What are the real reasons for student athlete drug testing? It’s the athlete’s that get tested. It must be helping the school name to test athletes. That’s what most people assume anyways. There are random drug tests that are for random people on each team. But are there more bad things about the drug testing than good things?

There are many bad things about the random drug testing for student athletes. Drug testing is very expensive with not knowing what the results are going to be of the students. It’s also an invasion of privacy. The school system is getting into a student’s personal business by drug testing them at school. Another reason why it’s invasion of privacy is because it’s not always confidential. One of the local newspaper’s headlines was about three teenagers at my very own high school not passing the random drug test. The newspaper didn’t mention any names but once people starting talking everyone knew which students it was. Most of the town, probably, wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t in the local newspaper. It’s not always confidential when you’re in a little town. What’s the punishment of getting caught by the drug test? Are they getting a real punishment? If your school is paying a bunch of money to get the test done there should be a big punishment, right? It seems like if you know people were caught by the test and see that nobody sat out that next game, it shows that was not there punishment. Maybe, they had to run at practice but it wasn’t a noticeable punishment.

Bertha Madras, a deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy says “the drug test results if the student fails are for the parents and someone who could help.” If that is what they use the drug test for then are there even punishments from the school or is it supposed to be from the parents. Madras also says “it doesn’t show for future employee or for college if a student fails the drug test.” What is the real punishment? If this don’t get carried with you then what is the real punishment? There is no punishment unless the parent has a major punishment but it’s not from the school that gave you the drug test. So why does everyone who wants to just participate in a sport of extracurricular activity need to be drugged test? Most people see that athletes are a big part of the school. But if they can past the drug test that will give the school a better name. Trustee Terri Janison, a school board member from Clark County Schools, says “They shouldn’t drug test everyone. Maybe students who they know have had issues with drugs in the past should be drug tested but not someone who just wants to do a sport.” I understand what she is saying because just because someone wants to do a sport shouldn’t mean that they need to take a drug test just to get “punished” if they fail.

There are some very good things about making athletes get drug tested. Athletes are role models for other students in the school. If other students see that athletes, their role model, can pass the drug test it will make the student think “my role model doesn’t need drugs and neither do I”. The athletes have a big part in the school name. If they can pass the drug test it makes them look really good to everyone the school plays in any sport. Most of the time if the students know they get drug tested for a sport they won’t do drugs just so they can play that sport. The test is not to catch students; it’s to keep them from doing drugs.

There are many reasons on why drug testing is making no since. It doesn’t have any punishment besides from the parents of the one who failed. It doesn’t stay with you or make you realize you should pass it because later when you go to college, the college will never know. It tests people who just want to play a sport. It gives no privacy and it can be expensive. The random drug test for the athletes shows that it is not helping.