JUST WHO'S SMOKIN'?

Garden Valley School Division wants to start randomly testing students as
young as 13 for drug and alcohol use. But they don't want to just test any
student. No, only those who play on school sports teams, such as the
popular Zodiacs hockey team at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler, Man.

They won't be testing for steroid use either, a problem among some athletes
- -- teen and adult.

But they will be charging taxpayers $75 for each test.

Aside from the ethical implications of randomly testing students for drug
and alcohol use, this initiative doesn't even make sense.

Why would a school division only target students who play sports? Why not
members of the chess club or the school band?

The division's superintendent Dom Wilkins says they're going after the
athletes, as many as 250 of them, because they're the "leaders" in the
school who serve as role models for the rest.

Their argument is that if you can get the kids who play sports to stop
doing drugs and consuming alcohol, the rest will follow. It's an argument
that defies logic. How do they know which students are influential from
year to year and whether or not they play on one of the school teams?

It sounds like a lot of rubbish to us.

Provincial Ombudsman Barry Tuckett is already talking about investigating
the situation. And with good reason.

Randomly testing student athletes -- and no other students or staff -- for
drug and alcohol use is a violation of privacy and it's highly discriminatory.

And forcing students and their parents to sign consent forms allowing for
the testing, by making it a requirement to join a team, is preposterous.

Besides, why stop there? Why not test the teachers and the football coach?
How about the school principal?

If the school division wants to do something about drug and alcohol use, it
can launch any number of creative education campaigns to help curb the problem.

Randomly testing members of the school hockey team is one of the dumbest
ideas we've heard in a long time.

And it raises the question: Just what are they smoking at Garden Valley
School Division headquarters, anyway?