PRAGMATISM TRUMPS IDEALISM IN CRISES

Imagine those western wildfires destroying forests, consuming land and
homes, and firefighters sitting around arguing which bucket or hose is
"appropriate" for dousing the fire. This reminds me of the current debate
over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing school drug testing.

Idealism is great. But when the forest is on fire and the heat's scorching
our collars, I say use all buckets available to fight. In a crisis like the
drug epidemic among kids and teens, I vote, with the court, for pragmatism
first.

The Supreme Court majority said it's so important to prevent drug abuse
among children that drug testing at school is reasonable and
constitutional. They noted the responsibility of schools to provide safe,
healthy learning places.

The court ruling focused on testing students who participate in
extracurricular activities. There are good arguments against singling out
these students. So let's dodge this discrimination bullet and randomly drug
test all middle- and high-school students.

Let's follow well-thought-out policies, created by local school boards and
focused on identifying drug-using kids early and helping them.

I speak as a baby boorner, part of the generation in which many smoked,
drank, snorted and tripped their way through their 20s and 30s. Many still
cling to their "rights to recreational highs" and scoff at the drug war.
But today's generation need not repeat the excesses of mine. And, as
someone recently reminded me, parents who recognize their own mistakes can
speak with added authority, not less.

We're talking about drug testing may-be 7th to 12th grade kids. Adults --
at least in the natural order of things -- are supposed to protect them, as
beet we can, until they're legally old enough to do it themselves.

We already require students to have physical exams and vaccinations against
disease. We use vision and hearing tests to alert us to problems. Drug use
is a serious problem. We know it can alter the structure and function of
the brain and diminish capacity to make judgments, control impulses and
meet responsibilities (already in natural abundance with adolescents). We
know continued drug use can cause liver and lung damage, memory impairment,
addiction, overdose and death. We know it can prematurely cripple and waste
lives.

According to national numbers, 25 percent of the four to five million
Amen-cans dependent on drugs are teen-agers, many of them 13- and 14-
years-old. To present the drug problem as 30-year-olds smoking a little
harmless marijuana on weekends or a few "bad kids with character defects is
not the reality of drug addiction in this country. When kids and schools
need serious help, it's amazing the U.S. Supreme Court has to officially
remind us that sometimes situations (such as life and death ones) "require
that students be subjected to greater controls than those appropriate for
adults."

If you're worried most about students' constitutional privacy, I en-
courage you to spend a day with teachers in some Tristate high schools or
at Hamilton County Juvenile Court. Visit any of the hundreds of local
drug-rehab programs and listen to young people's tragic stories. Note the
havoc that drug abuse rains on families and neighborhoods. Talk with
frustrated drug counselors scrambling unsuccessfully to meet all the needs.
Stand with a parent who buries a child who has overdosed or committed suicide.

One school counselor wearily shakes his head. "I see kids every day doing
more dangerous drugs at much earlier ages. It's a scourge and lots of
adults are either clueless or in denial"

What About Student & Trust?

Dr. Steven Jaffe, a psychiatrist interviewed by WLWT-Channel 5, has some
advice: "When a teenager says to me 'trust me,' I say 'show me.' Children
need to earn trust and drug testing is a way for them to do so," especially
because drug abuse is so prevalent and dangerous. This is part of giving
students the message that we don't want them to use drugs, that we're the
adults who care and knows what's best for them and we'll do every thing we
can to steer them wisely until they're old enough to do it themselves.

The goal of school drug testing is not to give a green light to
Gestapo-like administrators or overzealous politicians to simply "weed out
druggies from school." (Unfortunately, some religious and private schools
champion this tack.) Kids in need of guidance or treatment are fortunate if
they run up against the compassionate coercion of schools, friends and
family, says U.S. drug czar John P. Walters. Such pressure needs no excuse.
The health, safety and welfare of the student, as well as that of the
school and community, require it.

School drug-testing is not the whole answer. But used wisely, and not
recklessly, it might help. Research shows that students who make it through
their teenage years without abusing drugs are much less likely to start
when they're older. That means we'd reduce the number of people who are
dependent and need treatment, the crimes associated with drugs and the
devastating collateral harm to schools, families and communities.

If drugs aren't a problem with YOUR kids or YOUR school, be thankful, not
smug. If you're AWOL in the drug war, don't condemn those still fighting.
Let local school boards, with parental participation, develop sound.
preventative policies as needed. If drug testing can help some schools and
neighbor-hoods. and save some kids, let's try it.