In 2000, three principled youths, Shaun Joye, Melissa Greiner, and Anna Zdepski, refused a mandatory government school drug test based on libertarian beliefs. All three believed that they had the right not to be searched without due process. The administrators at Hunterdon cared little about their beliefs. They were thrown out of all school activities. Shaun had been working hard all year on the school play, his part was quickly given to someone else.
The effect of drug testing polices like this is that no libertarian minded youth shall be permitted to participate in extracurricular activities without compromising on their beliefs.
Your children are not safe! There is an effort being made to spread the policy to all districts in New Jersey. The Principal of Hunterdon High, Christine Steffner, is expanding her crusade against student rights. She has been accepting funding from the Federal government to spread this outrage to other schools.
In my school district, Steffner has bullied the Upper Freehold Township school board into giving her a lone soapbox to present a biased view of drug testing. She continually presents selected parts of studies and dismisses opposition with imaginary threats of dead school children. (I couldn't find any examples of student overdoses in Upper Freehold).
"However, among the eight, 10th, and 12th grade students surveyed in this study, school drug testing was not associated with either the prevalence or the frequency of student marijuana use, or of other illicit drug use. Nor was drug testing of athletes associated with lower-than-average marijuana or other illicit drug use by high school male athletes. Even among those who identified themselves as fairly experienced marijuana users, drug testing also was not associated with either the prevalence or the frequency of other illicit drug use." - Journal of School Health, Relationships Between Student Illicit Drug Use and School Drug-TestingPolicies. April 2003.
When presented with the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics (along with the American Public Health Association, the National Education Association, the National Council on Drug and Alcohol Dependence) oppose drug testing. Steffner dismisses the AAP by making the ridiculous assertion that they just want to make money and do the testing themselves.
"The security of the majority outweighs the rights of the minority." - Christine Steffner demonstrating her ignorance of the fact that our country was founded based on the principle of protecting the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority
The Upper Freehold school board currently refuses to let anyone other than anti-freedom, pro drug testing speakers at the board meetings and drug testing forums. Their website is completely one sided, containing only links to anti-freedom/pro-drug testing sites. Despite criticism, they refuse to put information about the Safety First project or the ACLU Drug Testing site. In New Jersey’s Northern Valley Regional School District the school board allowed speakers from both sides. When presented with both sides of the story the school board decided that random drug testing wasn't a viable option.
I do volunteer work with kids. As a Scoutmaster (and a parent), I know that the best way to reach out to kids is to have them trust you. Mandatory drug testing violates the trust between the school system and the students. Policies that disrespect the individual rights of our children drive a wedge between them and the administration. The mistrust generated will make kids apprehensive to seek help on a variety of issues. Drug abuse is just one of they many pitfalls that teens can fall into.
"Fear in the mind of teenagers is a beautiful thing." - Christine Steffner
I've raised my children to believe in the principles that our country was founded on. The government school system will soon force them to choose between their principles and taxpayer funded extracurricular activities. At a minimum, conscientious objectors should have the option of opting out with their parents permission.
The deterrent effect of drug and alcohol testing was present for the index of past year illicit drug use and combined drug and alcohol use, each at two follow-up time points. If DAT were to have an impact, the expected deterrent effect likely would be that the policy would alter recent (e.g., past month) use of drugs or drugs and alcohol, since student-athletes were under the threat of testing during that time period, but not during the summer months. However, no differences were noted at any of the four follow-up time points for past month indices of use of drugs or use of drugs and alcohol. With 16 opportunities overall to demonstrate a substance-use deterrent effect during 2 years and four follow- up assessments (Table 3), only four effects were significant. - SATURN Study often cited by Steffner as providing absolute proof that drug testing works.