KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CBS St. Louis) — A Kansas City high school will begin collecting hair from students to conduct mandatory drug tests.
KHSB-TV reports that Rockhurst High School will start the random drug testing during the 2013-14 school year.
“Our point is, if we do encounter a student who has made some bad decisions with drugs or alcohol, we will be able to intervene, get the parents involved, get him help if necessary, and then help him get back on a path of better decision making, healthier choices for his life,” Rockhurst Principal Greg Harkness told the station.
The school will collect 60 strands of hair from the student and test for several types of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. If a student comes back with a positive drug test, that student will have 90 days to get drug-free. The station reports the file will be destroyed for a student who tests positive after graduation and colleges and universities will never know about the failed test.
Matthew Brocato, the school’s junior class president, told The Kansas City Star that the mandatory drug testing is not to punish students who fail.
“When you hear ‘drug testing,’ you think cops,” Brocato told the Star. “At first you’re taken aback. Is it for the better?”
“What was most alarming for us is that when you asked our students if everyone else is doing it, they said, ‘Yes.’ But, in fact, they weren’t,” Harkness told KHSB. “It’s that perception I think among teenagers today that fuels the peer pressure – that there’s this idea that ‘Everyone is doing it, so I guess I have to do it myself.’”
Parents are also backing the school’s decision.
“We’ve had lots of conversations – that’s the thing I like most about it – it has opened up conversations around the dinner table with both my boys, and that’s been great for our family,”mother Tammy Privitera told the station.
The ACLU, though, believe school drug testing is a waste of time and money.
“Nothing prohibits it,” Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, told the Star. “But it is a colossal waste of money.”
Private schools are allowed to test all students while public schools are restricted by the Fourth Amendment.
Yea, go ahead and check for drugs. If people are going to do drugs they are going to do drugs, simple as that. As far as counceling goes, well I know from first hand experience with more than a few years under my belt andf all that counceling and rehab did was turn me very very bitter against them bastards. I did however meet some really awsome/ super good drug contacts from being in rehab and counseling though. I have seen far too many kids and adults that just said screw it – for the worse – when they were forced into some damned councelors office or some damndable rehab center. I hate them bastards about as much as the damn cops and the ptb. I bet they will be asking these kids to snitch on those that they got their drugs from too.
I wonder if they are collecting hair samples to see the trends in drugs that kids are using these days? Hair sample test for many different things and for a long time. Hopefully these kids parents are smart and shut this down real quick. Isn’t this breaking some of these kids rights? I mean come on how much shit are they going to pull on kids now days? Let them live there lives and do the drugs they want to for phuck sakes. Like digger said forcing these kids to do something they don’t want to doesn’t help and putting them in programs with other offenders could possibly let them in to deeper holes than they are already in. I agree 100% with what digger said…..great contacts with a lot more to offer and usually a lot smarter than the last one you used to score from1
it’s DNA collection, not drugs.
Heh, I guess it would suck to go through high school looking like a bald swim team member, but I’d still graduate with a 3.98 and they could still kiss my ass.
Although there was that one time I got a little too buzzed at lunch. I was pitching in a game at 3PM, a hard liner buzzed my my ear and kinda freaked me out, so I faked a sore shoulder and hit the bench. But that’s hardly reason to call in the gestapo.
No more the land of the free and home of the brave. In quite a few ways my country is worse but you are headed downhill and every day the gradient is steepening a little bit more.
“Private schools are allowed to test all students while public schools are restricted by the Fourth Amendment.”
So are they just ‘suspending’ (yes) the fourth amendment at this school, or what?
They are not suspending shit, the people are failing to enforce.
I know, Henry.
I was being facetious again. 🙂