Today I am going to be blogging about the drug testing in Putnam County that started in schools this year. The drug test is random and mandatory for students that participate in extracurricular activities and students that drive to school. It is also voluntary for students who may not participate in extracurricular and who do not drive to school if they choose to be tested.
A consent form must be signed by a parent or guardian in order to be tested. If students who are participating in extracurricular failed to fill out their consent form, they will not be allowed to continue in that extracurricular activity.
My views on the mandatory drug testing are mostly positive, but a few things could be changed. Instead of just the students who participate in extracurricular activities, I believe it should be the whole student body because either people are not going to play sports or the ones who do drugs most likely won’t volunteer to be randomly drug tested so it’s defeating the purpose because drugs are still going to be used. I also believe the teachers should be tested. They should be setting the example for the student body.
I realize that the drug testing is just getting started and many changes will be made, but I think only using the swab testing isn’t as accurate as it could be because that type of testing will only be positive if you have done drugs in the past three days. I do understand a different kind of drug test may be more personal, but it would be much more accurate. For example a urine test. The students that I have talked to that have been tested already have only been tested by swabbing their mouth.
I think they either need to test everybody or just the people that give them reason to believe that they are doing drugs. I think the problem with drugs will not be fixed unless they test everyone in the school even if they aren’t participating in extracurricular activities. It would also be a much easier to catch the people using drugs, but I honestly can’t believe they already started testing this early in the year! Some people don’t see any reason for the drug testing, but this is my opinion and how I feel about the matter.
