Testing Dirty
- Episode aired Oct 18, 1990
- 1h
Having never used drugs in his life, a teenage boy is shocked to test positive for drugs.Having never used drugs in his life, a teenage boy is shocked to test positive for drugs.Having never used drugs in his life, a teenage boy is shocked to test positive for drugs.
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[first lines]
Steve: ...You're sitting on your hands! Nothing is being done, nothing at all! There's a war going on out there. We had a kid from this district die last week from an overdose!
Jane Horowitz (school board): You make it sound like the school board doesn't see a drug problem. We do. Things aren't going to change until and unless the buyers - our kids - stop buying drugs. That's why we have a drug education program.
Steve: Drug education isn't good enough, because it sacrifices today's kids for tomorrow's! Our position is very simple: Use drugs, and you're out. Period!
Jane Horowitz (school board): Are you asking us to test, at random, all our students for drug use?
Frank Harlan (school board): What should we do about the kids who test positive? How do you propose to help them?
Mrs. Rupert: Our first priority should be the kids who are clean and struggling to make it. You help them by weeding out the kids who take drugs and/or pressure others to do the same.
Coach Stanley Daniels: It takes guts to stay clean when all your friends aren't. A school-wide drug test could give non-users just the excuse they need to say no and mean it.
Mrs. Rupert: While you talk, who's going to save these kids who are being offered drugs from every which way but up?
School Board #3: The best way to help them is for parents and teachers to learn the signs of drug use and THEN call for a test, if and when they've noticed something suspicious. There are rights issues we have to consider, after all.
Mrs. Rupert: What rights are violated if lives are saved?
School Board #3: That's just it: violating legal rights can just as easily destroy lives as save them.
Jane Horowitz (school board): Steve, how much will these tests cost, and how accurate are they? And how reputable is the lab you're proposing we use?
School Board #3: Also, if somebody tests positive, who all has access to that information?
Jane Horowitz (school board): Since there aren't any national regulations yet, let's examine - thoroughly - the new testing program over at the Whitney school district, before acting here.
Steve: Hey... When your tail's on fire, you don't talk about it! You sit on it, hard! Come on, let's put a drug-testing program in place TONIGHT... before another of our kids dies!
It turned out that the reason he tested dirty was due to a false positive on the drug screen due to a cold pill that he had taken days before. The moral of this movie is that random drug screening is wrong. This kind of testing should only be done if there is probable cause, such as evidence that a student may have a drug problem, and not just grabbing students randomly and ordering them to fill the cup so to speak.
This was a good point that was made in the film. As well intentioned as the principle of random drugs screens in high school may be, it can cause a great deal of harm to an innocent kid and his family, while ignoring another kid who may be drowning in addiction, and the signs are all there but simply ignored due to the fact his drug testing number had not come up yet. Would recommend this film to any teenager who may be interested in this subject, and to any parent who may be interested in learning the facts about this controversial practice.
- Goldbear72
- Jan 1, 2006
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