Le’ah A. Murphy
EN 202-04
S. Farrier
Spring 2014
Urinalysis of Educators
Student Arrested for Drug Possession and intent to Distribute, too often is this headline seen in papers across our nation. What follows, is a series of parental advocates raiding schools requiring the need for “drug-free” programs that in many cases do work and yet, students fall back into the temptation of using illegal substances and parents wonder what could have derailed them from their new found independence from drugs. The next step is often a desperate cry for help from the one person, who spends hours of the day coaching students to excel in their academic careers. Teacher, a title that is honored and revered, a position of responsibility for the future and preservation of a nation and its culture. Rarely, do we question the teacher as students, let alone as a community, but should we? CNMI PSS administrators and teachers rarely undergo any drug testing, if any at all. Reports of drug use have been made, but no investigations have been made. If drug testing were required, employees could be removed for sufficient evidence of their use. CNMI Public School System administrators and teachers should be required to undergo drug testing at any time during the course of the school year.
“It makes no sense to me that we have 'drug-free zones,' and we tell our students to 'say no to drugs,' yet we don't screen these individuals before they get into the system,” said Pennsylvania State Representative Tony DeLuca in an interview with WhyYNewsWorks. Having heard instances in news across the nation of teacher drug use and distribution during instructional hours, Rep. DeLuca sponsored the bill requiring drug testing that recently passed in the state house stating, “We introduced this piece of legislation mainly to protect our children and solve problems before [drug users] get into the system.” The CNMI has had this piece of legislation ratified since the inception of the...