Debate for random drug testing in schools?

i have a debate and im for random drug testing in schools, and i need some cross examination questions to support my side.
i need questions to ask the other side to make my side better, or their side sound worse.
could you help me out?

I'm not sure that there are any reasoned, logical arguments in favour of random drug testing in schools, any more than there would be for random drug testing of people walking down the street. People debating against this issue have a huge advantage.

You can pull out religious and "for the children" type lines of argument and questioning, but if the other side has even a basic grounding in logic or rhetoric, they'll destroy those arguments easily.

You're going to have to approach it as though random drug testing of students is somehow for the greater good, that doing it has a benefit to society, and that not doing it has a cost that is too steep to continue paying. It will be very difficult because there is very little evidence to support those propositions.

I initially have no problem with random drug testing for schools and for work, unfortunately, if you research the ways drug testing is done, it isn't that difficult to examine some of the raw lab results and see a persons medical conditions, and dietary habits, within the blood or urine that is used for random drug testing. School administrators would be in a very convenient position to ask the labs doing the drug testing to ask if they could get other results not related to drugs delivered to them based on results of the urine tests to determine a students preexisting medical conditions, and dietary intakes. For employers, they could use a corrupt drug testing company to do the lab testing and try to get medical information to screen out employees that may have medical conditions deemed undesirable.

It is a huge privacy risk that could go above and beyond testing for personal drug use. Granted, it is highly illegal to attempt to procure such information through drug testing and most labs will refuse to find and disclose such information, but as is often the case with things like this, there is bound to be some unscrupulous drug testing lab that would be very willing to test urine or blood for a school and deliver the results to school administration.

Well, since attending the school is mandatory until, I believe, 8th grade, it's pretty hard to be for it. One view may be that making the education mandatory was made to ensure an educated youth and nation, it goes without saying that we must perfect it in all ways possible, such as making sure to protect them against vile and harmfull drugs by enforcing random drug tests in school.

The point of CX is to get the other side to concede something in the spur of the moment.
So since they have the higher ground in terms of rights and principles, you either get them to concede that it is for the greater good (i.e the consequences/worst case scenario is irreversible and dangerous) or that how in schools, rights are in special cases overridden (e.g detention)...so this is a viable option.

All I'm going to say is if they start random drug testing the students, they better start doing the same for the teachers.

Well said, I couldn't agree more.

I think there should be drug testing FOR EVERYONE in the school. I can't see anything wrong with it. I actually think this could discourage drug use, if it doesn't then we can catch it early. Nobody should be excluded from it.

I see nothing wrong with random drug testing in schools both for the students and the employees. It also helps parents have peace of mind in knowing that their kids are not into drugs and they are not exposed to drugs in school.

I myself had to undergo random drug testing as a requirement before being admitted to school every semester and before being cleared for the next school level. I was a student in the medical field so we had to undergo such tests to make sure that we weren't into drugs or any other substances, as we were dealing with lives whenever we would get exposed to the hospital.

They don't do that. They should random drug test the teachers. Parents can do random drug tests. I watched this woman with her daughter. i said to her after she's on something. She says no I would know. Lol I mean I had to laugh that the mother was that out of it. When I listened to her daughter talk I knew right away she had a problem. She's doing who knows what and going to the shrink to get the magic pill, Xanies. I mean come on wake up. I'm gonna guess and say she was doing ecstasy and needed the other to come down. She just had that vibe.

I don't know about this personally. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure there are some benefits to it - but honestly, urine tests at school? What next?!

I believe 100% in educating youth about the dangers of drugs. Absolutely. But I just think testing in schools would be taking it too far. Who's going to administer it? Teachers? They're already under enough pressure as it is, with things like growing class sizes and keeping abreast of curriculum changes but then to add this to their list of responsibilities is a little out there. I don't know. Something just doesn't sit right with me about it!

There are a few questions I have for someone supporting this. Since you asked for debate questions I'll direct them towards you but I mean absolutely no hostility towards you or your view on the subject. These are just some common debate questions for you from the other side.

1. I assume you mean drug testing would become mandatory for public schools. Public schools are funded by taxes, from a quick Google search I found it would cost around $20 per student for the test. How often would students be tested? Once a year? Once a semester? Once a month? Once a year wouldn't catch many students, once a semester would only catch the heavy users which are already easy to identify without a test. If you wanted to catch every student using drugs and keep the school completely drug free, you'd have to test once a month or more. That's a lot of tax money that could be used to better these students' education... The reason they're in school.

2. If you don't propose using tax payers money, do you expect parents to cover the cost of testing? Many parents are struggling to cover the costs of school as it is. Many in impoverished and drug infested areas already require government assistance to survive.

3. What to you believe should happen to the students that fail their drug test? Kick them out of school? What would that solve? Every option would ultimately lead to higher drop out rates, which is NEVER a good thing.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-random-drug-testing-in-schools/

The first point you made really made me think - appreciate you sharing the information! I hadn't even thought about the financial implications like you said - $20 a test is pretty pricey, and when you're thinking about a large volume of students and regular testing the figures really do start to add up. I'd much prefer to see those resources going towards a drug education program rather than testing!

I agree that better to spend money on drug abuse resistance education rather than random drug testing. The random testing will not guarantee either that they could tell who's using and who's not.

I was also going to say that in some schools the teachers are worse than the students.

As for random drug testing as a whole, I think it's an idea that could work, I'm not sure though if the results it prodeces would be worth the investment

I think it's always worth the investment, even if the majority isn't save someone will be helped by this I am sure.

The best argument in support of random drug testing in schools is that not only would it be helpful in identifying the problem at the start but it would also serve as a strong discouragement for the students who have thought about drug abuse. The higher chances of getting caught and ridiculed would prevent a lot of teenagers from getting into this bad habbit.

I don't have any problem with it, as long as they aren't suspending the kids from school for the results. It needs to be used as a way to get students help, not punish them. I've seen plenty of testing programs though where it ends up with students being put out of school, which I think defeats the purpose of helping.

Well, that's an interesting question you raise Ali, what are they going to do with the positive results?

The problem is that kids can still get away with it. All they have to do is take a product for erasing drugs in your system (for most drugs I believe), and it won't show up on a test. Also a lot of people get someone else to pee for them that has clean urine. They just hide it in their pants. So I don't know if this would be all that effective.

I don't actually oppose this, as I went through drug testing too before entering college. As colleges here require a drug test before being admitted in their school. Anyway, I think that as long as the results are confidential and only known to the necessary people, then the child will be fine. And also, expelling or suspending the kid should not be the solution but rather therapy or counselling should be solutions.

And why not go beyond that? Random test the employees too for the sake of fairness. The problem would probably be the expenses. But hey, our government's super corrupt, I'm pretty sure they can have funds for this, they just pocket it. I think that with drug testing and proper education about drugs, drug addiction can be lessened.