School district mandates high school drug testing

In the state of Texas, possessing less than two ounces of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days of incarceration.

In the state of Texas, selling up to seven grams of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year of incarceration.

In the state of Texas, falsifying a drug test is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year of incarceration.

In Wylie ISD, failing a drug test is an offense punishable by thirty days of suspended privileges.

The school district has overstepped its boundaries by introducing a new drug testing policy this year. Students who are involved in sports, clubs, extracurricular activities or even just intend to park on school grounds, are required to submit to consent for random drug testing if they want to continue to participate in their activities or drive to school. This new policy is wrong.

The intention behind the testing is supposedly to give kids “a reason to say no,” stemming from concerned parents who were nervous about their children’s entrance to high school, according to Dr. Vinson’s July 15 blog entry. But that decision should be left to a child’s parents or mentors or really, mostly, themselves.

The biggest problem with the school wide drug testing is that it opens the door for the school district to invade its students’ personal lives. The school should be responsible for what students do here and only here, but there is no way to differentiate between what tests were failed as a result of drug abuse at school and what tests were failed as a result of drug abuse at home. And frankly, what the students do at home is none of the school district’s business.

The testing was put into effect three weeks into school—before all consent forms had been collected.

Students were called out to the field house in the middle of class where they remained until they could urinate. In the event that students could not urinate, they were given up to three hours to drink water and work up the need. If a student passed the three hour time limit, their test was thrown out and deemed an “automatic fail”. Three hours of class time were taken from students so that the school district could insert itself into their personal business. Three hours of state-mandated learning time were wasted.

District-wide drug testing is an invasion of privacy as well as an abuse of power. If it is allowed to slide, it is only a matter of time until they move on to something more invasive and more oppressive.