What's wrong with peeing in a cup?
Glenn and Kathy Kiederer are suing the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania. They are upset about the requirement that any student participating in extra-curricular activities be drug tested. "They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup. They're violating her right to privacy," said Kathy. I don't quite agree with her premise. Kathy's daughter asked to participate in a club, and that's one of the requirements for admission. Her privacy is not violated unless the school says she has to get drug-tested whether she participates in extra-curricular activities or not. Even then, I'm not so sure that's a privacy issue. School districts are allowed to set parameters (dress codes, vaccinations, etc).
At any rate, I can't imagine a parent being upset over a non-invasive test. I would want my children tested. By putting the onus on the school district, it gets the parent off the hook of the old "You don't trust me" ploy and prevents what could be a divisive family issue.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 8% of eighth graders will use drugs in any given month. If my daughter were in that 8%, I'd want to know. Approximately 12% of eighth graders will consume alcohol in any given month. If my daughter were in that 12%, I'd want to know. Approximately 7% of eighth-graders will smoke marijuana. If my daughter were in that 7%, I'd want to know. Do you suppose the Kiederers are afraid of what they might find out?
"Middle school drug tests raise some parents' ire." The Dallas Morning News; September 23, 2012; p. 7A.
5 comments:
This is the second time Delaware Valley School District has been sued over their suspicion-less drug testing policy. Read "Theodore vs Delaware Valley School District." The Supreme Court gave Delaware Valley School District guidelines and the school district blatantly ignored them. So it sounds like you are okay with schools ignoring the Supreme Court. Also it is a violation of students privacy rights and it is so...scary that you are willing to surrender your constitutional rights (4th amendment rights) so easily. Wake up and Defend your rights or one day you will wake up and have none. Read "George Orwell 1984." Also Delaware Valley School District has two other drug testing procedures in place still. (1) Any parent can voluntarily have their student drug tested and (2)Policy 227 - Drugs/Alcohol/Paraphernalia - If the school has reasonable suspicion of a student, then that student can be drug tested. Why are you for drug testing the less-likely group of students? You are trying to deter the group of students that need the least deterrence -those involved in after school activities. Where does it stop? Next, it will be elementary school children! Students have rights on school grounds! Kudos for the Kiederers for teaching their children to defend theirs!
Sounds like you're another parent who's afraid of what he might find out. Children have civil rights, but school districts have the right to set policies and procedures. If the parent doesn't agree with that policy or procedure and efforts to change it don't avail, then they should take their child somewhere else.
You claim you are interested in the 4th amendment right of the child. The government going door-to-door and drug testing everyone would violate the 4th amendment, but drug testing a child before allowing him to participate in school activities does not -- that is not an unreasonable search or seizure. The child needs to understand the concept of choices -- I can participate in school activities if I choose to be drug tested. If I choose not to be tested, the consequence is that I cannot participate.
You claim to be interested in the child, but I wonder about that. I don't think that peeing in a cup will traumatize a child for life. Drugs, on the other hand, just might. Don't you think that if just one child is caught in the early stages of drug abuse and is prevented from succumbing to a ruined life and/or premature death, it would be worth it? Perhaps it is the people who support the drug testing who are really concerned about the children.
P.S. I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but I think if you will read the case you reference, you will find that the U.S. Supreme Court, though it didn't hear this particular case, found in other similar cases that a school had a right to test students in extra-curricular activities and that the students enjoyed no expectation of privacy. Drug testing did not violate the 4th Amendment. The case you reference was heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and was decided on the basis of the search and seizure article in the state constitution.
In the Theodore vs Delaware Valley School District case, the Supreme Court ruled that the district must have data to demonstrate there is a need for drug testing a specific group of students like the chess club. Delaware Valley School District has NO DATA.
It sounds like you are willing to give up all your rights willing. Perhaps you should be stripped searched at movie theaters just so no one slips in some treats that they did not purchase at the concession stand. All in the name of safety. So we will not see eye to eye. Mandatory drug testing of children in after school activities is a violation of 4th amendment rights! School districts can set policies/procedures but they have to be constitutional!
LOL - I am not afraid of being strip-searched at a movie theater. You are mixing apples and oranges as liberals are prone to do when they have no argument. However, if a movie theater were conducting strip searches, I'd just go to a different one. No violation of my rights, and the movie theater can still do what it wants. I suppose you don't approve of metal detectors, either.
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