NEW CLASS OF SUSPECTS

Once You Begin Drug-Testing Students, Enough Is Never Enough

In another misguided foray in the "War on Drugs," the Shelby County Board
of Education has found a new class of students to drug test: high schoolers
who park their cars on campus.

The board already tests athletes, cheerleaders and others involved in
extracurricular activities - at a cost of $15.50 for each urine sample.

One strike - refusing to take or failing a drug test - and you can't park
on campus for seven weeks. Two strikes: Leave your car at home forever.

Surely, there must be more classes of kids in Shelby County the system can
test for drugs - since the U.S. Supreme Court won't approve blanket
testing. How about passengers who catch rides to school with teens who have
cars? How about people who talk to teens who park on campus? Where does
this end?

If there's a reason to suspect a child has a drug problem, then get him or
her the counseling and testing needed. But to treat all children as
potential drug abusers is folly. It turns schools from meccas for learning
into stalags where kids are viewed as suspicious characters. It presumes
guilt, not innocence as the law says it should.

Why do Shelby County parents stand for this? At the meeting Tuesday where
the new policy was adopted, one parent pointed to the surveillance cameras
and security officers at Oak Mountain High School and asked how much the
system planned to spend on testing and security - and couldn't it think of
other needs that could use the money more?

The problem is this: When you start suspecting all children of misdeeds,
enough is never enough. Absence of evidence is taken as proof of concealment.

Teachers, parents, administrators should know which child needs help. The
testing rampage is merely a way of letting expensive chemical analysis do
the job the educators and parents should be doing.

Soon, Shelby County educators will think of someone else to test. And when
they do, the schools and the students won't be any safer than they are now.