Random drug tests no answer

Random drug
tests no answer

We agree with the members of the Free-hold Regional High School District Board of Education who indicated that they do not want to see students given random drug tests or believe such tests would serve as a deterrent to drug use by teenagers.

The district should not be in the business of randomly selecting students to be tested.

We support the present policy that offers assistance to a student when reasonable evidence suggests that person is using illegal substances.

The issue was discussed at a recent board meeting after Superintendent of Schools James Wasser noted that the U.S. Supreme Court and the state Supreme Court have ruled there is a more expanded policy for school districts, and that school districts can now randomly test students.

However, just because the courts have said that a school district may undertake random drug testing is not a reason to do it.

Wasser said he has three concerns regarding random drug testing: money, responsibility and intervention or treatment.

There are students in the FRHSD who use and abuse illegal substances, just as there are at hundreds of high schools around the nation. FRHSD administrators have not hidden that fact and said students who are identified as having a problem are offered assistance.

In the final analysis, however, the student’s parents and guardians must shoulder some of the responsibility for their child’s illicit behavior.

The same constitutional guarantee that protects a person who is walking down the street exhibiting no signs of drug abuse from being pulled aside and tested should extend inside the walls of our educational facilities.

Board member Bonnie Rosenwald said she wants input from principals and drug officers to guide board members so they can decide which direction to take.

At the end of the day, the decision on whether to institute random drug testing should be made by the members of the community who will pay the cost of the testing and whose children will be the ones to sacrifice some of their right to privacy.