Teen Crisis Intervention: Random Drug Testing
One type of teen crisis intervention that continues to be hotly debated is random drug testing conducted in our nation’s schools. Even parents who are well aware of the dangers that teen drug abuse represents for their teenagers are concerned about, not only civil rights issues, but the continued intrusion into the family by the state through the schools.
“Joe Newcomb, founder of Drug-Free Clubs of America, has seen many things in his lifelong career as a Cincinnati firefighter.
But the worst of all is seeing the lifeless body of a young person who has overdosed, he said at an information meeting for parents Sept. 12 at Edgewood High School.
Randomly drug testing high school students is just the latest — and perhaps most controversial — in a long line of steps to curb teen drug use at Edgewood High School.
Just two weeks from the first round of random drug testing, debate on online communities in Trenton, such as trentontalk.com, have generated several pages worth of discussion on random drug testing.”
In the case of this Ohio community, the schools only intend to test those kids who are enrolled in extracurricular activities, though some towns have pondered random testing across the entire student population.
There are many questions that need to be sorted out and time will tell if drug testing is a good deterrent or if determined teen drug users will find a way around it.
Relevant Tags:random drug testing, teen crisis intervention, teen crisis, teen drug abuse, teen drug users
