Debate

Opening

Randomly drug testing high school students is the best way to keep our learning environment and community safe and productive. “Today there is a collective national awareness that an unacceptable number of our teens are involved in the use of dangerous drugs such as methamphetamines, ecstasy, heroin, and have easy access to high-grade marijuana. Drug use is known to result in risky sexual behaviors, automobile accidents, and even death (Brady).” Deaths related to drug use now outnumber deaths due to gunshots in America. Recent studies show that one in four high school students use drugs on a monthly basis. This statistic is double what it was in the nineties when only one in eight students used drugs on a monthly basis (Taboada). Random drug testing will not single out any one individual and is not used to violate anyone’s personal rights. By randomly drug testing students, each student runs the same risk of being tested and therefore this method is fair.

A major misconception that surrounds drug testing is the factor of money. My opponents may argue that drug testing costs schools high amounts of money that could be used elsewhere such as “education.” However, what they conveniently will not tell you is that schools are provided with federal funding each year to use towards implementing drug testing into schools. The “No Child Left Behind Act” specifically authorizes funds that are to be used solely for the purpose of drug testing of students. If the schools choose not to drug test, they lose out on the opportunity and money because it only for use on drug testing. If schools choose not to drug test, the government will deduct this money from their yearly funding.

Many people feel that drug testing is a violation of human rights. People claim that drug testing violates the Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV). However, the Fourth Amendment states that it guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Drug testing students is not a search or seizure...