Pubdate: Tue, 25 Sep 2007
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2007, The Detroit News
Contact:  http://detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Jennifer Kern
Note: Jennifer Kern, a research associate at the Drug Policy 
Alliance, spearheads the New York-based group's campaign to provide 
parents, caregivers and educators with tools to oppose random student 
drug testing in schools.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)

JUST SAY NO TO RANDOM STUDENT DRUG TESTING

The Office of National Drug Control Policy is hosting the fifth 
regional summit of 2007 in Detroit, which is designed to persuade 
local educators and politicians to implement across-the-board random, 
suspicionless student drug testing. The Bush administration is 
selling a seductive premise: If you test students, they will finally, 
at long last, "just say no" to illegal drugs (or face being caught by a test).

While the simplicity of this theory can be appealing, this unproven 
policy actually runs counter to well-established principles of how 
educators and parents can best promote healthy choices among 
adolescents, particularly those most "at risk."

Students, educators and concerned citizens will attend the summit in 
Detroit to provide educators with important missing information they 
need to critically access a policy that is costly, intrusive and 
potentially harmful to students.

Discussion of the scientific research evaluating random student drug 
testing will be conspicuously absent from the presentations of this 
government summit. For example, in March 2007, the American Academy 
of Pediatrics published a policy statement holding, "there is little 
evidence of the effectiveness of school-based drug testing in the 
scientific literature." In fact, researchers at the University of 
Michigan conducted the largest study on the topic to date, which 
compared 94,000 students in 900 American schools with and without a 
drug testing program, and found virtually no difference in illegal drug use.

Additionally, the federal office has yet again failed to invite 
representatives from the Association of Addiction Professionals, the 
National Education Association or the National Association of Social 
Workers to the summit so they could discuss their concerns: that 
these programs break down relationships of trust between students and 
adults, hinder open communication, contribute to a hostile school 
environment, and generally undermine the very protective factors that 
have been shown to help keep young people stay connected to school 
and out of trouble with drugs

Urine testing risks deterring students who refuse to consent from 
extracurricular activities based on principle, fear of humiliation or 
a desire to avoid detection. Of particular concern are students at 
the "margins" who have much to gain from participating in 
extracurricular activities. Erecting obstacles to their participation 
carries even greater risks of harm. The programs also punish those 
who test positive by suspending them from after-school activities.

While summit presenters insist the programs are non-punitive, they in 
fact rely on the threat of removing students from the very activities 
proven most effective in keeping them supervised and connected from 3 
p.m. to 6 p.m. -- peak drug taking hours for teens.  If that's not 
punishment, what is?

Drug testing, in fact, provides limited information about student 
drug use. The standard five panel test has a short window of 
detection for most drugs other than marijuana and reveals nothing 
about alcohol, tobacco, Ecstasy, OxyContin or inhalants. Each drug 
added to the standard test ratchets up the cost and few schools can 
afford the gold standards of certified laboratories.

Testing may trigger oppositional behavior -- such as trying to "beat" 
the test. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns mandatory testing 
may inadvertently encourage more students to abuse alcohol -- is not 
included in many standard testing panels -- or may motivate some 
drug-involved adolescents to switch to harder drug that leave the 
system quickly.

Drug testing is an imperfect procedure that introduces a plethora of 
problems regarding false positives, false negatives, specimen 
collection, chain of custody and storage. Schools must ask students 
to disclose their private medical information regarding their 
prescription medications to control for false positives. While 
promises of confidentiality are touted, when programs pull a student 
from class for testing and then suddenly suspend them from the team, 
it is not difficult for other students and teachers to figure out test results.

I urge Michigan educators to do their own research before accepting 
the promises of random student drug testing.

Districts in other parts of the country have learned the hard way. 
After five years the Janesville School District in Wisconsin 
abandoned their random drug testing program with a $20,000 annual 
price tag because it failed to reduce drug use among students, 
particularly binge drinking. The Dublin School District in Ohio 
abandoned their $35,000 drug testing program and instead hired two 
full time substance abuse counselors. Join educators across the 
country and "just say no" to across-the-board random student drug testing.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake