Many young students are involved in drug use while at school.
Sending your child off to school can be very stressful, especially when you know your child may be exposed to many different types of pressures from fellow students. Among many other advantages, mandatory drug testing is one way that schools can attempt to cut back on drug usage within the school system.
Decreased Violence
Drugs and violence can be related to each other. The popular image of youth gangs ties them directly to drugs and violent crime.Drug use may also play a role in gang involvement at school. Research that was conducted in the 1980's and 1990's documented extensive youth gang member involvement in drug use and found that there was generally higher levels of drug use compared with non-gang members. If schools can cut back on drug usage, then the drug-related violence among students may decrease.
Interpersonal Relationships
Students develop many interpersonal relationships throughout their educational career. By taking drugs, it is a possibility that students may develop antisocial behavior and may fail to develop these important relationships. Mandatory drug screening may cause these students to rethink before they begin to use. Mandatory drug screening may discourage students from partaking in drug usage and the chances of developing positive interpersonal relationships might increase.
Decreased Peer Pressure
In addition to avoiding the cruelty of targeting students on an individual basis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Breyer notes that random drug testing could result in an unexpected benefit. In school, he says, many children will begin taking drugs in response to pressure from fellow peers. Observing that students are 10 times more likely to use drugs if their friends do, Breyer explains that random drug testing "offers the student a non-threatening reason to decline his friend's drug-use invitations, namely that he intends to play baseball, participate in debate, join the band, or engage in other activities." Many schools require random drug screening for athletics and clubs, so by implementing the random mandatory drug testing, students will have good reason to say "no" to their fellow peers when being pressured.
Prevention
Not only are schools and parents concerned with drug usage among students in school, they are also concerned with preventing future usage. By implementing mandatory random drug testing, students do not know when they will be tested for drugs, thereby discouraging students from taking drugs in the first place.
Tags: drug usage, random drug, drug screening, drug testing, random drug testing, taking drugs, among students
