Extracurricular Drug Testing
Marginal and disaffected students are those most likely to opt out of extracurricular activities if participation requires an intrusive, potentially humiliating drug test.
The line of questioning pursued by justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in March, as they heard oral arguments in a case involving student drug tests, suggests that the court may be poised to sanction broader use of drug testing in schools. If that happens, one almost certain consequence will be that students who want to participate in an expanded range of extracurricular activities will be required to submit to these tests. The head of the Oklahoma school board whose policy is being reviewed by the court indicated as much when she said, "We'd love to test all students, if they'd let us." And the deputy solicitor general of the United States, Paul D. Clement, said that in his opinion, schoolwide drug-testing programs would be constitutional. ( "Supreme Court Hears Case on Expanded Drug Testing," March 27, 2002.)
A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to be persuaded by the argument that drug-testing policies represent, as Julie Underwood, the general counsel for the National School Boards Association, phrased it, part of a school's "arsenal to prevent drug use." To Justice Antonin Scalia, the Tecumseh, Okla., district's tests represented an attempt to "train and raise these young people to be responsible adults." Justice Stephen G. Breyer seemed to agree, suggesting that the testing is "an effort to deal with the demand side of drugs."
While the logic may be persuasive in this context, might there not be another, darker side to the argument? Ambitious high school students who recognize that participation in extracurricular activities gives them the leg up they need to gain admission to the college of their choice will not be deterred by required drug testing, for example. It might even be for them, as one adult suggested, the "hammer" they need to "say no to temptation." But what about marginal and disaffected students, those who may not see college in their future? Missing in most accounts of this debate has been any consideration for what the impact of extending drug-testing programs...
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