The Vernonia district believes they have the right to perform random drug tests on student athletes, however, is that breaking personal privacy and do they have the right to do this?

Random drug testing can ruin a career of a student who may have made a mistake or has had a past issue that they are trying to resolve. This is breaking the privacy of a life that is outside of school and shouldn’t be interfered with unless the problem is occuring at school.

In 1991, seventh-grader James Acton was prohibited from athletics. James and his family refused to comply to random drug testings. The Acton’s believed the policy of drug testing violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The school however, disagreed. The school stated that the drug testing was to keep their students safe from problems occuring with other athletes in the district.

According to a CBS News 2012 article, “Report: Frequent Marijuana smoking up 80 percent among teens,” around 80 percent of high school students frequently smoke marijuana. A student who may have tried marijuana once or accidentally tried it would be removed from athletics due to one small error. This problem would present itself to the majority of the high school if 80 percent are smoking marijuana. If the supreme court stated that even though school officials are agents of the state, they are able to have the authority to act as parents in safeguarding the children. The school believes that drug testing will save the students from problems they may face outside of school such as getting involved in gangs and drug dealing.

Based on a Boston Globe article from 2016, titled “Schools doing drug screenings laud benefits for students,” a new law in Massachusetts allows students to verbally state that they have not done drugs, and yet this actually passes as a “drug test.”

The court discovered that the school’s policy of drug testing falls appropriately under the fourth amendment. The school was not breaking any laws and were doing the right thing in the court’s eyes. Drug testing can scare students into not taking drugs because of the punishments that may underlie when the test is failed. Is this changing the students opinions on drugs? People will make their own decision when it comes to substances. The fear the school might put into students will not necessarily last their whole life. They may experience something outside of school that alters their opinion.