Students have a right to privacy
A student does not forfeit their Fourth Amendment rights upon entry into school. Students still have rights, and intrusive drug tests violate those rights. Drug testing students is a clear invasion of privacy.
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The Argument
High schools should not drug test their student-athletes because it is a major invasion of a student's rights to privacy.
When students are forced to do drug tests, often in the presence of a school official, it is an embarrassing and unnecessary invasion of privacy.[1] Policies that allow schools to drug test their student-athletes in an unwarranted manner often violate students' fundamental and constitutional rights.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, a leading US pediatrics group, recommends against in-school drug testing. The group supplies the following reason for their position: tests can also detect substances young people use for medical reasons, which could result in breaches of their privacy and damage the relationship between schools and their students.[2] Drug testing students could inadvertently reveal information about students that schools have no right to know or be aware of.
Counter arguments
High schools should be drug testing their athletes, regardless of whether it is an invasion of privacy.
In 2002, a Supreme Court case ruled in favor of the Board of Education and concluded that drug-testing programs conducted in schools are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.[3]
This was a 5-4 vote and Justice Thomas acknowledged that while “schoolchildren do not shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse,” he also stressed that Fourth Amendment rights are different in public schools, which have a responsibility to protect their students.[3]
A student's privacy interest is limited in a public school environment. In such environments, schools are allowed to infringe upon a student's privacy if it means maintaining a safe and healthy school environment.