Drug Testing

             Drug Testing: Discrimination on Athletes .
             The policy of drug testing in high schools has become a much heated topic of discussion over the past few years. Schools are attempting to stop the use of drugs by randomly testing students in their schools. The majority of the drug testing going on around the nation involves students that take part in sports and other extracurricular activities. This practice exhibits a complete lack of fairness and trust towards young athletes. Drug use obviously does go on with high school students, but singling out athletes for a random drug test is not the solution. .
             Drug Testing Background.
             In the summer of 2002 the Supreme Court made it legal for the 23 million high schools and middle schools to receive a drug test before joining an extracurricular activity. This comes just seven years after schools were granted permission to take random urinalysis tests. Although this way of testing (urinalysis) only affects about 5% of the nation's high schools, my school,, uses the policy. (Washington pg1). The main controversy coming out of this ruling has to do with the 4th Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights. The 4th Amendment states that U.S. citizens are guaranteed a right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Many people feel that .
             drug testing is actually "searching" an individual without a warrant, theoretically making it illegal. (Washington pg 2). This is a true statement and progress needs to be made to abide by it.
             Why single out athletes?.
             Along with going against the 4th Amendment, random drug testing is also an attack on student athletes. Drug use goes on in high schools, that is a fact, but what are schools trying to prove by testing just the athletes for drugs? The athletes and other people that participate in extracurricular activities are supposed to be the people that make their school look good. They should not be punished for going out for a sport.