GROVEPORT, Ohio – Parents of students at Groveport Madison Schools are posing a simple question about the district’s new random drug testing policy for students: If students are tested for drugs, then why not teachers?



District officials, however, have refused to discuss the drug testing with local media stations, and instead issued a lame reasoning for the new random drug testing policy implemented this year for all students seventh grade and above who want to participate in extracurricular activities, 10TV.com reports.

The policy, according to a school statement, is “to provide for the safety of all students and to undermine the effects of peer pressure by providing a legitimate reason for students to refuse to use alcohol and illicit substances,” according to the news station.

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Parents Sonja Brown and Tracy Collins believe the new policy sets a double standard for students, and forces them to consent to an unnecessary intrusion of privacy in order for their children to participate in after school activities.

“The principal said that she’s trying to hold these kids to a higher standard. How can you hold your kids to a higher standard that you’re not holding your employees to?” Collins questioned.

“To work just about anywhere, you have to pass a pre-employment drug screening. How it passes over a teacher, I don’t know,” Brown told 10TV.com.

The district apparently started random drug testing for high school students last year, and extended the policy to seventh and eighth graders for 2014-15. Collins said that when her son Jacob brought home a consent form for her to sign, she initially refused but later reluctantly decided to comply so her son doesn’t miss out on activities he enjoys, 10TV reports.

Brown also signed off, despite her resentment over the policy.

“I don’t have a choice but to sign it,” Collins said.

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“He only has to practice 90 minutes a week, but he literally practices probably 30 minutes a night on his own,” Brown said of her son’s dedication to his music program. “He wants to do it. He wants to participate. He wants to be part of something besides just himself.”

“It wasn’t his fault. He shouldn’t be punished for choices the district made,” Brown said.

The television station reports that a survey last year by the Ohio High School Athletic Association shows about 22 percent of Ohio high schools require students to submit to drug tests to participate in extracurricular activities.

What’s not as clear is how many schools require teachers to submit to the same policy.

In school districts across the nation, teachers have been busted smoking marijuana on school grounds, smuggling heroin, concocting date rape drugs, selling dope to students and numerous other similar drug-related crimes.

If the school drug testing policy is truly aimed at providing a safe, drug-free school environment, then the adults in the system should face the same scrutiny as students, if not more.

But what many don’t realize is that collectively bargained teachers contracts often prohibit schools from implementing teacher drug testing policies without the consent of union officials, who typically resist all forms of accountability for their members.