A frequent topic in this blog has been the drug testing of students who participate in extracurricular activities. I am against it, and have made no secret about that. What has particularly amazed me is that students have just accepted it, not made any efforts to stop this from being done at several area schools, and in most cases, appear to believe it is a good idea.
One who doesn't is my former Diamond Middle School student Alicia Bradley, who will be a junior at Diamond High School this fall. She is not happy with the new drug testing policy that will begin this fall at her school.
In her blog, http://writingkills.blogspot.com/ she writes:
"The drug testing policy PDF they put on the website ( www.diamondwildcats.org ) has me irritated. Not the PDF so much as the policy. It may be because lately restrictions in general have made me very irritated, but this all sounds very intrusive. I am not worried about the test turning up positive, but to me at least it seems to be very.... undignified.The technician will not observe the participant while the specimen is being collected, but the technician will be present outside the stall to listen for the normal sounds of urination to guard against tampered specimens and to ensure an accurate chain of custody of the specimens. The technician will verify the normal temperature and appearance of the specimen. As for me, I couldn't stand to have even family standing outside during that. Ehh, gross.I may be over-reacting, but it really pisses me off (no pun intended...) that in order to avoid being randomly subjected to that every 1 to 14 days, I would have to give up band, math league, cross country, science fair, history day, (Most Importantly) Academic Quiz Team, and any other activity I had/planned/hoped to participate in.Live and let live. Not listen in on what should be a very private 'procedure.' "