This evening the Upper Freehold Township Board of Education held its second drug testing forum. As reported earlier the school board is investigating (with lots of prodding from the Feds) implementing a random drug screening of all high school students. The Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, along with myself arranged to have a speaker present who could talk about the science behind drug testing. Dr. Steven Marcus gave a very intelligent discussion that contradicted much of what the board had been told earlier by Ms. Steffner, of the White House office of National Drug Control Policy.
Some of the topics that were brought up at the meeting included the lack of studies showing that drug testing to be effective, privacy concerns, loss of trust between the students and the administration, and due process. A couple of students and a parent or two even used the F word (Freedom!).
I still think the board has already made up their mind, but I'm now at least hopeful that they will vote this down.
In related news the NJLP was mentioned in an article in the examiner:
School board meets with drug-testing company rep.
"I thought we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty but here we're going to be guilty until we're proven innocent." - Caroline Burek
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN - A drug-testing company representative from Ohio is the latest to weigh in on the random drug-testing issue in the local school district.
...
Upper Freehold's Richard Edgar, who attended the meeting as a representative of the libertarian party and has no children in the school district, said the policy would make kids choose between their rights and extracurricular activities. He also took issue with the board only presenting speakers in favor of the proposal and suggested it talk to the Drug Policy Alliance in Trenton.
See Examiner web site for full article.