The civil libertarian in me gets a chill when I hear bureaucrats talk about mandatory drug testing of schoolchildren as a means of stemming narcotics use.
If I could be convinced that the process was completely random and student privacy could be assured, I'd feel better about it. There's considerable evidence that drug testing in the private sector and among student leaders and athletes in public schools (a practice that has been upheld by the courts) can make places of work and learning safer and more productive.
As a parent of school-age children, a safer school environment appeals to me. But I also know, because I went to public school and I have written extensively about public education, that there are no secrets in public-school settings. Every student knows (or thinks he knows) who does drugs, who sells drugs, who is sexually active, who is pregnant, who uses steroids and who knows how to hack into into the school computer system. The list goes on and on. I fear the advent of random drug testing would become yet another item for the high school gossip chain.
John Walters, the nation's drug czar, says the Bush administration seeks $25 million in fiscal year 2005 for student drug testing. In a visit to the Deseret Morning News editorial board last week, Walters made a compelling case for student drug testing. His strongest argument, I believe, was that testing helps to detect drug use at a stage where interventions can be very effective.
Another of Walters' points was that random drug testing gives kids an "out" when they are offered drugs. As far as I'm concerned, a kid can't have enough ways to say "no" to things that can harm them or others.
Most kids I know and those who my children hang out with would have nothing to fear from a drug test. I'd like to believe that my kids will have sufficient knowledge about illicit drugs and the resiliency to say "no" so that a positive drug test won't be a reality for our family.
But as Walters reminds us, almost every family has experience with drug abuse, whether narcotics, prescription drugs or alcohol. Addiction isn't something that happens to other people, it happens to people in our own families and circle of friends.
And it happens younger and younger. Kids' first marijuana use begins between the ages of 10 and 13. Ten? That's fourth grade, parents.
Drug testing does seem an important tool to stem the demand side of the drug business. If intervention is the goal, parents and school officials need to know which students are using drugs, then refer them to counseling and treatment services. If policymakers have solid statistics to guide them in developing treatment programs and funding them, all the better.
But the philosophy behind student drug testing assumes a lot: that the testing process is conducted in the strictest of confidence and that treatment is available to those who need it.
Federal privacy laws prohibit school employees from disclosing a good deal of information about students. I don't mean to suggest that educators are sending mass e-mails about their students' private lives. Most educators understand the need to be discreet about their charges. But inadvertent slips occur. A student aide might accidentally get hold of a student's drug test results. A parent volunteer might overhear something while making copies at the Xerox machine.
As for interventions, addicts face considerable waits in getting into substance abuse treatment programs. Obviously, treatment for hardened adult addicts is more expensive and harder to come by than a quick intervention for a first-time, 13-year-old pot smoker who turned up "hot" on a drug test. But the system has limits.
My concern is that benefits of student drug testing outweigh the risks. There's obviously a benefit to ferreting out drug use at its early stages when treatment and other interventions can be highly successful. But the treatment community must be prepared to handle a considerable influx of new clients, and schools have to closely guard those students' privacy.
The goal, after all, is to link students and their families to resources that can help them and make schools safer for students, teachers and other school employees — not "out" already troubled kids or falsely impugn innocents.
Marjorie Cortez is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com