(See the entire article on http://www.floridatrends.com)

".. the number of students in Florida public schools subject to random testing has more than doubled since 2003. "

The article, Drug Testing: Testing 1, 2, 3, looks at the running dialog on student drug testing, "..there has been less debate in Florida than other states..." but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

"Ned Julian, the school board attorney for Seminole County, which has rejected testing, says it’s problematic when a school points out a child’s drug problem. “It puts you into a lot of strife with parents. They just don’t want to know.” "

But then again, maybe parents do want to know if their teen has drug problem, to quote a co-athletic director, “It’s been shocking how positive it’s been,” says Melinda Moses, a co-athletic director and guidance counselor in Columbia County, which started a testing program during the past school year. “We haven’t gotten any flak.”

The article goes on to cover a couple of the student drug testing co-issues:
1) If we say yes to random drug testing in schools, who do we test? Athletes only? Everyone?

"Most Florida district officials with random programs say they’d test everyone if they thought the courts would allow it. " writes Gina Edwards in the article.

2) If we say 'yes' to random drug testing in schools how are the results going to affect the student?

"Courts have limited how schools can use the information gleaned from random drug tests: A positive test result can’t affect a student’s academic career, nor can schools turn the results over to law enforcement. "

"Some [random drug testing] critics, like Jerry Kelley, superintendent in Gulf County, think that doesn’t make sense. Kelley questions how, under zero-tolerance policies, a district can expel students if school officials find drugs in their lockers but can’t act when they find drugs in their urine."

There are still many questions and long nights for parents, law makers and school decision makers on the random drug testing issue. The Florida Trend article addresses the plain and the sticky about the issue, but the most important question we need answered is, 'Does random drug testing work to deter drug use?' Many schools say it does. See http://www.studentdrugtesting.org/Effectiveness.htm for examples. It is statistics like these, that will hopefully make the decisions. Drug testing can be just as private as the school records that follow a student from year to year, but we aren't talking about monitoring the rise and fall of academic achievement here, we are talking about saving lives.