Why I’m Standing Up Against Random Drug Testing at My High School
Allie Brody is a senior at Allentown High School in New Jersey and is one student that has had enough of being treated like a criminal.
I’ve written for my school newspaper, helped out with the production of musicals and even traveled abroad through a school club.
I was later inducted into the French Honor Society and the National Honor Society. Last year, I even co-founded the school’s first philosophy club.
But this year I am barred from participating in any of it. The irony is that my school has made me ineligible for any extracurricular activity for what they believe is my own self-interest. What did I do to deserve this punishment? I acted on my principles and stood up for fairness, privacy and dignity for me and my fellow students.
Student drug testing for extracurricular activity was pushed by the Bush administration as the panacea for high school drug use. Besides, what would convince more kids to stop doing drugs than to give them more time to use them. Allie Brody decided to take action.
Last year, when I found out my school board was considering a random student drug-testing policy, I immediately began organizing a student opposition group.
We worked to get the community involved: Students joined with parents and teachers, donning “Drug Testing Fails Our Youth” T-shirts as we filed into the school board meetings. We even brought a toxicologist to speak with the board about the unreliable nature of the drug-testing technology, the problem of non-professionals interpreting the test results, privacy and legal-liability issues and the general lack of research supporting student drug testing.
To us it seemed the school’s arguments in favor of testing were based more on emotional rhetoric than data. But, in the end, emotion carried the day, and random student drug testing went forward.
Allie didn’t simply accept the schools drug testing policy, and neither should you. Despite being terrible policy, it’s a total waste of taxpayers dollars. It’s an ineffective way to combat drug use and Allie does a great job pointing it out in the post.
In a policy statement, the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) cautions that student drug testing is unsupported by scientific research and carries inherent dangers. Drug-testing programs break down trust between students and administrators. They also carry the inherent danger of motivating some students to switch to drugs that will leave the system quickly, like alcohol, or drugs that not show up in the tests, such as inhalants and herbal concoctions.
I commend Allie Brody for both the principled stand on the drug testing issue and for the willingness to sacrifice for a closely held belief. We are lucky to have teens of Allie Brody’s character in America, and as a society we become stronger for it.
History is written by those who show up. [And if I may add... Many of us have had the fantasy idea that if everyone just refused to take a pre-employment drug test, there would be no more pre-employment drug test, because there wouldn't be enough workforce. Alas, that is just a fantasy, because the reality of supporting families and mortgages comes into play.
But at a school... Imagine if every member of the football team or school band or drama club just outright refused to take the tests, what then? These are cases where the drug tester needs you much more than you need the drug tester. Imagine the headlines when John Hughes High School can't field a football team or a band or a play because kids finally had enough and stood up for privacy! They can't expel or suspend the kids for not going out for extracurriculars. The district will be paying the salary of a coach, a conductor, or a director with no students to teach. If everyone did it, there's no way to single out the "stoners" from the rest.
NORML does not at all support the use of marijuana by those under age eighteen except in medical circumstances as directed by a physician. But we do support the privacy rights of students not to be accused of being drug users for merely trying out for extracurriculars. C'mon, kids, show your elders a thing or two - just say no to school drug testing. --"R"R]
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ii love this website. lmao. ii am doing a report in my senior english class about random drug testings trying to get them to stop. Because it violates our privacy. There might be children, but ppl say its addictive, its not. ive been smoking for 3 years. it is no addition.. i had to quite because i was suppected because i wouldnt take a drug test. but i went against it, and so did all of my friends which is 1/2 of the student body. haha but this website has helped me so much. thank you all so much :)
Hi Allie,
I agree with you completely and understand what you are growing through. This is my senior year has a high school student and students participating in extra-curricular activities are given a mandatory drug test. We received this drug test, less than two weeks from when the school year started, and I failed this test. Over the summer, I had set a date when to stop smoking marijuana, over 45 days from the beginning of the school year. During the summer, two of my friends had continually smoked weed. One whom had done it approximately a week and a half before the drug test. I told them as much as I could to stop doing this, worried that they would be ineligible to play varsity basketball, all of us were locked in as starters on our varsity basketball team. BOTH OF THESE FRIENDS PASSED. I was in utter shock. After experiencing this situation, it emotionally troubled me. How is this justifiable? How is this even reasonable? It’s not merely fair. I am now barred from National Honor Society, Student Council, and varsity basketball, and maybe among more things later in the school year. Now I could have chosen to continue on the basketball team, but would have been suspended for all games except for 5 or 6, and would not even be allowed to travel with the team. When telling them that there was no reason to play, I was given this quote,” Our school drug-testing program is here so that you won’t quit, you will only work harder to play. We would rather you not quit, this program does not promote this.” Does this even make sense? Why would I waste 3 months working, and only play 4-6 games, if even that? That statement completely contradicts everything I had heard before. IT DOES PROMOTE STUDENTS TO JUST DROPOUT OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES. I am being treated as if I were a criminal. Do these administrators, and board members not realize that this “method” is completely ineffective? In my opinion, this is a natural stage of every teens life. We should not be exploited in this way. It is detrimental to our future, an invasion of privacy, a mental burden, and completely unnecessary. How can this continue? My senior year of high school, has now been completely thrown into turmoil and caused depression into my daily life. I am severely upset.
Thank you, Allie, for standing up to injustice and hypocrisy. Nobody wants teenagers abusing marijuana, but the proper way to get that across is with realistic and factual education. Our own Dr. Mitch Earleywine constantly tells us that too much marijuana is bad for developing teen brains, and that drug testing is counterproductive, especially compared to education.
Hello,
I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to see somebody responding this way to my situation. My Senior year is rounding out, and I’ve yet to see any change in the way students in my school approach drug use. There have been no informative assemblies or real-life lessons in drug education. I’m dissapointed in my school, and also in a majority of the students’ apathy toward the policy. They miss class time, they feel uncomfortable, but they aren’t willing to stand up. The mindset needs to change, and it’s great to see somebody who agrees!
Thanks