STUDENT DRUG TESTING IS AN ABOMINATION

To the editor:

I am sickened, saddened and outraged to read about Principal Jeff Horn
of Green Valley High School submitting his student athletes to the
Draconian inquisition of forced random drug testing (Sunday
Review-Journal). Anyone who does not believe that drug testing is
unconstitutional has not bothered to read the Bill of Rights.

Drug testing started in the military, where soldiers have almost no
constitutional rights. It has spread like a plague to the general
populace (mostly as a condition of employment).

I was dismayed by Mr. Horn's assertion to "throw the statistics out
the door" when confronted with the fact that drug testing is not very
effective in preventing drug use. He obviously does not care that
legitimate studies have proved that prevention education works better
and is far more cost effective than drug testing. He prefers the
age-old failed policies of prohibition, public humiliation and
punishment. Prohibition never has, and never will work.

I am sure he would test all of his students if it weren't forbidden by
that pesky clause in the Fourth Amendment that supposedly protects us
from just such intrusive searches.

Mr. Horn also seems oblivious to the damage done to a student's future
after a failed drug test. Anyone who ever fails a drug test cannot
join the armed services, is ineligible for government-funded college
scholarships, will never get a government security clearance, will
never pass an FAA pilot's medical exam and will be shut out of an
extremely large number of jobs (both government and private). "Drug
Test Flunkies" will never get hired anywhere, ever, if you are
truthful about failing a drug test on a job application and/or interview.

Basically, any student who fails a drug test or has a false positive
is guilty until proven innocent, and innocence is impossible to prove.
A failed drug test is akin to a Scarlet Letter for life.

The main lesson all Green Valley students will learn is that they are
now living in a surveillance society at war with its own population.

J. Collier

Henderson