By contrast, suspension or expulsion hold no terrors for many high-school students. This said, school programs are not without some teeth. A. Not necessarily, since the peer and parental pressure resulting from testing may have a deterrent effect. The provision of adequate drug treatment to the young ought in any case to be regarded as a first call on local and national revenues. A. All of these problems have been addressed in what are now the well-established testing programs of the military, the American federal work force and corporations.
Recognized protocols exist.
Hair testing's advent makes feasible many testing programs heretofore renounced, as the former drug czar in the Nixon administration, Robert Du Pont, recently pointed out. Urine testing has also developed to the point that samples can be analyzed on site, without the delays attendant to use of a testing laboratory. A. Undoubtedly, though reasonable efforts should be made to preserve confidentiality so as not to use publicity as a form of punishment. Prejudice of this sort is the inevitable result of any sort of school discipline and may be a benefit to the student's further development. No one suggests that this be attempted where a system does not want it, and a case can be made for reposing discretion at the level of the school principal.