Drug testing in schools pushes through

After getting the approval of President Duterte and of the Cabinet members, Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Friday said that there is no stopping the implementation of the drug testing among select students, teachers and non-teaching personnel under the Department of Education (DepEd).

“When we presented it to the Cabinet, we viewed drug addiction as a disease and a health issue so like any disease, it has to be diagnosed,” Briones said. DepEd, she explained, will work closely with the Department of Health (DOH).

However, Briones refused to disclose if the conduct of the drug testing has already started. Originally scheduled to start in September, the random drug testing among students and mandatory drug testing for its teachers and personnel has been carried over to October.

Briones has announced the conduct of the drug testing among teachers and students as early as last as 2016. “We announced this plan last year and there was a positive response at that time when we announced this random drug testing,” she said.

The conduct of the drug testing is “within this School Year (SY) 20172018.” During the Cabinet meeting on October 4, Briones presented the details of DepEd’s drug testing program President Duterte and to the members of the Cabinet for “comments and advice.”

Briones declined to give further details on the implementation of the drug testing – particularly the random drug testing that will cover junior and senior high school students to address concerns on confidentiality issues.

“As to the details, I’m sorry, we would not want to share it with the public [because] the statistical formula is based on many factors,” Briones said in an earlier interview. “We are avoiding press coverage, we are avoiding exposure of children and the actual drug testing activity would not be open to the public or to the press,” she added.

Those who will be included in the testing, she said, would be anonymous.

“They will be coded… and they will just be numbers,” Briones said. “The purpose is not to punish or to expel but to help those identified that are being afflicted with condition,” she added.

Despite concerns on privacy and violating rights of children, Briones assured that the guidelines of drug testing were outlined “with protection of the child’s identity in mind.”