Lansing Catholic High School mandates drug testing for students and staff

[Bozita]

Lansing Catholic High School mandates drug testing
Policy requires students, staff to give hair samples this fall
1:36 AM, Jun. 3, 2011

Lansing Catholic High School staff and students will begin mandatory drug testing this fall.

"The whole idea is to prevent students from using drugs, and if they are, to get them to stop and get them the help they need," Lansing Catholic Principal Thomas Maloney said. "Parents have told us they want a drug-free, healthy environment at Lansing Catholic."

Maloney on Thursday said the school, which has about 500 students in ninth through 12th grades, deals with about 10 violations of the drug and alcohol policy each year. It is the first of four Catholic high schools in the 10-county Diocese of Lansing to begin such a program.

All students and staff will be required to allow a hair sample to be taken in September. Samples will be sent to a California lab for a test which can detect drug use within the past 90 days. Random testing will occur throughout the school year, Maloney said.

more, video ...

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106030321

[Gman]

1. You know what?

That's not a bad idea. I raised 3 kids through high school, hell I was a druggie in high school and this is not a bad idea.

[Luminous Animal]

2. You would have wanted your innocent kid's DNA on file?

[Gman]

4. There is no mention of DNA in the article

you're jumping to conclusions.

[Luminous Animal]

5. That's cute. The government is going to take a sample of your kid and thats that, eh?

[Gman]

12. It's a private school

[Luminous Animal]

42. Sorry. I assumed your kids went to public school and you are OK with the govt. testing them.

[Cid_B]

19. Government ninjas smokebomb in...

... break the necks of the lab techs working the samples and spirit them away for the database...

You see it all the time.

[RB TexLa]

41. "That one! The child of the internet message board poster! We must have that DNA!"

:rofl:

[cali]

9. I would have yanked my now 24 year old son out of his school, if they

did anything like this, so fast you'd get whiplash. I didn't raise him to be some obedient little drone who will accept his rights and dignity being trampled.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Perfectly Understandable

Hence, my reply to another poster that there isn't any "rights violation" here.

You would have had the option to simply go to a different, and obstensibly cheaper, school. I probably would have done the same thing as you. Especially since i utterly oppose the "war on drugs".
GAC

[blueamy66]

24. Then you should send your children to public schools.

I went to Catholic school and got a GREAT education.

We had to wear uniforms, complete with 2 allowable colors of socks.

Boys got haircuts by the football coach if their hair reached their collar.

We had no cafeteria.....no computers....no fancy proms or homecoming dances....

If I got in trouble at school, I got it worse at home. Sue a school and/or teacher.....BAH!

Don't like a private school education WITH a private schools' rules, don't send your kid to one.

What is wrong with teaching children RULES???

[Ramulux]

44. Is this a joke?

[Mojorabbit]

30. + a trillion! nt

[krabigirl]

33. Same, I won't enroll my kids in a school like that.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. PRIVATE SCHOOL - GET OVER IT!

private schools are completely different from public. If people send their kids to such a school, they have to abide by the rules.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Sucker.

[blueamy66]

31. Why a sucker?

nt

[Motown_Johnny]

14. my opinion exactly, except for the caps

the truth is that the people might start sending their kids to such a school because of that rule



not just to keep their kids clean but to be certain that there are no drug users around their kids

[NYC Liberal]

16. That may be, but that doesn't automatically mean the policy

is right or that people shouldn't oppose it. What if it's a great school aside from this? Better to try to fight one policy than simply leave a great school (if it is, I have no idea).

[CreekDog]

23. it's a private school, so whatever they do is correct

:eyes:

[blueamy66]

27. Not necessarily correct

But one knows the rules when one applies for entrance to a private school.

If you don't like the rules, check out another school. Ya know?

[blueamy66]

25. exactly

And don't have your father work 2 jobs to be able to send your kids to a private school....oh wait, that's what my Dad did.

Silly man.....Not

[Bluebear]

45. Sucker.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Isn't it nifty ...

that private institutions can ignore the Constitution?

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Huh?

Look i don't approve of anything related to the "drug war" which i think has been an abysmal failure, has accomplished nothing, and has cost us tens of billions of wasted dollars.

But, i don't see how this has anything to do with Constitutional rights. All anybody has to do is go somewhere else. They actually have the option of going to a school that acually would REDUCE the cost of schooling. It's not like the option requires economic resources they may not have.

So, not sure where you're coming from.
GAC

[TexasProgresive]

11. Sure- you think you have unregulated freedom of speach?

Try telling your boss what you really think of him. Well you are free to do so but he/she is free to terminate you.

[Motown_Johnny]

15. wow

just wow

[Cid_B]

20. A great example of how I have lost the ability to infer tone...

Seriously.. no idea

[Ikonoklast]

21. Yes, they can, and have the right to.

Under the Constitution that you do not really understand.

[hobbit709]

13. Becasue of 10 violations of their policy a year.

500 students plus unknown number of staff adds up to under 2%. Evidently they were able to handle the problem quite well before.
And I'll give you a hint, there are ways to beat even the hair follicle test.

[JAnthony]

17. Yeah and how much money will it cost to test everyone? How often?

Will they test on Monday morning? Every morning?

This makes no sense for 10 students who violate in a year.

As a matter of fact, I bet 10 students are the only ones they CAUGHT, and they want to catch maybe 30 next year..

Gee, all that testing for 20 more kids to kick out of school.


And what's this with the staff? They actually suspect their staff are drug users? On teacher's salaries?

[tinymontgomery]

29. Kick enough out

kick out enough and you don't have a school anymore. There was just a post stating how catholic schools were in decline, I wonder if this will help rebuild them?

[blueamy66]

32. Not mine.

Kids are fighting to get in.

We went from being a 1A school back in the day to a 4AA school now....and I'm talking sports' divisions.

You'd be amazed at the entrance reqs.

Love my alma mater. As many other do.

[tinymontgomery]

36. Not all

Not all but like I said, the article said catholic schools have gone from like 30,000 to 7000. Yes some will stay, but if you keep kicking your students out by drug test you MAY not have a school any more. I did 9 years catholic school through the 60's, and both are still going.

[blueamy66]

38. Maybe there's a difference between HS and elementary school....

cause I was back at my elementary school a few months back....struggling to survive...but my HS.... cash coming out of their ears......

[meow mix]

18. "with the first link.. a chain is forged"

this is not good.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

22. From a leadership persepective it is good to see the staff included

As an overall policy I am not so sure about this...

[MedicalAdmin]

39. Staff as in everyone or...

Staff as in just the teachers ?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

43. I read it as everyone, but that is a good question

[MedicalAdmin]

46. With any Policy like this it should be implemented from the top down.

If the board isn't interested in submitting tissue, blood, urine, hair, etc., then it probably isn't a good policy. It's called leadership.

But in my experience these policies are only implemented "for the little people ... like taxes."

[southernyankeebelle]

26. Good idea. Now lets get background checks on the priests and nuns who teach at those schools.

[blueamy66]

28. Um, there aren't too many priests, brothers, nuns etc.

left teaching in Catholic schools.

:eyes:

[The Midway Rebel]

34. What a waste of money, time and resources.

If they are doing this as a preventive effort I smell a butt load of fail. Discourage weed, encourage alcohol...good plan dumbasses.

From the article:

"The new test at Lansing Catholic won't detect alcohol use, which also is prohibited among students by school policy."

500 kids in a 6k per year 9-12 private school? They got money and students to burn I suppose.

[Philippine expat]

35. As this is a private school

I have no problem with it.
If students or parents do they are free to go else where

[Odin2005]

37. True Christo-Fascists. YUCK.

[demmiblue]

40. Bizarre. Even more bizarre that some here accept this. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

47. So, by those rules,

a person could go on a crack binge Friday night, not ingest anything else on Saturday and Sunday and on Monday, get tested and test clean. As opposed to the person who took one hit off of a joint 35 days ago, gets tested and tests positive. Or the person who took one of these 65 OTC medications that will result in a positive drug test (http://www.ipassedmydrugtest.com/false_positives.asp).

Yes, I know it's a private school but the Founders established that inalienable rights are endowed by the Creator. I.e., they're not negotiable and the Right to Privacy has already been established (at least when we had a real SC as opposed to the kangaroo version we currently have).

[immoderate]

48. That's a piss test. It says they're going for the hair.

From what I know the hair retains traces of whatever they want to test for.

Of course piss test are useless for anything other than identifying pot heads.

I think a Catholic school has the right to detect and remove any drug users. I question whether this is smart, and if they won't be unexpectedly troubled by the results. What if >50% of their students test positive? What will they have bought in to?

--imm