DRUG-SPRAY KIT WOULD CREATE FALSE POSITIVES

The Editor:

Re: 'Board wants to start squirting students,' Times, June 24.

Aside from the obvious fact that a drug-testing spray kit would
severely infringe on the right to privacy for students, there is a
very high chance for failure with this system.

A small amount of research shows that these sprays claim to be 98 per
cent to 100 per cent accurate.

Most of the sprays are sensitive to one microgram of the drugs they
are attempting to detect. A factor people are failing to consider is
how small one microgram is.

A microgram is one-millionth of a gram.

If your son or daughter has been exposed to more than one-millionth of
a gram they are now liable to show up as a positive result in a
drug-testing spray.

According to the article, administrators would spray a student's
clothes, desk, backpack or locker if they were suspicious of a student.

Think about how easy it would be for one-millionth of a gram to be
transferred to any of these locations in a school with thousands of
students, who share desks and frequently bump into each other in
crowded hallways.

The opportunities to transfer one-millionth of a gram is very
high.

All a test like this would do is lower respect for administrators who
clearly show they have little respect for their students or their
privacy. Deterrents of this sort are just another attempt to scare
students into following school rules.

Are we teaching kids that scaring and intimidating people into
following rules is the best method? I certainly hope not.

Cameron Wong

Abbotsford