Lower Dauphin, Middletown, Cumberland Valley, Susquenita, and South Middleton (Boiling Springs) school districts all randomly drug test their student athletes in order to protect their health and keep them away from harmful substances while they are in season. Big Spring needs to start drug testing athletes because many of the athletes do not realize that they are potentially putting themselves in harm’s way by participating in these “extracurricular” activities. Athletes from our school have been overheard discussing the time it would take for certain drugs to leave their system before being caught by a test. Because the seasons only last for two months, athletes could save themselves a lot of worry by either not putting harmful substances into their body or at least waiting until their seasons are over.

Taking drugs is not only harmful physically to the body during exercise, but also to the athletes reputation as well as the schools.  Athletes are supposed to represent our whole student body. If these representatives come across as druggies and show up to games high, then this is what other schools will think our whole student body is like. This is embarrassing to those of us who choose not to participate in these dangerous activities.

In order to keep our athletes’ health and our school’s overall image safe we need to implement randomized drug testing. Some may worry that this is a violation of the 4th amendment (which is that you cannot search and seize without rightful suspicion), however athletes hold themselves to a higher standard, and by signing a code of conduct they relinquish this right. Others may worry about the cost of doing these tests. This is a moot point because the government offers funding and grants to schools that implement these safety measures. There is no good reason why our school cannot do these tests so we need to begin doing them in order to better our students and keep them safe.