Schools rule us all

I learned this year that Texas schools were going to take the drug problem very seriously. Hard on the heels of a STEROID scandal, testing has become mandatory. Thousands of children and young adults die from Crack and alcohol for YEARS but Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds show the benefit of steroids and suddenly Texas is spending money. Honestly, I am not against a level playing field and protecting our kids but the implementation leaves much to be desired.

The rules now say that if your kid is in any extra-curricular school sponsored activities (band, sports, debate) they must be tested. This is probably only just. If the band wants to be given the same share of the money pie as the football team then they should also be subject to the same stuff, but that is not my issue. They continued along this line and added, if you park on school grounds you must also submit to testing. Now, this seems a little to invasive, it is just information gathering on their part, trying to take more parenting responsibility away from the parents. I probably sound a little wild to the one or two folks who might accidentally read this but consider, they are not just testing for illegal substances, they will be getting a report on ALL drugs that show up. If your kid is on Ritalin,they will know, Ibuprofen, they will know, Benadryl, they will know. The list is HUGE and it completely circumvents the HIIPA regulations that guarantee your rights of medical privacy. The administrators will tell you that they wont do anything with the info, it is just there and I respond with, "then quit testing for it." My daughter will not be tested unless she joins a school sports team, she will drive and park across the street when she has the ability and I will not support this invasion of privacy that the schools of Texas are now implementing. We have slowly given over our parenting rights to the schools over the years and now they have more power over our children than we do. If you don't believe me, go try and pull you child from school with out giving them a reason that THEY agree too. Somehow, that snotty woman in the office can tell me when I can and cannot take my own child somewhere. I do resent this very much (and very loudly at times) and take some comfort in that my child will be done in 2 more years and I can stop having to deal with the most narrow-minded group of people I have ever encoutered(administrators and staff).