Big Man Blogging

Lewisville ISD is set to begin random drug testing of basically a majority of it’s middle and high school students.

This is a mandatory program that forces students to prove they aren’t using drugs in order to participate in in extracurricular activities like team sports, academic competition, clubs and other school related organizations.

You even have to agree to random testing to drive a car and receive a parking sticker from LISD.

You don’t even have to pass a drug test to get a drivers license!!!

The program will cost the district about 370-thousand dollars! LISD says it’s grant money well spent, because the goal of the program is not punitive but to get students who are consistently using drugs recreationally, the help they need so they can be productive students. Students do not get suspended from school for positive tests, they get suspended from competition in extracurricular activities and are forced to go to counseling.

I see what LISD is trying to do and in theory addressing teen drug use and abuse is absolutely necessary. I just wonder if drug testing kids is the answer?

I have yet to see any entity of any kind successfully implement a drug testing program. Even businesses who’s very credibility demands stringent drug screening fail at it miserably:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL=FAILURE (ask congress)
NFL=FAILURE (see shawn merriman-sd chargers or his hero lawrence taylor or some of your favorite cowboy’s of the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s)
OLYMPICS=FAILURE (you can visit marion jones in prison in fort worth)
TOUR DE FRANCE=FAILURE (lance armstrong-still rumored, floyd landis-confirmed doper)
BOXING-FAILURE (steroid and recreational drugs are rampant)
NBA=FAILURE (the league has been littered with drug issues see chris “birdman” anderson)

My point is if these multi-billion dollar sports entities, who have Congress breathing down their necks, all sorts of Random testing and absolute credibility on the line everyday can’t run credible Random Drug Testing programs, what makes LISD think it can?

There are all sorts of Grey areas that exist in Drug testing kids. What concerns me most is the stigma that goes with being yanked out of class, in front of your peers, walked down the hallway and forced to urinate in a cup.

In a typical Middle or High School it takes a rumor about 5 minutes to morph into full blown scandal.

I wonder what will be said if an athlete on monday is drug tested and on friday, isn’t suited up for the game?

I wonder what life will be like that week in school with the rumors and teasing that come with adolescence?

I wonder if any counseling will help the student deal with the reality that a private matter became public the second the student was summoned from class?

I wonder what will happen if a false positive test prevents a student from participation or even a scholarship?

I wonder what will happen if a parent mounts a legal challenge to the Random Drug Testing policy?

I wonder if LISD should simply teach drug prevention and not drug test it’s students?

I wonder how many LISD employees would pass a Random Drug Test? (they aren’t tested)

it’s a big man’s world, it’s a big man blogging.