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Re: Want to play in HS band? Pass a drug test

Author: bstutsman
Date: 2007-08-29 05:22

Ski, you are missing my point about treating kids differently from adults. I know people are going to think I am callous, unfair and prejudicial by what I am about to say. Many will be able to point to zillions of exceptions to what I am about to say. I’m just warning you ahead of time. So here goes:

Generally, kids don’t use good judgment as well as adults do.

There I said it. I think many here disagree with that and I know that sounds cold, fascist and uncaring, but there it is.

Kids are considerably more susceptible to peer pressure, etc than adults are. If someone offered me drugs today, I would have few qualms about poking him in the eye with my finger and walking away. Kids are more polite than that. They will be more inclined to go along, be cool, not make waves, etc. Identifying the user is the first step in getting them help. It also makes it easier to isolate the drug users from the non-drug users.

As for my son’s future being determined by a false positive, I have yet to see one of these testing programs that did not allow for retesting. I find the reference to a poppy seed bagel causing a false positive the ultimate in microscopic knit-picking. I don’t think I have ever even seen a poppy seed bagel and I doubt my son has also. I don’t frequent the delis of New York. I live in the burbs of Houston. We are more into egg mcmuffins here.

For me getting kids off drugs is secondary to keeping the drug users away from my son. Oops, there I go again. Cold, uncaring, fascist.

As for singling out extra-curricular participants for testing, well, that probably is a bad thing. On the other hand these activities are a privilege, so I’m not sure. I suppose a football player is more likely to use steroids than a kid who is in no activities, but that’s another discussion. Note that some here have easily associated drugs with jazzers.

I’m finding it fascinating how different people see and discuss this issue. I think a lot of it must come from our own local/regional cultures. As a former band director, I taught in some very different communities. Yet the meanest, ugliest, and most difficult one I was ever in was the community that I grew up in. The community that we live in today is super with a very fine school district. Though I don’t band direct anymore, I chaperone and spend time with the kids in the local band here. Compared to the students I have seen other places, the kids around here are extremely well-behaved and respectful. Perhaps that makes it easier for me to call for a higher standard.

We have been discussing this for some time now with many participants. Most seem to strongly decry drug testing programs. Yet, no one has offered a real alternative to identifying users. Some have said that impairment of performance is a good test. That is true, but it has been my experience that by the time that impairment becomes manifest, the drug use is more than just causal.

For clarification, the tuba player who over-dosed did not die. He was just in a stupor. It turned out he had been a user for at least a year. I don’t remember what he was taking, but he told the medics attending him that he took a couple of extra ones just to see what would happen. (See comment above about judgment.)

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