Let’s contrast the New Era editorial “A laptop tracking program run amok.” With the Intelligencer New Era news article “Drug-testing plan stirs little debate at Manheim Township High School.”
The editorial huffs “Forensic computer experts determined that Lower Merion School District officials secretly captured at least 56,000 webcam photographs – far more than they initially let on – from ‘missing’ laptops.” It criticizes school officials for “trampling on privacy rights.”
The news article reports “A proposal to implement drug testing at Manheim Township High School next year prompted little reaction from community members at a meeting last week. Only one district parent commented Thursday night on the plan, which will be subject to additional review before the board votes on it in June.”
Just about everyone is outraged at the Lower Merion school officials for surreptitiously taking thousands of photos within the privacy of students homes and even their bedrooms.
Yet only one person at the Manheim Township school board meeting thought to point out that drug testing is also an intrusion into the privacy of youngsters, literally examining their body fluids.
Note the following from a peer reviewed article in the “Journal of School Health” :
“Similar to results for marijuana use, drug testing of any kind and drug testing for cause and suspicion were not significant predictors for use of other illicit drugs among students in grades eight, 10, and 12. Within the high school subsamples, use of illicit drugs among high school male athletes and current marijuana users was not significantly different based on drug testing at the school. Even after controlling for student demographic characteristics, drug testing was not a significant predictor for other illicit drug use in any of the samples.”
Source:
Yamaguchi, Ryoko, Lloyd D. Johnston & Patrick M. O’Malley, “Relationship Between Student Illicit Drug Use and School Drug-Testing Policies,” Journal of School Health, April 2003, Vol. 73, No. 4, p. 163.
The irony is that youngsters smoking pot will be afraid to participate in sports and school activities, lest the use be detected. Yet these school activities are the best way to prevent youngsters from developing serious drug abuse problems. Kids without excess time on their hands are far less likely to get into trouble.
Given the choice, we prefer the Lower Merion’s foibles to Manheim Townships. The former won’t hurt anyone. The latter may.
