Gah, this is a tough one. My biggest concern is that kids who have just started experimenting with drugs are the most vulnerable. And this kind of testing would probably deter that group of kids from participating in extracurricular activies - which, IMO, are one of the best ways to keep kids from falling into self-destructive lifestyles.

Jennifer makes a good point, but it would also allow these kids to understand the consequences of their actions. If test positive, they would prolly be kicked off the team and grounded by their parents. As an adult they could lose their jb or be arrested. Better to learn early in my opinion.
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i'm not really supporting this.

It's great they we let the Government do our parenting for us, just great.

All athletes, band members, cheerleaders, Student Government Association, etc had to be random drug tested in my public high school. If you didn't participate in any of those things you didn't. I think it worked out pretty well, and this was in 96-97. I am actually pretty shocked that all schools don't do this 10 years later...I just assumed it was the norm.

I support this because I'm completely against drugs and underage drinking. People shouldn't waste their youth on that stuff. Kids now days are looking up to people in re-hab before their 21 that's what they think is cool. If you want to do something like cheerleader it should be for the hard-working students who want to succeed. (My Opinion)

I'm with honeysugar.

Maybe for special activities...

I'm not for drug-use or anything, but I would never work for an employer who made their employees do random drug tests. My company needs an initial pass and then reserves the right to test again should they see the need. Some companies just make you report at random - I have better things to do in life than making appointment to have my urine examined because my employer doesn't trust me.

It should be up to the parents to test kids.

If my parent's had drug tested me, isntead of the school, I would have been hurt not having their trust. I say let the schools drug test. Besides, there are plenty of Honor roll students, who play extra curricular sports, who do drugs, and go to church, and their parents would never have an idea to test them because they are sweet, innocent kids.
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Depends. If the child is caught with drugs yes, otherwise no.

i don't know...i just don't support this. if a kid is doing well in school and in his or her extra curricular activities and is a good kid, doesn't cause trouble, what does it matter to the school?

i don't know...i just don't support this. if a kid is doing well in school and in his or her extra curricular activities and is a good kid, doesn't cause trouble, what does it matter to the school?

honestly, this seems like a waste of tax dollars. it should be up to parents to monitor this, not the school.

I think if the school wants to monitor athletes, perhaps to be sure steroids aren't being used, fine. But in all honesty, does anyone here think it is okay for a minor (or an adult for that matter) to do illegal drugs? Please. No one here would want their child to start smoking pot in 9th grade. Or their 15 year old son to take steroids so he can bulk up. I know it happens, and some people think pot is okay, but whatever. No child (and anyone under 18 is a child)should be doing these things.
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If the school is worried about the kids being fat and getting heart disease, should they be JUST AS WORRIED over what short and long term effects are associated with drugs?
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the answer is yes!
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I agree, bjeanie...

Cravinsugar, if your parents drug test you, it's because they DON'T trust you. It's because THEY THINK YOU'RE DOING DRUGS.

I've known a LOT of people on drugs - I was one of them for a while - and I have NEVER EVER EVER known any single one of them to go to church, let alone be an honor roll student in extracurricular activities. Man, if a person is doing THAT well and NOBODY suspects them using, then I would guess it's not a problem.

I totally agree that this is just another way for the government to use our money to control our kids for us.

Hahaha...got an email...
God Bless parents who drug us when we were younger
The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a
methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, ''Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?''

I replied: I had a drug problem when I was young:
I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals.
I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.
I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word.
I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields.
I was drug to the e homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
~author unknown~

Parents should be taking the initiative to raise healthy kids on their own and not pay Uncle Sam to do it for us!!!!

lol, i was a pothead in high school. i had a very high GPA, was on the math team (went to state actually), was in drama and art club, volunteered at church, and got tons of scholarships so i could go to the college of my choice. i would have been PISSED if the school decided to drug test me, i was a good girl and never harmed anyone. i was 17, it was my choice.

The difference with the obesity epidemic and schools is that they were providing our children with unhealthy foods - they are NOT providing them with drugs.

Butrfly,

I was friends with many poeple who did drugs, were on the honor roll AND went to church. How else would I come up with that? And I was one of them for a while also. And I played basketball. Please don't think I am being argumentative. I just think, wow. The school is cutting out soda, cutting out trans fatty foods, providing healthier, more expensive foods (which i think is wonderful), why not take an interest in the other things that go on in the childs body? I am def against the government being super involved in these things, but it is basically the same issue. You can't tell the Government "Yes, please regulate what our children put into their bodies" and then say "Wait, only regulate what we tell you too" it is contradictive and hypocritical.
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if your kid has some serious behavioral problems and is doing poorly in school, i think it's the parents' responsibility to do something about it. talk to them, go to family counsolers and drug test if need be, this really isn't a public school's problem. nor should it be any tax-payers.

Okay, I guess I have a different definition of drugs - I know I SHOULD count pot as one, but I do not. Do I want my kids smoking it? NO. I will talk to them about it and guide them and hope they make the right decisions and should I suspect them using I WILL TEST THEM.

I guess I'm thinking more of meth - which is a big problem here.

Like I said before - if you're smart enough and go to school enough to be on the honor roll AND you're playing sports AND you're sneaking out back to snort a line - you can multi-task MUCH better than me. It OBVIOUSLY wasn't a problem for you. In fact, if you were doing that good ON drugs, maybe you should take them back up!

Maybe the states should take that money and put it back into drug education - something MY county lacks greatly.

lol, never stopped. i'm a pretty happy well-adjusted adult who enjoys a smoke saturday afternoons.

are you not in hennepin, butrfly?

LOL. Thanks sweety. Actually, I didn't go out back to snort a line. But if i did, i am sure you would have been the supplier as peppy as you are . I smoked pot a few times. enough to almost get caught so I stopped until college. I don't do anything now, and happen to multi-task just as well as i did then, thanks to wine and the elliptical machine.
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yah, pot is totally a drug the way alcohol is. i think both can be used in a responsible manner. some drugs, people think it's possible to be responsible but you just can't. i can have a beer with my dinner. i can have a smoke during my TV programs. but it's impossible to just do meth or crack casually. they're physically addictive and ruin lives.

I see "smoking pot a few times" and being a drug "user" as TOTALLY different. Like my ex-bf who said "Yeah, I used to be a pothead.." turned out he got high ONCE and made an idiot out of himself and used that as, like, a "Cool Mark" or something.

LOL, Bjeanie - you gots some balls! I pm'd you.

I'm Upnort...no where NEAR the city! Okay, like an hour near the city.

agreed a/b the pot/alcohol reference

Haha, no cravinsugar...I was never a dealer...I'm also not very peppy, do I come off that way typing? Groovy.

Reading this i am starting to think cigs are okay too. Atleast they are filtered...and although they have all the additives they do...there are still more than 300 more chemicals, naturally, in a joint.
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well, they're not illegal

i don't even think cigs are all that bad if you have one casually at a bar or at a party. it's the daily stuff that will get you cancer.

an hour is pretty far from the city, if i can't bike or bus there, it's far.

aren't there meth problems upnort? there were tons of meth problems in the small town i went to college in (an hour south of the cities)

Oh yeah...they call it the Meth Circle...they make it out in the boonies where its hard to find the labs, then transport it into the city...
The circle theory gets kind of messed up now that meth is so 'popular' - that dates back a few (or ten) years.
Those crazy crackheads are EVERYWHERE now!!

It's far to drive, too!

I am so happy meth wasn't a big problem where I used to live. i live in DC now, so, there are all kinds of crack heads i see now.
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i'm with you Bluejeanie! i don't think of pot as a huge deal but i can also see how too much is no good. but that's pretty much the same with too much of ANYTHING (drugs, food, cigs, etc).

anyway, there's just something really creepy about the government coming in and making a kid pee so that they can kick around a soccer ball.

if you're just targeting the extracurricular kids, why not just go for the school as a whole??? i'm sure you'll get a lot more drug-using kids that way. of course, what are you going to do with them after that? send them all to detention and then rehab??? give me a break!

The only reason I see ex-curr as a viable solution is that they could add the fees of the testing to the fees of the activity. I do not want to pay to have every child tested. PLUS, where do you stop??? High School, Middle School...Elementary kids????

I'm wondering if any of you are aware that there ARE elementary school kids who use drugs. I remember when I was in 6th grade (I'm 23 now) quite a few kids were into drugs and having sex. A lot of people don't realize that this does happen.

your name is almost identical to nicachica, nannychica. lol, i had to take a double-take.

Just wanted to add that I was NOT one of those kids, by the way. lol

But see, a ten year old shouldn't be able to adequately cover something like that up - and social services should be called. Whereas a teenager understands the what, where, when and how of it all...and teenagers are allowed to be without parental supervision...they are almost adults.

My boy is almost ten and I would TAN HIS HIDE if I ever caught him getting into that stuff, but I am way too involved in his life for him to carry secrets that big.

as a cheerleading coach who has just recently found pictures of two of her girls (freshmen, so they're 14/15 years old) drinking alcohol and reports of them doing it weekly, i am all for this. it's a health and safety issue. we can't have people on a team throwing girls in the air who are drunk or high on drugs. it is just NOT safe. it's putting the other girls' lives in danger, not to mention their own. it is also bringing down the reputation of the program and legitimizing stereotypes that people have about cheerleaders.

i understand and feel bad about the fact that those who need extra-curricular activities the most are the ones that are on drugs and getting into trouble. i know that if we kick these girls off the team for doing these things, they'll just have more time to do even worse stuff. but they need to learn that this sort of behavior is unacceptable.

They should be testing all the students randomly and not just for the roids... does the shirt with the weed leaf that all the kids wear not give that away...

It's only for athletes right? So I don't really see a problem with it, after all, drugs hinder the way you play anyway, and it would be a lot safer for the team and the student because if he went to wrestle or play football high, he could get badly hurt.

Terrible idea!
not well thought out either.
Why would you test the kids that want to participate instead of the ones that don't?
The ones that don't participate are more likely to use their leisure time to do recreational drugs

But I'm also against Government testing of anykind of anything(for kids and adults) if the person is not found guilty of the harming physically or mentally a living thing.
Has no one read our Constitution?

Whatever happened to Innocent until proven guilty?

Ok, so I have a mixed opinion on this. 1) I think it would be really beneficial to get help to the kids that are having a hard time with peer pressure, or positive decision making but 2) If a kid gets caught, gets expelled or kicked off a sports team they will compromise chances at scholarships, etc that they may have been able to get otherwise and 3) if you get caught and reported to the police who file charges, you are no longer eligible for financial aid.... BIG PROBLEM as this will effect the poor and minority students, who are already high risk, the most.

I did my fair share of experimenting in high school, and extra curricular activities kept me out of trouble... kept me busy so I wasn't always hanging around people with nothing better to do than get in trouble...