Ethan. 17 years old. A younger sister who looks up to him. A single mother who relies on him. In a split second, Ethan makes a life changing decision. Ethan tries fentanyl. He stares at the needle, paralyzed. “It won’t hurt you,” his friend assures him. Ethan looks at it for a second, and sticks it in his arm. In seconds, he’s seizuring on the ground with foam at the mouth. Ethan may not be real, but there are thousands of teens just like him who made the same mistake. Teen drug abuse has been a tremendous problem in America since drugs were introduced. Between marijuana, cocaine, cigarettes, and heroin, schools and students have been affected, which leaves the question, should schools step in? Between a class about what happens to someone’s life when they do drugs, and random student drug tests, schools have …show more content…
A study in New Jersey where some schools had random student drug testing programs (RSDT) and some schools did not, showed that “daily attendance rates at schools with RSDT programs (94.8%) were higher than at non-RSDT schools (89.8%).”(Opposing Viewpoints) At those same schools, there was 1 expulsion at the RSDT schools, while there were 14 at the non-RSDT schools. That may not seem like much, but that is 93% fewerless expulsions at the RSDT school than the non-RSDT school. Thirteen different educations, and effectively lives ruined by being subjected to drugs and not knowing what decision to make. Some may think, doesn’t the RSDT program is infringing on students privacy? The response to these people is merely a question. Is a small bit of privacy taken away worth the education and possibly life? Think of Ethan. His family had to grieve over one simple mistake that could have been solved if the school interfered with a simple RSDT program. At that point, does it matter what the school did, as long as they saved a teenagers