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Drug testing plan was misguided

Re: Drug testing not best method to stop usage, Dec. 10 Times editorial:

As the parent of two athletes, I opposed the Hernando County School District's proposed drug testing plan. This may have been a well-intentioned response to drug use among our children, but it was misguided and would have damaged the crucial relationships our children have with teachers, coaches and the staff.

It is the school's responsibility to educate. It needs to educate the students on the dangers of drugs and give them the skills to resist both the temptation of experimentation and peer pressure. It needs to educate the parents on the warning signs of drug use and continue to provide drug testing at parent request or for cause. It needs to educate the community on what we can do collectively to send the clear message that drugs are illegal and unacceptable.

It is the school's responsibility to educate, and it is my responsibility to parent and enforce. I am responsible for who my kids are with, where they are at, and what they are doing. It is my responsibility to be informed and educated and watch for signs of drug use: falling grades, erratic behavior, change in friends. It is my responsibility to know all I can know about what they are doing and what is influencing them: music, television, computer games. Kids are not to have unlimited privacy. As a parent, I need to be in their business, in their rooms, in their stuff to really know what is going on in their lives.

It is my responsibility to parent, and the school's responsibility to educate. I say "NO" to drug testing.

Lisa Hammond, Brooksville

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 06:37:19]