STUDENT FAVORS MORE DRUG TESTING

After reading Glen Leyden's article "In schools, a different test for
teens?" (Sept. 8), about providing more drug tests in schools, I feel very
much in favor of this option.

As a high school student myself, I am a witness to all the drug and alcohol
use that is taking the life out of my fellow students.

In my opinion, a percentage of students today feel that to experience life
at its fullest, you must experience the feeling of drugs and alcohol.

What students don't realize while they are drinking and doing drugs (is
that) they are exposing themselves to the erosion of their academic skills
and deteriorating their athletic ambitions and opportunities.

I think that the students participating in extracurricular activities have
signed up to be the leaders of the student body. They have taken an
unofficial oath to be those leaders and to set examples.

They should live up to the demands and obligations that the sports and
clubs require, which is to be drug and alcohol free. Students should be
willing to take periodic drug and alcohol tests to prove that they are
dedicated to their extra activities they are involved in.

Even though people feel drug tests are an invasion of students' privacy,
they are only being done to decrease the use of illicit drugs. The drug
tests help schools keep students from taking the wrong path in life and
create a safer academic environment. One of the downfalls to the test being
done is the expense of the test. As the article said, with the community's
help and some fundraisers, the money can be raised very easily.

By parents and friends in the community contributing a little bit to the
schools at a time, we can reach the amount of money needed in a very short
amount of time. I know my parents and friends of the family would gladly
contribute to the cost of these tests because they understand it's a very
good cause. In my opinion, I think these tests would take some of the
worries off the parents' minds, knowing how strict and serious the schools
feel about drug and alcohol usage.

I don't think the schools are trying to cause trouble and discomfort to the
students by doing these tests.

I think they are showing concern for the health and well-being of their
students in their schools. Therefore, I think drug testing should be
mandatory in all schools for all students who participate in any kind of
extracurricular activity. Many students may feel this is unfair and that
the teachers are not their parents.

In the future, they will appreciate what was done for them and that it was
only done because adults really care. I still feel that in addition to this
new testing, parents are still obligated to keep their children on the
right tracks, regardless of whether they are in any extra activities or not.

Danielle Benson, Orland Park