Student Drug Testing: A Veritable Smorgasbord for Pedophiles
Erin Hildebrandt
21 Aug 2006 10:40 am
With all of the sincerity of a used car salesman trying to unload a lemon, U.S. “drug czar” John Walters recently tried to sell student drug testing to the United Kingdom. In the U.K.’s Guardian, Mr. Walters compared drug testing to tuberculosis testing. He said, "Some schools in the United States say a child needs to have a TB test. It's not considered to be an invasion of privacy.”
I will not argue with Mr. Walters about student TB testing. Where I take issue with his analogy is in his callous disregard, or ignorance, of the risks inherent to teaching kids to submit to adults who demand access to their most intimate and private moments.
I remember visiting the pediatrician as a child for TB tests. After the little prongs bit into my arm, my doctor would draw an apple around the site with a red pen and tell me if the apple turned red, then I needed to tell my mom right away. Not once did a TB test ever involve my doctor demanding that I pull down my pants and urinate into a cup while he stared at my genitals or listened. The most common method of testing students for drugs is urine testing, which is not only a very serious invasion of privacy; it can be degrading, disempowering and humiliating.
Drug Test Kit
Like many little girls, growing up I was taught to obey my elders. My parents also taught me that no one was allowed to see or touch my “private parts” without my permission. There were established societal exceptions to this rule; along with routine doctor visits as a child, there were checks for scoliosis, where I’d have to lift my shirt for the school nurse, as well as public changing and showering for gym class. As with TB tests and other routine health care, we accepted these intrusions for the benefits they could provide, in spite of the fact that numerous students were victimized by school employees over the years.
In schools which use drug testing methods recommended by the Student Athlete Testing Using Random Notification (SATURN) study at Oregon Health and Sciences University, proper procedure states that, “A same-sex trained collector will observe the specimen collection in a private, monitored setting.” This “direct observation” is recommended because, thanks to the Internet, numerous ways to cheat are simply a click away. The Whizzinator, a device that looks like a human penis and holds “clean” urine at body temperature, makes it difficult for monitors to catch cheaters, even while observing them.
Perhaps if drug testing had a proven record of effectively preventing or deterring drug abuse, we could weigh the risks and benefits and consider the ethics of subjecting our kids to these dangers. However, a well-publicized study by the University of MI found no discernable difference in drug use between the schools that drug test and the 95% that don’t. As a survivor of sexual brutalization and a mother of five, I implore parents and educators to reconsider implementing or continuing any drug testing program.
Random, suspicionless drug testing disempowers kids by creating a “game” mentality. “Beating the test” becomes more important than making healthy choices. Drug testing assumes students are guilty until proven innocent, limits parents’ rights to make decisions in educational and health matters, and threatens the respect and trust that is vital to parent- and teacher-student relationships. Testing also diverts resources needed for educational programs that have proven effective, denies kids at greatest risk participation in activities shown to reduce substance abuse, and may encourage kids to turn to more dangerous substances to try to “outsmart” the test.
If all of these reasons are not enough to oppose urine testing, consider this: at least one in every four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18. Put yourself in the shoes of a child who has been raped by a trusted adult, and then imagine yet another adult you’ve been told to trust demanding to watch you urinate. To me, it would feel like being raped all over again.
Today’s kids face an even more invasive intrusion, and without proven benefits. In a misguided attempt to protect them from the dangers of drug abuse, we’ve introduced drug testing programs, and with them a new group of adult authority figures, whose job it is to monitor the urination of middle and high school students. Termed “specimen collectors,” a high school graduate can apply for positions which will grant private access to school kids, further empowering the “collector” to force these children to urinate, while they watch or listen. Should students refuse or suffer a shy bladder, schools can punish them by prohibiting participation in activities proven to reduce the likelihood of drug abuse.
As middle school students in the 80’s, we were fortunate that no one had yet thought to capitalize this way on our parents’ fears and our urine. However, at the age of twelve and in spite of my parents’ best efforts to protect me, I became one of the countless victims of child rape. A man, who was never supposed to see me disrobe, raped, sodomized and tortured me over a period of roughly six months. He was my math and science teacher. The predator who abused me had to be creative in order to get me alone. He wasn’t state- or school-sanctioned to trap me in a washroom and demand I urinate on command. Nonetheless, one of his fetishes was forcing little girls to urinate while he watched and masturbated. Urine testing has effectively created a veritable smorgasbord for pederasts and pedophiles.
