DepEd to start drug testing of high school students
GOV’T CENTER, Palo, Leyte — The Department of Education is set to start within this month its drug testing activity among high school students in the region.
The drug testing among students will be done with confidentiality as it is only the students, their parents and school administrators who will know the result, especially if it is positive, DepEd assistant regional director Alberto Escobarte said.
Escobarte said that the drug testing would be done through random selection of schools, wherein 10 students per school would be tested. The selected students’ urine specimen will be submitted for laboratory examination for confirmation.
The DepEd official, however, declined to identify the schools that will be visited by a group of DepEd personnel who will conduct the random drug testing activity.
The drug testing activity in schools in the region will start among schools in Leyte and Tacloban, Escobarte said. All these visits will be done unannounced, he added.
There are about 11 secondary schools under the Tacloban city division with student population of 16,476 while there are 129 high schools under the Leyte division with enrollment of 91,799 students.
Private secondary schools are also included on this drug testing activity of the department, Escobarte said.
In Tacloban, there are 16 private schools with 3,094 enrollees. The Leyte division has no record as to how many are currently enrolled among the 80 private schools in the province for the current school year.
The drug testing activity undertaken among schools came about as information revealed that use of prohibited drugs involved students.
The purpose of the random drug testing was to determine the prevalence of drug users among students, deter them from initiating the use of illegal drugs, among others.
As defined by the DepEd, the random drug testing is a “procedure to determine the presence or absence of a substance in the body and the selection of students through an unbiased process of generating random numbers using a computer or a scientific calculator.”
Students randomly selected will have their urine specimen taken on the day of the visit of the DepEd officials, Escobarte said. Each student is required to “collect” about 60 ml as their urine specimen.
He stressed that the purpose of the drug testing activity is not to condemn or punish the student concerned but to give him a second chance.
Those found to be positive of using prohibited drugs traced through their urines would undergo some rehabilitation and counseling.
“The confidentiality rule will be applied, especially those who will be found positive,” Escobarte said.
Criminal charges await those who will divulge the identity of a student found to be positive, the DepEd official added. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
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