The implementation of a new drug testing policy at Alexander High School has raised questions from local residents and students. The policy would require not only student athletes, but also students who drive to school to undergo drug testing. That measure has been a component of the attempt by school administrators to cut down on known illegal prescription drug use by its students. Yet, no matter the circumstances that prompted school officials to adopt the new policy, it constitutes a highly unfair burden that is being placed on the collective student body.
Although it is important for high schools to maintain a no-tolerance stance on illegal behavior and instill in students a negative view toward drug use, the new policy is an extreme way of doing so. Requiring that students submit to drug tests unnecessarily infringes upon the privacy of those students. Students involved in athletics are particularly being targeted for drug testing; however, it is those students who play an active role in the school and are engaged in after-school activities. Alexander students who drive to school are being targeted as well. It seems that the new measure merely is searching for guilt among a significant number of students. In response, students have simply adapted to the change by not parking in the school's parking lot. Further, it is unreasonable to believe that students, as a whole, are using illicit substances before class or immediately after the bell rings.
More than anything, the measures that have been called upon to deter drug use are simply disheartening and are too invasive. Targeting groups of students to discourage the remainder of the student body by infringing on the privacy of those teenagers seems like a last resort. Alternative, less invasive measures such as drug education and after-school involvement - seen as adequate solutions to the problem - can be improved upon, rather than over-the-top control method. It is not a school's place to monitor student behavior outside its own walls, nor is it its place to attempt to be more parents than educators.
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Drug testing invasive, ineffective
