ROUNDTABLE: GHS drug testing - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail

Should Galesburg High School initiate a random drug testing program for students in participating in sports?

School board should progress by caution
Instituting a drug testing program is easier to promote than to do. What kind of drug testing? Is it for controlled substances like marijuana or performance enhancing drugs like steroids? Will there be a test for alcohol? Will it be administered to every athlete, randomly or with probable cause?
Obviously, schools should do everything they can to stop students from using drugs and policing athletes is a place they have forcible leverage. But it’s much in addition complicated than a unblended yes or no answer.
The most widely used drug is, of course, pure spirit and testing beneficial to that must be done within a few hours of its use. Testing for illegal drugs has legal ramifications beyond the school.
While it is a worthy aim, the board must decide the purpose of the policy and study other successful programs to see how they are administered. Only then can it decide how to proceed.

Drug testing won’t prevent drug use
No. First, if this is RANDOM drug testing, all students should be involved from the beginning. Don’t single out segments of the school. Second, the drug tests don’t focus on many of the drugs kids use these days: over-the-counter meds, prescription meds, inhalants, and animal spirits drinks (energy drinks = drugs? YES!).
Third, I don’t need more of my duty dollars going to more half-baked, narrowly-focused program that will only make kids switch from year-round drug employment to off-season drug use.
The bottom line: kids use drugs when they are ignored by their parents. I saw it at what time I was in school without greater degree of 15 years ago. My friends who did drugs had parents who cared more about their jobs, convivial life or material things more than their kids. The parents didn’t really know their kids or were scared of them. Utterly pathetic. Like the man said, “if you don’t get it at home, you’re gonna eventuate looking.”

Drop the casual and experiment all athletes
Yes and no. Drug testing, yes. Random, no. “Random” has a way of becoming selective. The and nothing else way to defend fairness is to test all of the participants at the same time. Athletes who miss the testing don’confidentially play.
Those who object to the inconvenience of drug testing can point to the expense. But suppose that the testing is concluded on a large scale, it’s a safe bet there is a lab close by willing to proffer a manageable bid for the contract.
While we are on the make subordinate of qualifying students for sports, let’s put academics back in the mix without ceasing a meaningful level. Forty years ago and 60 miles east of Galesburg, a student who was carrying less than a “C” in ANY rank was not allowed to compete. It helps teens learn to employment their time wisely, maintain high standards and stay out of trouble. What a concept!

Random testing might prevent some drug use
I have no moot point by random drug testing in the schools for young athletes. Illegal drugs be obliged absolutely no place in our schools. We neediness to do whatever we can to keep them away. If that means randomly testing the students to show that the schools are serious, so be it. If you are clean, good. If not, be prepared to appearance the consequences.
I look at random testing like this: The kids who wouldn’t work out drugs anyway have nothing to fear, and this would corroborate that. The kids who may subsist tempted to do drugs may think twice if their eligibility is in jeopardy. The athletes who are doing drugs, and facing a random test, would hopefully have being much in addition likely to stop doing drugs exactly to fear of losing eligibility for sports.
Yes, remedy testing have power to be slightingly embarrassing. But if you are clean, the embarrassment is short lived.
The Weekly Roundtable runs each Friday and is made up of four panelists from the community. Community panelists answer one question each week in 150 words or fewer. To apply to become a panelist, write to Tom Martin at tmartin@register-mail.com or 140 S. Prairie St., Galesburg, IL 61401.