In the case of Acton v. Earls, the court ruled that drug testing was justifiable and acceptable and that the students' rights were not violated. In some ways I agree with this ruling, and the drug testing policy in general, and in others I do not.
In a society where lying and cheating have been over utilized in an attempt to get ahead, I think there needs to be some sort of leveling to keep things fair for those people who are being truthful and thus not using performance enhancing drugs or recreational drugs. I think that it's a sad truth that our society has become a lying mecca obsessed with getting ahead at any cost.
I think that if, as a society, people unanimously agree that drug testing is unjust, we have to take some steps to preserve some sort of human aspect within America, before completely abolishing this policy.
On the other hand, I think that drug testing is pretty invasive. I do not have anything to hide, but I find the idea of someone collecting my urine kind of creepy and unsettling. In an effort to "preserve and maintain order," I think that schools who utilize drug testing are becoming more like prisons than educational institutes.
An education is not only what you learn in the classroom; learning occurs in all aspects relating to the school one attends, from social lessons to history lessons. With that in mind, I think that the schools should take less preventative measures and allow for students to screw up on their own. If someone fails a drug test and is out of a sport for half of a season or can't attend Student Council meetings for a month, they will probably be embarrassed but I don't think it serves as the wakeup call that school officials are aiming for. I think that the best way for students to learn the error of their ways when relating to real world issues is to deal with the real world consequences. It's a tough lesson to learn but i think that it’s a vital one. So, schools do these students a favor and don't drug test them and provide a warning; allow them to be caught by the police for using drugs and get arrested.
In response to the ACLU article on student privacy, I would personally be outraged if my personal information was shared with anyone other than those currently permitted. I think that be doing this, school officials are breeching the trust that students place within these school officials and could later make it hard for students to come forth with information. In the next ACLU article regarding the unlawful strip search of a middle school aged girl the prosecution insisted that schools are not 'constitutional dead zones,' and the Court agreed. I think that this was a key point in not only this case but in student privacy issues everywhere, students, you still have your rights as an American even when in school. As for the article on drug sniffing dogs, I don't see this as much of a threat to privacy. I wouldn't mind the dogs sniffing through the hallways, because frankly, I would never bring contraband inside my school and anyone that does deserves to be caught and arrested for being stupid enough to do so. In the past at DHS there have been incidences where students have been caught under the influence of or in possession of contraband at school. When something like that happens the news spreads like wildfire through the hallways and soon everyone is talking about it in class, there’s a Deerprints article being written and it's an opportunity for teachers to preach about how terrible drugs are to students who have never even heard of the drug that the kid who is now being hauled off in a Deerfield Police Department squad car... I think that people who bring drugs to school are creating a distraction from learning and for that; they probably deserve to be ousted by a 130 pound German Shepard named Nana.
In my opinion, my rights as a student right now are pretty fair. I feel that in some ways the rules regarding privacy at DHS protect me, and even though sometimes I am surprised that some of my information is such common knowledge and so easily attained, I have never experienced a dramatic event where I felt that my rights had been blatantly violated.
