So my partner and I have decided to do a debate speech on Mandatory Drug Testing. We only spoke a few minutes about but she's suppose to call/text me here in a little bit, but I'm thinking its either mandatory drug testing for all athlete's or teachers. Not sure if it will be high school or college but either way, I'm more than likely going to have to debate why there shouldn't be mandatory drug testing. Since its not really a big issue to me, I'm neither really for or against but I'll have to debate why we shouldn't have mandatory drug testing. The only good real reason I can think of why it shouldn't be mandatory is because of the cost. Now I can dwell on that for a while because there is all sorts of factsto throw in the cost category but I need 2 other good support reasons why we shouldn't. Thats where I turn to you guys. What would be a few reasons outside of cost to not have mandatory drug testing for students or athletes?

 

What are you going to be testing for? Why would one drug be ok and not another.

 

See thats another thing that idk yet. I assume if its athlete's it would be for performance enhancing drugs/illegal drugs and for teacher it'd be for illegal drugs of course

 

Well lets say you **** test this teacher and find alcohol, is it ok for teachers to come to work hungover? Might be a difference in elementary, HS, and College educator.

 

It is really expensive to do and the results arnt that great. Mainly because of the fact that the students that are being tested dont use drugs because of the drug test. There are only so many students that get tested everytime so the chances of getting tested at our school is 5/125. I dont know of any students that have been caught. And ours actually tests for alcohol. I think our tests test for the enzymes that metabolize the drug. So they sometimes they can be detected a little longer.

I dont think it is bad. Since drugs are illegal testing for somethign that is illegal shouldnt be an issue. The students should not be doing drugs so they should have nothing to worry about. Testing teacher is a must as well.

 

how about doing a debate on mandatory drug testing on people who are on welfare

 

One argument I've heard is, it violates a persons constitutional rights. It is a socialist practice that is being implemented by the insurance companies.

 

The other thing is that it can potentially destroy someone's chances at various things like sports teams, scholarships, academic competitions etc.

I don't think someone should lose something like a full ride scholarship because they smoked a joint last weekend. They earned it and they probably deserve it.

On the other hand, if there was a way to test for chronic hard drug use vs. a 'one-time' thing then that would be better. In Arizona you can only be drug tested (it's random) if you are in an AIA sanctioned activity. Eg. sports, band, DECA, Mathletes etc. etc. And even if you turn up positive there isn't much they can do besides tell your parents. But I'm pretty sure none of the people in those activities are hard drug addicts. Meaning freebase/heroin/PCP and the likes.


Usually when people refer to drugs there's two categories, party drugs and sketchy drugs. I think 'sketchy' chronic drug offenses should be serious and that party drugs shouldn't be as big of a deal.

 

Look this one up if you go to findlaw.com...
Went all the way to the USSC...the student lost.

A policy in place applies to all students participating in interscholastic athletics. Students wishing to play sports must sign a form consenting to the testing and must obtain the written consent of the parents.

A seventh-grader, James Acton, signed up to play football. He was denied participation on the grounds that both he and his parents refused to sign the testing consent forms. The Actons filed suit, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from enforcement of the policy on the grounds that it violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The USSC ruled in the school district's favor---#1, this is something that the student was not obligated to do---hence, if he chose to go out for the team, he chose to abide by the rules.

The student going out for the team will also have a reduced expectation of privacy.

The students may remain fully clothed in giving the urine sample and are only observed from behind, if at all. The USSC also noted that these conditions are similar to those of public restrooms.

The drugs that the students are screened for do not vary according to the identity of the student.

The USSC also determined that deterring drug use is at least as important as enhancing efficient enforcement of the nation's laws. BTW---by the time the USSC ruled on this, the student was a sophomore in college.

Basically,schools can use drug tests if they are for co-curricular activities and everybody is tested---marching band members, debate team members, football players, etc...and later on the USSC ruled that these can be random, as well.

You just cannot test the students only.

I took a grad class in public school law---this can be found in the book, American Public School Law (5th Edition), by Kern Alexander and M. David Alexander.

Knox County Education Association v. Knox County Board of Education (US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit 1998)

The court held that when people enter the education profession they do so with the understanding that the profession is heavily regulated as to the conduct expected of people in that field. One time, suspicionless testing of people hired to be teachers and administrators is reasonable.

The court did, however, did also rule on "reasonable cause" to sufficiently limit the discretion of the officials administering the rule and, because the testing is clearly based on finding of individualized suspicion, this portion of the policy comports with the reasonableness of the Fourth Amendment.

Basically, if the Director of Personnel "reasonably suspects" that an employee's work performance or on-the-job behavior may be affected by illegal drugs or alcohol, they can be tested.

The Appeals Court, Sixth District held that suspicionless drug testing of teachers is constitutional.

Tim C.

 

Well I talked to her lastnight and we decided on mandatory drug testing for all college students and teachers. Yeah i thought about throwing in the ole violates people's constitutional rights. I think my 3 main points will be the coast, violates constitutional rights and if someone's put in the time it shouldn't matter if they do drugs or not. The cost being the big deal. Because say like IU they enroll around 40,000 students alone, say a **** test is a $1 a test thats $40,000 extra the school has to come up with. Who will pay that? Either Bloomington will raise property taxes or students tuition will be that much higher to cover the costs. I think i'm headed in the right direction now it's just getting your ideas on paper and making sense of it. Plus not sounding like a douche when your in front of the class talking about it. I'm going to go easy on her though. I only have one question for her. Plus she doesn't want me to drill her with questions so I won't I'll just make my point that the cost of doing so would be way too high. And i think it'd be unfair to take a kids scholorship away because they tested positive for mary-jay. Although i do not promote drug use. Plus your enrollment would go down thus driving tuition prices even higher.

 

if they can do what is needed of them, get good grades, and dont mess around and interfere with others, whats it matter what they do in their free time? its a free world...

edit: i dont condone the use of drugs, just playing devils advocate

and if shes hot, we will need pics to help you further

 

She ain't bad. I don't have any pics though and wouldn't post em if i did. But yeah thats how I see it. If a guy gets up and goes to work and works hard what the hell does it matter if he stoned out his mind from the minute he gets off work till he goes to bed of an evening.

I wish I would have thought about mandatory drug testing for people on welfare. That would have been an interesting topic to present in class. I'm just glad its my last speech ever. I have a high enough A in the class that i dont have to knock it out of the ball park i just have to get a little seeing eye single up the middle for insurance. I was just having trouble comeing up with a few reasons outside of the cost to support why students/teachers shouldn'thave mandatory drug testing.

 

I think one of there biggest reasons for not legalizing weed is because it is the gateway drug. Many people start with a little weed. Then eventually many begin to start using hard drugs that screw up there life. Im not saying all people do hard drugs that do weed, but MANY do.

 

i got forced to **** in a cup in highschool a few years back, and they said if i didn't **** w/in an hour i automatically fail.

 

At our school a computer randomly draws students. If you are not there that day, you automatically get tested the next 2 times. If you cannot for some reason **** within 3 hours, then you are automatically tested the next 2 times. If you just refuse, you fail.