Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 Source: Daily Advertiser, The (LA) Copyright: 2002 South Louisiana Publishing Contact: http://www.theadvertiser.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1670 Author: Lewis Carpenter DRUG TESTING WOULD BE GOOD FOR ALL ATHLETES Letters to the Editor I think that drug testing would be a good idea, but I do not think it should be randomly. If a person is a good student and has good grades, and just smoked one time, he could be expelled if the tests were done randomly. If that occurred, a sense of hopelessness might occur. The student would feel that he had already failed and gotten expelled so what would it matter if he smoked. On the other hand, drug tests would be good for students who are athletes. I can understand the necessity for athletes to be tested but not just the average student. If five students were selected for random testing, probably one of those would be a "user." Why take the chance of ruining the lives of the other four? If that one student wants to smoke, let him. They should have the choice to ruin their own life. Lewis Carpenter Lafayette High - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom