By: Gillian McGoldrick
Staff Writer

Junior and Senior proms may be over, but schools all around the country are fighting alcohol usage and getting students’ breath tested for high blood alcohol levels before entering school functions, including prom. This is superfluous and not required, and some schools even single out students that are obviously intoxicated. “It should definitely be at prom, but only used if necessary,” freshman Madison Dierolf said.

If a student is obviously intoxicated, the school should step in before the person ends up doing something they regret, like ruining the prom. Although it is their choice to drink beforehand, it is the schools responsibility to take charge of a situation. Not all students should be forced to get their breath tested.

On the other hand, the administration of the school should only step in if it is completely apparent they are drunk. If the student came knowing they were going to be “that kid” that makes a complete fool out of themselves, it is their problem, not the schools.
“If they look under the influence of something, I don’t care if they test them,” senior Amanda Morelli noted. Students who show up to a school function can be suspended or even expelled for their out-of-line behavior.

Opponents of this opinion believe that schools expect students to act as adults, and testing them at school-sponsored events revokes all of their responsibility they once thought they had. “I f you choose to test people, test everyone,” senior Joab Alexander said.

In the United States’ Supreme Court case Earls, the ruling to permit drug testing, despite the fact that the school never had drug problems before, was issued under the fourth amendment. According to the Court, “The need to prevent and deter the substantial harm of childhood drug use provides the necessary immediacy for a school testing policy. Indeed it would make little sense to require a school district to wait for a substantial portion of its students to begin using drugs before it was allowed to institute a drug testing program designed to deter drug use.”

Prom should be fun, and should be remembered. If a person decides to drink, that is their own choice. But the school should only intervene if the student is obviously intoxicated. Although students think they should be treated as adults, if they show up to a school function drunk, they lose their right to be treated as such, and will need to face the consequences for their actions.