Nick Jimenez

Sunday, October 3, 1999

Keeping drugs out of schools will take more than testing

High school is about tests and pop quizzes. There are tests in which students write essays, calculate mathematical formulas, draw maps, do science experiments - and now perhaps they will tinkle into a cup in another kind of test.
   Drug tests may come to the Corpus Christi Independent School District. Richard Avila, the district's athletic director, and high school coaches are considering the idea. The thought is that it will make young people think twice about using drugs.
   Used to be that the toughest thing about high school was keeping those bobby socks up, trying to keep the ducktails greased down and the jeans pegged just so. The sharpest weapon anyone wielded was to spread a rumor that a girl was "easy."
   We had heard of marijuana, but we were convinced that it, like a lot of other forbidden things, would make us go blind, or cause our hand to drop off. There was drinking but I always thought that there was more bragging than actual imbibing. We talked a lot about sex, but the shame that came with pregnancy - remember shame? - was usually enough of a deterrent.
   Now security dogs prowl school hallways. Armed guards patrol campuses. Some people want to install metal detectors in schools.
   We want to protect kids, but we're afraid of them, too. We fear them enough that we're willing to impose intrusions on them that we wouldn't try on adults without a lot of good reasons. I don't want kids on drugs any more than I want the pilot who flies the airliner I travel on to be on drugs, or the operator of heavy construction equipment on the road with me, or the driver of the truck that's on my back bumper. But the idea of random drug testing in the high schools makes me uneasy.
   If we want to catch kids who are on drugs, then testing is the cheap way out, even at $20 to $50 a test, or even at a price that could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
   But if we want to keep kids off drugs, that's a bigger job than telling a kid to urinate into a cup.
   If we're serious about keeping kids healthy and on the right track so that drugs don't enter their world, that means hiring enough counselors so that every kid can be paid special attention. In too many instances, the only time a high school student sees a counselor is if their schedule is messed up, they get an award or they get into trouble.
   We've got to make sure that kids don't disappear into the masses of our overpopulated high schools. No wonder principals want their students to wear badges. Workers on an assembly line get more individual attention than most high school students.
   We know that some kids come to class battling psychological problems, that many are carrying emotional burdens and in some cases are living amidst family problems that literally is driving the adult members of their household to drugs and drink. Why should we be surprised if they find solace in drugs and alcohol?
   Putting social workers and psychologists on school campuses is more expensive than ordering drug tests, but it's a deeper commitment, too, to the health and welfare of children.
   Drug testing is becoming more a part of our way of life. In the adult world, the responsibility of putting lives into the hands of others often demands drug tests. Enhancing athletic performance with drugs is a form of cheating, even aside from the damage athletes do to themselves. But in the adult world, drug tests are the first step. In schools, they should be the last step, or at least not the only step.
   Drug tests in schools are an easy way of addressing a problem we fear is larger than we think. If we believe the threat of drugs merits the intrusion into the lives of hundreds or perhaps thousands of kids, then we ought to do more than just order a lot of little cups.
  

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