<p>Our local high school randomly tests kids who are involved in ECs. Consenting to random drug testing is a prerequisite to participation. D has been tested at least twice. </p>
<p>At our school, a positive test is handled discreetly through counseling–no suspension or other ill effects.</p>
<p>No drug testing at our school - but a new conservative administration is taking over with school board members to back them up, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to start. I’m hoping nothing happens until my kids are all out of the system. There is a nearby district that tests before giving out parking permits; they may test athletes also. I’m not sure how many types of drugs they test for, I have heard that area has a heroin problem. Personally, I believe it is a violation of civil rights and would not sign a testing consent form.</p>
<p>Never had random drug testing at school… Have it at work, though. I always think it’s hysterical when they randomly pull two mild-mannered engineers who truly wouldn’t know which end of a cigarette to light, and send them down to the clinic to collect samples.</p>
<p>It’d be like testing the math club kids…</p>
<p>I’ve done tons of drugs with MIT stidents. Back in the day.</p>
<p>Oh. I guess I was in the “uncool” kind of math club. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve NEVER heard of this before!</p>
<p>And bringing the breathalyzer to the pizza palor! </p>
<p>I have so much to learn.</p>
<p>Wow. I can’t imagine something like this flying in our part of the country. EC’s have become an integral part of secondary education–no longer “extra” in any meaningful way. (Just try getting into a top tier college without them.) So making participation conditional on drug testing is unacceptably coercive. If someone is obviously impaired or is caught carrying a banned substance, let the authorities impose the appropriate penalty; otherwise it’s no business of any school or employer what is or isn’t in anyone’s body.</p>
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<p>That would certainly be nice. At our school, the kids who fail are suspended for quite a while from the EC. There are kids who can’t participate because of poor grades (no pass no play) but those are pulled out on a predictable cycle (at the end of a grading period). When a student is pulled out at a random time, it’s pretty obvious what happened. Plus, the assistant principal pulling the offenders aside during the EC in front of everyone is a pretty good give away.</p>
<p>This has come to mind because two freshman girls failed the EC and now they’re the talk of the school. I’m not particularly fond of the girls but I think it’s a pretty bad way to start a student’s high school career. Is it really necessary?</p>
<p>I don’t like this, because I think it makes kids value their civil liberties less.</p>
<p>I am also driven bananas by the idea that certain things are “privileges” and thus access to them can be limited in all kinds of ways. In my opinion, if the government provides whatever it is, you have a right to fair and equal access to it. I always hear, for example, that driving is a “privilege.” Does that mean that it would be OK for a state to decide that only white men could get driver’s licences? I don’t think so. So I don’t like the idea that you have to sign away your rights in order to get a “privilege” provided by the public school.</p>
<p>And of course, virtually all of the ECs whoses students are tested are acutally a class - band, cheer, drill team, choir, debate, most sports. So the student still has so show up for class but can’t compete/play outside of school hours if they are suspended.</p>
<p>I’ve signed the steriod-test permission forms (if you don’t your kid can’t play) for 4 years now and just the other day I asked my senior if he or anyone he knew had ever been tested. He said no, tho he had heard that a few kids were tested last year. </p>
<p>I’m waiting for them to check my little 80# soccer-playing freshman. If he’s on steriod, they aren’t very good ones!!!</p>
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<p>If he has a big growth spurt, you’d better tell him to get ready for the test…</p>
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<p>This definitely varies by area and by school. My high school sports and cheerleading are not classes too…</p>
<p>Wow, just wow. I think I would have a huge problem with random drug testing and breathalyzers without probable cause. I do know they send the drug sniffing ‘dogs’ through our schools a couple times a year and that bothered me alittle bit, but it didn’t seem to bother the kids much so I just don’t comment. But random drug tests and breathalyzers? Really??? I’m with Hunt on this one…really sketchy. This has been court tested?</p>
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<p>That’s interesting. None of my kids ever attended a school where an EC was also a class. I don’t quite understand why schools would consider those as classes.</p>
<p>I know it’s odd for cheer, drill team, and sports to be a class, but at your school are band, choir and debate not classes?</p>
<p>No, none of those would be classes at any of the schools my Ds attended, including the ones who went to an Arts H/S. They’d all be ECs. There are all kinds of music classes but all bands, orchestras, and choirs were done on an EC basis.</p>
<p>Band and Chorus are the only two that are classes at my high school. Sports, cheerleading, speech team, etc are all EC only.</p>
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<p>Same here. Although newspaper and yearbook are classes as well as student government.</p>
<p>As for the original question, no I have never heard of any random drug searches in our local HS. I do think that singling out the students who do EC’s is unfair.</p>
<p>Our local school looked at instituting this a few years ago. Evidently one can target ECs are they are considered a privilege and thus can be taken away. In other words in order to participate one must be drug free. One school in the area actually was able (after a court ruling) to include most of the student population because they contended that having a parking pass was a privilege and the majority of students had a parking pass.</p>
<p>Our school ended up not doing the testing because of cost.</p>