Attached below is a link to a New York Times story (free subscription required) about schools using breathalyzers during the school day to prevent alcohol use by students. In the East Hampton School District in New York, "[d]istrict officials said they grew concerned after hearing of rampant student drinking. Teenagers were caught drinking on school trips to Costa Rica and Italy. A drunk student vomited on a bus on the way to a field trip. Then there were students showing up in class drunk, sometimes after having alcohol at lunch."
Although almost sure to generate legal challenges, the school is probably on safe ground if the proposed procedures discussed in the article are followed. Schools are permitted, constitutionally, to search students and their belongings on school property to prevent crime and unsafe conditions. The institution of breathalyzer tests is not an illogical step for the schools to take.
While the connection between the tests and the drinking is obvious, the policy raises two questions. First, why does the need for breathalyzer tests exist? It seems obvious that the social standards in this community are such that the "year-round residents describe 16 as the de facto drinking age." The problem is one of community standards and I am unsure of the ability of a school to prevent something which the community appears to endorse. How does a 16 year old kid get alcohol? How do lunchtime beach parties with alcohol occur with probable school and police knowledge? Who supplies these minors with alcohol? The most likely answer is parents and older adults. Of course if part of the problem is lunchtime beach parties, a more elegant, and cost effective, solution would be to prohibit students from leaving campus a lunchtime to go to a party.
Second, and more troubling, why does it fall upon the school system to address this problem? If underage drinking is rampant, what are parents, elected officials, and the police doing to prevent it? Permitting or prohibting the activity falls upon the community and while schools can help enforce the law, they should not be the first and last line of defense. The response from the community is split and troubling: "Last month, parents and teachers crowded a school board meeting to cheer the proposal. The op-ed pages of The East Hampton Star overflowed with letters, many of them calling the plan heavy-handed and invasive."
I can see teachers applauding the move, removing drunk kids from their classroom removes a problem teachers shouldn't have to deal with. Parents of non-drunk kids also have a right to praise the plan. These parents have apparently instilled in their children respect for the law and respect for the school, if not for the actual education. But putting the responsibility on the schools to conduct these breathalyzer tests perpetuates the expectation that many people have about schools, specifically that the schools should do what parents lack the will to do--namely discipline and control their children.
But why are some people opposed to the policy? Possession of alcohol by a minor is illegal. Consumption of alcohol by a minor is illegal in most circumstances. Given that these kids are probably driving to school, driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated is clearly illegal. The breathalyzer tests will serve two functions--prevention and detection. If the mere presence of a policy allowing for breathalyzer tests deters drinking by students, then the policy is a success even if no test is ever given. If the test finds one student who is drinking and must face the consequences, then the policy is a success. Preventing illegal behavior is duty of the entire community.
If the police set up a check point on a road near the school and conducted breathalyzer tests on the road of drivers, there would be no question of the propriety and legality of such a checkpoint. But to move the checkpoint to the school suddenly becomes a debate of Herculean proportions. If the rest of community won't do its job, and the schools must do this policing, better that is it being done than not.
The New York Times > New York Region > Sobriety Tests Are Becoming Part of the School Day
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