The Marians' Perspectives on Mandatory Drug Testing in High School

Authors

  • Via Nicole B. Ang
  • Mariane Eleni Gail L. Lorca
  • Millenross Anne O. Palomo
  • Pristine Marie G. Patiño
  • Ellisa Marie M. Unay

Keywords:

mandatory drug test, drug war

Abstract

Drug testing is not an uncommon occurrence in the Philippines with the issue of drug war still ongoing under the Duterte Administration. As stated in Rappler News 2018, Duterte himself has been pushing for the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 years old to 9 years since his 2016 campaign. Due to this matter, it was a must for grades 7 to 12 students to take up drug testing upon enrollment. Thus, the purpose and pertaining for this study to be evaluative is to distinguish the level of awareness, satisfaction, and the different perspectives of students from grades 7 to 12 of St. Mary’s College Quezon City regarding the mandatory drug testing in schools. Through a survey questionnaire and using stratified random sampling, only 20% percent of the total 956 population of all the grade levels combined were queried contriving to a total of 200 respondents. Out of the 200 respondents, ninety percent (90%) undergo drug testing for enrollment purposes in St. Mary’s College Quezon City in the past six months. Overall, the respondents know the objectives of mandatory drug testing in schools provided by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and Department of Education (DepEd). Correspondingly, the collected overview exhibits the majority of Marians are very much conscious that the effectiveness of drug testing is to classify the drug users among the students, to assess the drug-related programs adequately in schools, and to discourage the students from using illegal drugs. Students should also follow the law itself that strengthens the bond between schools, the government, and other agencies. Moreover, the students of St. Mary’s College Quezon City found themselves satisfied with the service rendered by the employees of Hi-Precision Diagnostics due to their accommodativeness and professionalism. The results of the study gave information to the school administration of the need to educate the students about the purpose of drug testing and to form programs directed to discourage students from engaging in drug-related activities. As a recommendation, Hi-Precision Diagnostics should provide evaluation sheets to students after the drug testing procedure to see what areas need to be improved. Meanwhile, for future researchers, have an in-depth interview with students who took drug testing at school to further know their experiences and to validate the data gathered.

Published

2019-03-18