better elsewhere.

If there is a problem, let's deal with it. If there isn't a problem,
why are we creating one? Adults often choose this as an easy "feel
good" answer to a complicated problem.

Bobby Jackson, the director of transportation, pupil services and
athletics for the Madison schools, stated they are trying to give the
students another reason to say no to drugs.

It could very well give them another reason to say no to participation
instead.

Only juniors and seniors have parking permits, so most would come from
extra curricular activities.

My youngest is in seventh grade. I do not want him to endure five or
six years of drug testing.

Sometimes, home schooling looks better all the time.

Melanie A. Hergenroeder,
Madison, 35758