ANNOUNCEMENT
As a result of rising illicit drug use amongst teens (see sources below), The Board of Education is debating whether or not to institute a strong drug testing policy for the district.
The Board of Education of the Township High School District #113 hereby invites all interested parties to air their views on the new drug testing policy (*See below) at a town hall meeting to take place on October 21-23.
The Board of Education of the Township High School District #113 hereby invites all interested parties to air their views on the new drug testing policy (*See below) at a town hall meeting to take place on October 21-23.
- Each speaker must create a typewritten outline to be turned in prior to their opportunity to speak.
- Each speaker will be limited to two minutes and is expected to have a firm grasp of the issues.
- Each speaker is required to demonstrate their understanding of the issues by using facts and argument from at least one of the sources given (see below) as well as prior Supreme Court precedent (T.LO. Acton and Earls cases).
- Each speaker should be prepared to answer questions from the school board.
Township High School District #113 Policy:
The objectives of the District’s drug policy are:
- To educate children and adults as to the serious physical, mental, and emotional harm caused by the use of drugs.
- To provide a deterrent to the use of drugs by students of District #113.
- To give students a valid reason to resist peer pressure to use drugs.
- To provide and maintain a safe, secure school environment, free of drug use and its effects.
- To eliminate the negative impact of drug use on the safety of students and others while traveling to and from school as well as throughout the school day and during school activities.
In order to meet the objectives of this program, all students and their parent/guardian are asked to sign a consent form agreeing to be part of the drug testing program for Township High School District #113. During initial implementation, all students will take a mandatory drug test. Further, all students will be involved in random testing equivalent to a minimum of 10% of the group per month. In subsequent years, incoming ninth graders will take a mandatory drug test, and all students, grades nine through twelve, will be involved in random testing at an equivalent to a minimum of 10% of the group per month. Students entering the district after the first day or who had not been part of the initial mandatory testing will be given the test at the next random testing date. Testing requires students to provide a urine sample, which is collected by an independent lab and screened for signs of tobacco and alcohol use, as well as for illegal substances. If any of these substances are found as a result of the drug test, consequences will be imposed according to the policies listed on pages 15-18 of the student handbook.
Here are your tasks:
1) Read and annotate the Board of Education v. Earls case. Use the link or the hard copy is in your packet. Be sure you can identify the Court's ruling as well as the reasoning they used to arrive at that ruling.
2) Use the sources below to develop your argument. Some are legal briefs written in support of one side or the other in the Earls case and some are pamphlets developed by organizations on one side or other of the debate. They are long. Do NOT print them out. Begin by clicking on each and deciding which you would like to look more carefully at. Notice who or what organization prepared the source-this might influence which you choose to read. Then, once you've selected one, look at the table of contents, then skim through them, finally, read carefully the sections that seem to be most helpful to your argument.
3) Make your outlines.
4) Practice and prepare your speech.
Sources
CURRENT STATISTICS
From the Chicago Tribune
Newsweek
National Institute on Drug Abuse
IN FAVOR OF DRUG TESTING:
From the Chicago Tribune
Newsweek
National Institute on Drug Abuse
IN FAVOR OF DRUG TESTING:
Student Drug Testing Coalition
National School Board Association
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington Legal Foundation
AGAINST DRUG TESTING
American Academy of Pediatrics, et. al
American Civil Liberties Union
Juvenile Law Center
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