What kind of society has to set up a Formal Request for Bid to drug test school aged children? I recently received a bid for Drug Screening Evaluation from a public school system in New Jersey. The school actually wants to test children for the presence of Opiates, Amphetamines, Cocaine, PHP, THC, Barbituates, Benzodiazepines, Morpheines, K2/Spice, Steroids and other street and prescription drugs. If the children are on any of these drugs, without advice of a physician, they are most probably sitting in classrooms like Zombies. Or lurking in the hallways being a nuisance and danger to other students. By the way, as a tax payer am I paying for this school's new drug screening program? I am not naieve to the existence of recreational drug use by curious children but Ketamine? Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Methadone - this is not recreational curiousity - this is addiction and up to absolutely no good.
Have we come to that place in time, where school administrators have to bid this project out because of the enormity of the amount of drug abuse in our systems? Steroid, Rape Drugs, Oxcodone - how can a child sit in a classroom and learn anything if these are the drugs of their afterschool activities? I would think if a child were under the influence of any of these substances, then it would be apparent, and bidding a project out to a doctor, lab or private provider is just an administrative and accounting nightmare. IF the child is that far along, someone else failed. Pick the child out of the classroom, call in mommy/daddy or whoever is the legal guardian and have that person bring you back a clean alcohol/drug screen for their child before that particular child is let back into to infest the other children. At the same time, have that mommy/daddy or legal guardian brought to the attention of DYFS because obviously the child is neglected and in harm if they are using any of these street drugs.
The school's responsibiity is to 1.) educate our children and at the same time insure the safety of our children while in their care. I have witnessed, long before the Sandy Hook tragedy that certain schools have armed police men in the cafeteria (I am talking about a middle school - ages 10 - 12). If you have children in your school system who need to be randomly tested for K2/Spice/MDMA (also known as Ecstasy) -and need an armed Policemen on duty that school system has already failed, no child is being educated - it is most likely just a "babysitting" service while the moms/dads/legal guardians are either trying to make ends meet or out doing their own thing.
Summer is coming, send out fliers with end of year report cards, to all parents and legal guardians that their little darling won't be accepted back into school in September without a full doctor's report on the child's health which should include up to date vaccine information, dental visits, as well as any recreational drug use present in a drug/alcohol screen done by their private physician and any other psychological issues that are brewing - the school is responsible for the safety of all of the children - those with drug/alcohol/psych issues need to be watched in order to safeguard other children.
Where are children age 14 - 18 getting the drugs from? What about strict liability laws - no drugs in/near school zones. How are the rest of the children being protected - how has the abuse of such horrendous street drugs become so rampant that a school needs to bid it out on such a scale? Or is this just a revenue generating process for the school.
And yet, in June how many teachers will retire on great big fat pension checks, and benefit packages leaving behind in their wake drug addicted, uneducated, un- employable children in this particular school district? Are they proud of a job well done, or are they just happy to get the hell out of there?