Importance of Random Drug Testing for New York City Employees

New York City employees are all subject to random drug testing. This applies mostly to firefighter, police officers and transit workers. This means that in any given day any of these employees may be asked to provide a urine sample to test for illegal drugs in their system. The purpose of this testing is to ensure that these employees do not harm themselves nor the people they serve and that they can perform their duties efficiently and safely.

I truly believe that as New York City employees, teachers should be checked from time to time as well. After all they are responsible for the students they teach. If teachers were to come to school high or drunk; they will not only be inefficient, but they would be a bad influence for the students of all grades, and could have bad intentions as well. No one knows what a teacher under the influence of drugs can do. They can curse at the kids, fight with the students, or get into situations that can do a lot of harm to a lot of people. The same thing applies to firefighters and police officers. If they are the ones responsible for our safety, and they are impaired because of drugs, they can do irrational things that can cause a lot of harm, damage and possibly death, not only to themselves but to the people that they must look after. They wouldn’t be able to perform their duties to maximum capacity. Then when it is to late they would begin to lament. If they could have only stayed away from drugs.

The NYCDOE should be testing for drugs. If a parent knows that his or her child’s teacher is using drugs, would they be O.K. with that? Of course not; because they know of all the problems troubles that such a situation can bring. Okay, some may say that the fourth amendment to the constitution states that you cannot be searched without probable cause, but isn’t the safety of children a reasonable cause? I believe it is reasonable enough for searching and testing for drugs. If we tell a police officer that a person has a bomb, would that be a reason for an immediate search? So, in this situation student safety is also a reasonable cause. Nevertheless, I also see why some teachers wouldn’t do a drug test. Maybe because they are afraid that the person testing could make a mistake, although I believe that would be highly unlikely that it would happen.

In conclusion for all the reasons stated above I believe that all employees in a position of responsibility should be randomly tested for substance abuse. If not - think of all the catastrophic events that might occur; do to a teachers actions under the influence. To prevent these events that might occur, I believe that teachers should be randomly drug tested before the inevitable happens and were to late.