Kara Oliver
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Should HIgh Schools Drug Test Their Athletes?
Back when I was in high school, our school board added a new policy where all athletes would be randomly drug tested. If the athletes failed, then they were suspended from two of their games. This policy became very controversial among most students, faculty members, and parents. Most students, of course, disagreed with this because they felt as if it was an invasion of privacy and that it was completely ridiculous that they were gonna drug test a bunch of high school kids. All the parents, with exception to some of them, disagreed with the students and thought it was a great idea. The parents and the school's faculty believed that threatening the athletes with random drug testing would keep the students away from the drugs and out of trouble, even if this meant the best football/basketball players being suspended. In my opinion, I believed the drug testing was just a waste of time and money. The school board believed that this was going to change many athletes into better students and that we would be a drug free campus. But in reality, the drug testing didn't change the way students felt about drugs and didn't stop them from the students from doing them. If anything, it encouraged the students more to do drugs because they were so annoyed with the fact that they might be drug tested. So one can see many valid points and why they should drug test, but either way it isn't going to keep the athletes away from the drugs.
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I feel like it helps in most cases to keep athletes from doing drugs because if they are really dedicated to their sport then they wouldn't want to take the risk. In my high school all students that participated in extra curricular activities or parked on campus had agree to be drug tested. I know I did not want to risk having those things taken away so I stayed away from drugs but yes there are always the kids that still do the drugs and suffer the consequences. But for a serious athlete then I believe the policy will keep him/her from doing the drugs.
ReplyDeleteShae N.
I agree with your argument. I know that at my high school extra curricular activities were very popular among students and it was a very competitive field. I feel like if they tried to drug test our students, it would be an outrage among both parents and students who thought it would be ridiculous. I think that when you say in reality drug testing didn't change the way students felt about drugs is correct because no matter what students are going to automatically rebel against it, and could cause even more uproar and disagreement. I feel like it's almost a defense mechanism as a student because you do not want to be called out as a "drug" student. It could potentially ruin someone's character. I am not saying that students should do drugs but underneath it all it would just cause more argument.
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