Drug Testing In Schools

In both the Acton and Earls case, the court shows that the school does have the right to drug test anybody who participates in an extra-curricular activity.  The Acton case really focused on the idea of how drug testing doesn’t violate any privacy issues which the opposing side would argue. The case states that, “athletes require suiting up before each practice and event in the locker room, and changing afterwards.” Also, in Veronia’s public schools, students must submit to a “preseason physical exam that consists of a urine sample”. A lot of other detail in the case shows how male students produce a urine sample along a wall and are fully clothed. Female students produce samples in an enclosed stall, with a female monitor standing outside. The case argues that these conditions are just normal, standard conditions that take place in everyday life and there is no invasion of privacy at all. Another argument that came up in both cases was the idea that the “district must demonstrate a compelling need for the program.” Both cases showed that need because both towns had a high drug problem. The Acton case states, “Deterring drug use by our nation’s schoolchildren is at least as important as enhancing efficient enforcement of the nation’s laws against the importation of drugs.”  Moving to the Fourth Amendment, which comes up in both cases, the cases state that the, “Fourteenth Amendment extends the constitutional guarantee to search and seizures by state officers, including public school officials. We have held that state compelled collection of testing of urine such as that required by the student athlete drug policy, constitutes a search subject to the demands of the Fourth Amendment.” The court is saying that the law states that search and seizures by public school officials is okay and the testing of urine falls into this category. I totally agree with the court’s rulings her. They do have the right under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to test for drugs. Personally, I think the drug problem in kids today is out of control and there needs to be something done. The best way for a school to punish a kid is to take away what they love, which would be the activity or sport they are in. That would cause a real wakeup call and could definitely prevent some kids from doing drugs. If there is no invasion of privacy, there is no reason why drug testing shouldn’t be allowed.

In the article about the strip search, I agree with the court that it went over the line. A good quote from the article states "Neither the Constitution nor common sense permits school officials to treat a strip search the same as a locker or backpack search.” I totally believe in this quote and the fact that the school striped searched a girl with no bad record over Ibuprofen is ridiculous. If dogs come into school for no reason, I believe that is violating our rights as students. First, because there is no reasonable cause, there should be nothing to do with searching for drugs.  If the administration has a reason to search, then dogs could be an option but without any reasonable cause, there should be no dogs. Second, dogs could cause a distraction to school and disrupt the education process. I know for me that seeing dogs walking around the hallways would distract me. Also, it could put fear into other kids and scare them, which will cause distraction.