School Searches and Drug Testing - Research Paper Example

School Searches and drug testing Introduction Once a group of students come together in a school setting, they are most likely to influence each other into indulging in bad behavior. The crowd energy in them pushes them to getting into very risky behavior such as drug abuse. If this happens and goes unnoticed, it will definitely hinder their learning and general growth in life. This being the case, the behavior of students should always be monitored to make sure that rules and regulation are adhered to. One way to do this is through school searches and drug testing. School searches School administrators are charged with the mandate of ensuring that proper learning and observation of rules and regulations takes place. With that regard, there are some checks and searches that are conducted from time to time to ensure that students don’t get involved in mischievous activities such as drug abuse and other related misbehaviors. These checks are mostly done through random searches aimed at unearthing the tricky schemes that some of the students might be involving themselves in. The searches are conducted in the students’ premises, searching their private property such as lockers and bags in order to find out whether they have stored some drugs or unwanted apparatus. There must be enough suspicion to show that students are violating or breaking the rules of the school for a search to be conducted. That means that a search should not be conducted in case there is no evidence to show that there some misbehaviors. If that happens, it would be a violation of the rights of privacy of the students. Still, the searches should not be over aggressive in such a manner that it intrudes in the very personal life of students considering that they are young and delicate due to gender reasons. It was in the ruling made by the Supreme Court in New Jersey v. T.LO. whereby a student was being implicated for smoking in the school’s lavatory which was a violation of the school’s rule and regulations. In fact he was with his girl friend when this was happening. He was taken to the principal’s office, where he was to face the man in charge. The deputy principal, on seeing that, decided to check his purse too New Jersey (325). He got more evidence showing that the student was also involved in the sale of bang. A pack of cigarettes was discovered plus rolling papers that were mostly kept for the making of marijuana. It was held that the evidence was varied since the deputy principal had the right to search the student’s purse in accordance with the schools rules and regulations. The situation here warranted the search of the students purse because there reasonable suspicion. That was the requirement by the fourth amendment that, the prerequisite for any search to be conducted is reasonable suspicion. Therefore, in situations where search warrants may not be readily available, one should always be guided by the principal of reasonable suspicion so that there is no violation the Fourth’s Amendment’s prohibition for unreasonable searches. Students have the right to expect their privacy to be respected. Therefore there a balance must be struck between a student’s expectation of privacy and the school’s administrations legitimate right of conducting searches. The conducting of searches in student premises is allowed considering the fact that even government employee offices are searched. In a certain case involving the search of government’s employees’ office, neither a search warrant nor reasonable cause was needed. The work must be “a non investigatory work related intrusion or an investigatory work related intrusion or an investigatory search for evidence of suspected work related employee misfeasance”. Ortega ( 709). Failure to act on time while waiting for enough evidence to warrant a search can result to irreparable damage that can have adverse effects on the particular government’s office. Therefore there is the need for random suspicionless search. If those kinds of searches work well for government offices, then they must work very well in public schools. General drug testing A decision was made by the Supreme Court to pass laws that allow drug and alcohol testing programs among employees, patients in hospitals and students in school. The Supreme Court allowed for warrantless drug testing among workers. This move was aimed at achieving mainly two objectives. First, it would make employees to avoid using drugs during working hours. Also, drug testing provides businesses’ interest in determining the cause of accidents that happen during work. Many accidents take place during working hours and usually lead to the loss of many lives. These accidents are sometimes caused by some reckless employees who are perhaps under the control of drugs and alcohol. Therefore drug testing for all employees; teachers, police officers, and several other government employees should be made constitutional. The constitution is also approving of the testing of hospital patients. While there might be a little justification regarding drug testing among employees and hospital patients. All workers in the South Carolina Public Hospital agreed to prosecute all the mothers who tested positive for drugs. A task force was formed that formulated the policy for carrying out the tests, maintaining the evidence gathered, and using it to press charges for those mothers who tested positive for drugs. One might wonder why high school students have to be tested for drugs yet they are not in the level of employees and patients who have been mentioned earlier. This is due to the fact that they are young and not so much exposed. It has been realized that there has been an increase in student drug intake. In Vernonia School District, the court approved of random drug testing program among school going athletes Vernonia Sch. (94). ). A gradual rise in drug intake among students had been observed in the Vernonia schools and they were claiming that there was nothing the schools would do to deter them from that indulgence. Many students were getting into drugs so that they would scale the ladder of success in sports which automatically guaranteed one of a star personality in school. In the fields, the students who were under the influence of drugs did not observe any sports rule and this lead to fatal cases that involved serious injuries for fellow players. The schools’ first reaction was attempting to stop the problem by giving counseling classes to all students through special speakers. Trained dogs were also employed in order to identify those who were doing drugs. However, the problem still persisted and this called sterner actions to be taken. There was an introduction of tests for all participants in sports activities. There was a form that had to be signed by everyone in the games consenting to taking part in the test. Tests were to be conducted randomly for those who wished to play a part in any sporting activities. The same was to go on from time to time as the sporting activities went on. Privacy was minimized among the student athletes as the court noted, because even the locker rooms were made semi-public. This was where the testing usually took place. Not very long ago, the Supreme Court held that Vernonia School District with Board of Education v. Earl in the year 2002, still involving student drug testing policy, passed that all students willing to participate in extracurricular activities must undergo suspicionless drug tests Board ofducation (47) . Urine tests were the most commonly used ways of investigating abuse of drugs. This trend was however criticized by some students and parents, a move that saw to the leniency in suspicionless random drug testing. They claimed that the testing was violating some of their rights. However, suuspicionless random testing still remained for those who were involved in games in a bid to furthering the School’s District important interest in curbing drug abuse among its young kids. These tests were done on those who were participating in athletics and other field games in Vernonia. Drug testing in schools With the rampant increase in drug abuse in schools, many parents are calling for more attention by school administrators in order to curb this growing menace. The Supreme Court has extended drug testing to include public school students mostly in Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton (1995). The practice of drug testing has thus become more acceptable and it is being used in many places. This practice will perhaps spread and become a trend that is practiced the world over. Some people are paying for drug tests using their drug education funds. The test for alcohol and other recreational drugs is much cheaper than the test for steroids. Steroids are hard drugs that need thorough screening and which may have adverse effects if they taken continually. It has become a prerequisite for playing sports. A 1995 U.S. Supreme court decision supported the drug testing for athletes of public schools by terming the act as constitutional. The court nullified the claim that there must be suspicion before drug tests are conducted in schools. This decision was perhaps guided by the belief that prevention is better than cure and that offence is the best defense. Once the test has been conducted and a child tests positive, the parent is usually notified and a second test is carried out immediately to make sure that o mistake was made. Once the second test confirms that the child is truly involved in drug abuse, the culprit is taken through certain counseling and the faces temporary or permanent suspicion depending on the extent of the involvement. All these things do take place bearing in mind the fact that rights to privacy must be observed. A lot of support is also offered during the whole program of testing. Effects drug abuse among students If this behavior is not checked, it may have tragic effects on the participants. It is possible to find that students in a school environment share the same needles due to inadequate supply. The environment is also limiting and in the sense that there is little mobility and therefore the students who are involved in drug abuse is forced to go by the abiding conditions. Once the students share the students share the needles, they are likely to encourage the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. More so, once a person is under the control of drugs, they are not in their right frame of mind and therefore may engage themselves in unscrupulous activities. They may get involved in irresponsible sexual behavior, due to lack of sober judgment. This may lead to spread of sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies. The result of this is poor performance in education and some malpractices like abortion. Drugs are not cheap. Once a person gets to a stage whereby they cannot do without them and are addicted they can result to doing anything in order to obtain the money to purchase the drugs. The y may get involved I crime or even in promiscuity in exchange money. These behaviors can definitely a student’s education to be in turmoil. General withdrawal Drug addicts only keep the company of their fellow drug addicts, and minimize interactions with other members of the society. Having in mind that man is a social animal and cannot be complete in the absence of proper socialization; this behavior can have tragic effects especially on the young students who are yet to reach full age. It can definitely lead to poor performance in academics thus darkening the future of the young students. All these are just but very few of the effects that drugs can have on school going children. All of them are harmful. That is why the abuse of drugs should always be checked in schools. Drugs have their own way of destabilizing the society too. It breaks the close bonds especially between members of the family. The children no longer get on well with their parents. The same case applies for those parents who indulge in drug abuse. They lack unity and therefore they can’t be good role models for their kids. The kids can also follow the same path. This is what happened with Whitney Houston and her daughter. She was so much into drugs as she was bringing up her daughter. The little child copied from the behavior of her mother and this lead to the little girl’s addiction. Conclusion There is a general belief that offense is the best defense. The problem of drug abuse should be tackled from its roots and it should be prevented when it is emerging. When children are in their Teen years, this is when they are most likely to get involved in the habit of substance abuse. It is at this time that they feel most energetic and want to be left to rule their world. They become members of groups that get involved in unscrupulous behavior. They also develop cunning ways of executing their illegal plans such as sneaking drugs into the school compound. As such, the school administrators should be very keen in making sure that attempts to carry out such activities in school by students are completely halted. This therefore warrants the conducting of random searches in schools as this aimed at the greater good. It should not be viewed as if it’s a way of intruding in the students’ private life but rather as a way of helping them escape from the snares of lack of self control during teenage. Therefore, school searches should be encouraged so that high levels of discipline are maintained in schools and this is going to assure of the security of school going kids. They should be conducted in a mild yet strict manner so as to ensure that no party, either students or the administration, feels offended. Works Cited Read More