Joshua Ochoa
12/04/2014
Persuasion Paper
High School Athletes
Throughout high school and even college there are many different extra-curricular activities offered for students. Many times these activities help keep students off the streets, and many times motivates them to do better in school. A huge part of the extracurricular activities or most popular ones are playing sports. Especially in most public schools students use sports as an escape. Whether it is an escape from certain problems or often times it is a student’s ticket to get into college.
The reason it would motivate them to do better is because in order to participate, about ninety percent of the time the student has to have a certain grade point average. Without good grades and good behavior students wouldn’t be able to play or participate. However there is also another factor, often times schools drug test their athletes. Although drugs are illegal and no one should be doing them in the first place. Truth of the matter is that there are drugs being used by adults as well as young people. It dates all the way back to 1989 when schools started doing random drug testing (Drug Testing Student Athletes). Random drug testing basically just means that the coach chooses when and who will get drug tested. What they may not realize is that the student does have legal rights. In order to even give a player a drug test it must comply with fourth amendment rights (Drug Testing Student Athletes). This means that there has to be a good reason for it, such as the players personality has changed, their eyes could be low or red, and maybe they might even come to practice or a game smelling like the drug. Which also means that there has to be probable cause and a suspicion within reason for the drug test to even be given. By having students fourth amendment rights protected it limits coaches to just drug testing out of dislike for a player or any other unreasonable circumstances. The fourth amendment states that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” (U.S Constitution). This supports the reasoning in saying that there must be probable cause, and not just a dislike towards a player.
Then the real question comes into play about what does the drug testing actually do? Yes, it determines whether or not a player has used or is using drugs. However what if that player doesn’t get drug tested until their senior year and was doing drugs the whole time. That basically makes it pointless because the whole time they were doing their job and helping their team. Now this leaves the senior who possibly was going to college on a scholarship with nothing. A lot of times players play sports in college just to be able to afford to go. So without a scholarship they aren’t able to go, so this leaves them at home struggling to find a job. It also may cause them to get into the streets. Instead of being given the chance to stop doing drugs and continue along on the right path.
This is why I am against drug testing for high school students. It is very unfair. Drug testing these high school athletes can cause their whole lives to go down the drain if it comes back positive because of what happens after the test. If players test positive this causes them to be kicked off of the team. So where does that leave them? This means they no longer have the motivation to do well in school and may even cause them to drop out. Also, this leaves them without any guidance; instead they are just kicked off of the team. Another thing is that drug testing only athletes is not right because chances are other students in the school will also test positive (The Lariat Cooper City). If the rest of the regular student