Position Paper on DepEd Order No.40: Random Drug Testing in Public and Private Secondary Schools
The Government of the Philippines continues to wage an ongoing struggle against drug abuse and drug trafficking. Recent survey conducted by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DBB) revealed that there are still about 1.8 million drug users under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. Moreover, Rosenthal (2016), in his blog entitled Health Street, has shown that almost 10 percent of the nation’s teens report the use of illicit drugs. Although illicit substance use among adolescents has declined over the past decade according to DBB, still, it remains a great concern.
The Department of Education has announced the issuance of guidelines for the conduct of random drug testing of students in public and private secondary schools. As indicated in the Department Order (DO) 40 and issued on August 8, 2017, the drug testing shall be mandatory to randomly selected sample of secondary school students. Science and Technology Education Center – Senior High School stands to disagree on this ordinance due to the listed concerns below.
The Department of Education has announced the issuance of guidelines for the conduct of random drug testing of students in public and private secondary schools. As indicated in the Department Order (DO) 40 and issued on August 8, 2017, the drug testing shall be mandatory to randomly selected sample of secondary school students. Science and Technology Education Center – Senior High School stands to disagree on this ordinance due to the listed concerns below.
To begin with, school administrators are charged with ensuring a safe, supportive, and healthy school environment where students' rights are well-maintained and respected to reach their full potential. Forcing the youth to submit to drug testing is an infringement of his/her rights against self incrimination. It is an invasive attack. Now, why would we stick with this method when there are other methods of deterrence that are less invasive? Examples of these are encouraging extra-curricular activities, drug education, and fostering better parental relations. Education is the ultimate deterrent, not random testing.
Second, the violation of privacy and loss of dignity is evident here, even if the government guarantees the confidentiality of drug test results. Furthermore, the implementation of DepEd Order No. 40, s.2017, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), threatens not just the rights and privacy of high school students, but the quality of their lives as well.
Schools are supposed to be independent institutions, not some kind of artificially created "government investigating bureaus". The government may have the ultimate responsibility and obligation to protect the citizens, but it doesn't have the right to intervene with citizens in independent institutions. Government control should not strangle students in their learning environment.
Third, there is no concrete evidence that randomly drug testing students deters drug use nor any convincing systematic studies examining the effectiveness of drug testing. Doing this does not address the reasons why students turn to drugs in the first place. Forced testing may only encourage rebellion and trigger oppositional behavior by motivating some drug-involved adolescents to switch to harder drugs and taking the chance to beat the system. Drug testing fails to reach students’ key attitudes and beliefs. Additionally, testing randomly to student who - clearly - do not do drugs is such a waste of resources. It would require a great deal of funding, which would not be helpful to school districts who are already struggling with budget. The cost for drug testing is way too high for how ineffective it is and the poor condition our economy is in.
Second, the violation of privacy and loss of dignity is evident here, even if the government guarantees the confidentiality of drug test results. Furthermore, the implementation of DepEd Order No. 40, s.2017, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), threatens not just the rights and privacy of high school students, but the quality of their lives as well.
Schools are supposed to be independent institutions, not some kind of artificially created "government investigating bureaus". The government may have the ultimate responsibility and obligation to protect the citizens, but it doesn't have the right to intervene with citizens in independent institutions. Government control should not strangle students in their learning environment.
Third, there is no concrete evidence that randomly drug testing students deters drug use nor any convincing systematic studies examining the effectiveness of drug testing. Doing this does not address the reasons why students turn to drugs in the first place. Forced testing may only encourage rebellion and trigger oppositional behavior by motivating some drug-involved adolescents to switch to harder drugs and taking the chance to beat the system. Drug testing fails to reach students’ key attitudes and beliefs. Additionally, testing randomly to student who - clearly - do not do drugs is such a waste of resources. It would require a great deal of funding, which would not be helpful to school districts who are already struggling with budget. The cost for drug testing is way too high for how ineffective it is and the poor condition our economy is in.
Lastly, simplistic, isolated, costly, and one shot solution to complex problem like this give people the illusion that something effective is being done, when there is clearly no significant difference happened. Our institution believes that instead of funding a budget for impractical mandatory drug testing among secondary students, we should spend our scarce resources educating students through comprehensive, interactive and honest drug education with identification of, and assistance for, students whose lives are disrupted by substance use.
In conclusion, there are a large number of unintended consequences to drug testing but no study has taken this into account in weighing the harms and benefits of random drug testing. Given the lack of scientific data supporting the effectiveness of drug testing, the institution of Science and Technology Education Center - Senior High School has taken a strong position that student drug testing is not recommended and should not be mandatory.
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