Chicago School will drug test ALL students

Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion on this...

Source

Beginning next fall, St. Patrick's High School, on the northwest side, will become the first in Illinois to require drug tests of ALL its students.

A number of public schools require students who participate in extra-curricular activities to undergo drug testing, but are barred by Supreme Court ruling from extending such tests to all students. Principal Joseph Schmidt said he considers the all-boys school, at 5900 W. Belmont Av., the "catalyst" in Illinois for universal testing.

Schmidt is quick to note that this will NOT be a "zero-tolerance" program. He said any student who tests positive will be asked to find a counseling or treatment option.

"The whole program has an emphasis of, 'Don't do drugs. If you do drugs, stop. If you can't stop, get some help,'" Schmidt said.

But he said St. Patrick's will expect improvement quickly.

"They have really 100 days, because that kid's going to get tested again," Schmidt said. "We'd better see some improvement, if not a total stop, in terms of what happens with that drug use."

Schmidt said parents of St. Patrick's 1,000 students are almost universally supportive. A task force of parents and school staff worked on the plan for several months, although he said talk first began at St. Patrick's in 1999, after DeLaSalle High School in New Orleans began similar testing. The Christian Brothers religious order operates both schools. Another Christian Brothers school, in Memphis, began drug testing in 2001. Schmidt said the St. Patrick's task force used the testing programs at both schools as models.

The firm employed by St. Patrick's to conduct the testing, Psychomedics, does drug testing at 2,600 businesses and 175 schools across the country.

All students will be required to undergo testing each fall, at a rate of 10-20 a day. About one-quarter of the student body will be tested at random at other times during the year, to assure enforcement, Schmidt said. The cost for the testing will be $60 per family each school year.

Schmidt said students who undergo retesting because of a positive result will pay individually for the retesting. The school is attempting to find donors who will underwrite the cost of the testing.

"We're really doing it to help our kids," Schmidt said. "We want to take a little peer pressure off of them and be able to have a good reason to say no to drugs."


It appears the school is saying this will be done in an effort to curb peer pressure.
Is this necessary and welcomed, or an invasion of privacy?
I have to laugh a little as I remember when Ron Regan told us that drug testing would only be something done in Government and high risk jobs.
Any thoughts?
How long before we drug test the entire populace of the United States with the reasoning that if you aren't doing anything wrong there is nothing to worry about?

 

weird.

funny that it is called St. Patricks

and also is this a private school? it says that parents have to 60 bucks a year for this? if it where public then i would think it would have been free?

other than that, if its a private school, i think they have every right to do these tests.

EDIT the all-boys school, aww nevermind, i missed that part

 

Personally I think it's stupid, but having gone to a private school myself, I know how it is. They are always doing stuff that practically violates students' rights and there's nothing the students can do about it.

 

I believe this is a private school.
It just strikes me as strange that a school would need to drug test a student for any reason other than athletics.

 

Sad, just sad...

 

Schmidt is quick to note that this will NOT be a "zero-tolerance" program.

'Don't do drugs. If you do drugs, stop. If you can't stop, get some help,'

these are the two things that make it not that bad. it appears they want to help them out. also, since its a private school then it should be a privlivage to go there and kicked out when you have done something bad or that was "non-tolerable". this place seems to try and help you out.

this will probably be the only kind of schools that will actually be able to use this. if it went public, meaning that all the students had to be tested, then i think it would cause an uproar at the PTA's or where ever it is you discuss this type of stuff

 

If you use the arguement that this school is correct, does it not become irrelevant if it is a private or public school in the larger scheme of things?
I just don't understand why a school would NEED to test a student who is not involved in sports.
Would it not be the responsibility of the parents to know this? Why would the school need to test people?

 

all i am saying is that since it is private that they can do some stuff that is different than a public school. i have, however, had to wear a uniform at a public school, and this one student i knew had their mom tell the principal that they did not have to wear the uniform because it was not a law or something. anyways it turns out that this student could wear regular clothes and the principal was scared that the other students would do something similar.

so, i am just saying that if you don't like it, tell your parents, hopefully they will side with you. but since this is about drugs i think they might just keep you there even though if you are drug free.

 

Yes, exactly, Bane...seems like a waste of time and money to me. They must have a big drug problem to justify the expense.

 

i wouldn't be surpirsed if there was one there. if the student's parents had money.

 

I can understand a dress code policy. All schools have a dress code. The public schools of course are very loose but still have limits in regards to provocative clothing and possible gang related wear.
What I am trying to understand is why a school, public or private, would ever have the right to pre-emptively test students.
I also have some concerns as to what would happen to these results.
Does these mean if a student is positive it would go in some kind of a record for the rest of there life.

 

i know what you are asking, and i think what you mean is if this goes down on the perm record. i am sure it would but i don't think most people (employers) would look at it. it is also wise to check your perm record at the beginning of every school year, to see what teachers have written about you. it also bugs the hell out of the person who operates the file system. they have asked me why i wanted to see it, i just said i was curious

well, i know you understand why sport players get tested. they even said that members from the student body were going to get tested as a show of an example. so maybe the school does have a drug problem.