Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Northern California chapter has joined with a small number of students and their parents in filing a lawsuit against the Shasta Union High School District, charging that its newly-expanded drug testing policy for students violates the state constitution. The move came after the district failed to act to address ACLU concerns over the new policy.
drug testing lab
Such requirements violate the students' right to privacy, equal protection, and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the state constitution, the ACLU argued in its filing. The group and the plaintiffs seek an injunction blocking the drug testing program to avoid "irreparable harm" to the students.
But last week, the district was still talking tough. The district's new drug testing policy is "within the confines of the law," Superintendent Jim Cloney, who is named as a defendant in the law suit, told the Redding News. "We've discussed it," Cloney said. "The board chose to follow the policy as it's written."
The district doesn't have to waste its money defending an unconstitutional drug testing policy, said the Northern California ACLU's Michael Risher. "We are still... happy to speak with the district and try and resolve the issue," he said.
In the meantime, the Shasta school board can continue to throw away money as it tilts after windmills.
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Comments
Lawyers love to talk... fuck that... incarcerate them all
Time for tough love -- prison and lots of anal rape -- for these hateful, and usually religious, idiots & criminals!
Do we really need lawyers to tell us what we already know -- inalienable rights are being usurped again by criminals -- I sure as hell don't!
What we need are freedom fighters that are willing to arrest and incarcerate the real criminals in society --- those that routinely seek to steal our constitutional rights and guarantees -- societies most disgusting and dangerous people belong in prison -- not in public dis-service!
SDL
Increasing the cost of our world-class education.
Of course, I mean Third World!
Not enough textbooks, closed labs, defunct sports programs; and yet we can afford to make students prove their innocence. Don't fix the schools, fix the kids (and teach them that their bodies are not their own). No matter, after all, how many high school grads understand the Fourth and Fifth Amendments?
Something tells me that kids who participate in extracurricular school activities are the least likely to use illicit drugs. Meanwhile, students who are barely passing and do not participate in any school activities are ignored. But if we fire a few more teachers, we can afford to drug test all the kids.
Before the days of drug testing, we had to rely on behavioral cues; appearance, mood, and performance. We actually had to pay attention to the kids in our charge!
Five-years ago the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication (ASC) released a report on the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. ASC found there is little evidence that the tens of millions being spent every year are having any discernible impact on use of or attitudes toward marijuana among the nation's youth. (Meanwhile, legalization of medicinal marijuana seems to have caused a decrease in use amongst teens. Marijuana, in those states, is often viewed among teens as "grandma's medicine", i.e., not "cool".)
How many countries are ahead of the US in education? Of those, how many have a budget the size of Wyoming's? [I wanted to be fair - California's economy is the third largest in the world!] And how much do those poorer countries spend on drug testing? Perhaps it's time we should follow, rather than try to lead down this untoward path.
Brian K.
PS to SDL: Take a chill pill and thank the lawyers who are working to protect your rights and incarcerate those who violate them. Many of your "Constitutional rights and guarantees" were written into law by, er, lawyers! And you may want to read more about cruel and unusual punishment. The idea being that the rest of us are better people than the criminals. Want an eye for an eye? Move to a Islamic country and hope your kid isn't caught shoplifting.
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