Others, particularly at large companies, do it randomly. Some civil rights advocates attack the practice as intrusive, arguing employees should have the right to work free from the prying eyes of suspicious bosses. But employers do it to ensure the safety of the workplace, to protect their business against the potential harm a drugged-up employee could heap upon coworkers and customers.
Safety is the issue.
It's the same now with student-athletes at USD 363 in Holcomb. The school board has adopted a random drug testing policy designed not so much to catch students' illegal substances, including nicotine and alcohol, but to prevent their use in the first place. Sure, some students called in for a test may feel like they have to prove their innocence without ever having given any reason for administrators to consider them guilty. In today's permissive environment, that's a fair trade off. Beginning with the seventh grade, student-athletes will be randomly selected to submit to the test.