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     Students' Rights and Privacy Position Paper
Main | Legislative Guide | Talking Points | Grassroots Guide | Position Paper Our drug laws and policies infringe on students' rights and privacy, and thus have a negative impact on our generation. Our organization believes schools ought to respect students, and have confidence in their ability to make mature, responsible decisions. Unfortunately, our country currently sees youth as a danger to society, and adults tend to judge youth guilty.Due to our country's current approach to drug use and drug users, the tendency to infringe on students' rights and privacy is rampant and startling. When schools suspect drug use, abuse, or addiction, rather than turn to teachers, counselors, and parents, schools turn to the police. Or, schools subject students to the humiliation of searches, searches of their person, their property, and, more and more commonly, their urine. Our organization sees such programs as both ineffective and unethical. Recently, the President proposed that the government invest in testing to identify students who uses drugs. The President not only wants to test students suspected of drug use, but all students who want to participate in after-school activities and sports. The President hopes that testing will act as a deterrent to drug use. Yet, a study that the government itself funded found that testing has no impact on drug use among youth. Moreover, rather than assist those students who do use, abuse, or become addicted to drugs, testing steers students away from the activities that actually do deter drug use: after-school activities and sports. Our organization opposes testing because it is both ineffective and unethical. For better or worse, drug use is a reality in our country's schools. Schools should tackle the problems of drug abuse and addiction, but they ought not infringe on students' rights and privacy. Schools should try to build trust between students and adults. Testing sends a clear, concise message to students: that their teachers and administrators don't trust them, that they are guilty until proven innocent. If teachers and administrators do not trust students, how can schools expect students to turn to them for advice and counseling? The threats that schools see in drug use allow administrators to justify a blatant, deliberate violation of students' rights and privacy. Yet, as a handful of courts have pointed out, schools that test students for drug use tend to lack proof that drug abuse and addiction are actual problems at the school, that those tested are connected to the problem, and that testing is a solution to the problem. Another alarming trend in our country's schools is the tendency to turn to the police, rather than teachers, counselors, and parents, when schools suspect drug use, abuse, or addiction. In January of 2004, the principal of a South Carolinian school asked police to storm the school and search the person and property of many students. He suspected drug use in his school. Drug-sniffing dogs and police entered the school, pointing guns at students and searching them and their belongings. Neither drugs nor weapons were found. Yet, the youth who our drug laws and policies are meant to protect found themselves the victims of these laws and policies. They found themselves scared, humiliated, ashamed, and angry. Our organization sees prohibition as an attack on students' rights and privacy, an attack on youth. When schools turn to police to address drug use, abuse, and addiction, that our country's current approach to drug use and drug users is a failure is evident and undeniable. We will continue to speak truth to the harms of prohibition. We will educate our peers, parents, teachers, and legislators until our drug laws and policies respect the rights and privacy of students. | |
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