DRUG WAR IS TEACHING WRONG LESSONS

All I really need to know about civic life, I learned in high school.

Move over, Robert Fulghum. It seems that there are a few life lessons that
today's youths didn't pick up in kindergarten. So school administrators
have decided it's not too late to pick them up in high school.

Following the lead of Lockney, Texas, school administrators across the
country are implementing random drug testing in hopes of stunting abuse. In
2000, the school board in the West Texas town approved one of the toughest
drug policies in the nation, initially requiring all students in grades six
through 12 to be tested and then, from time to time, randomly testing 10
percent. Larry Tannahill and his wife, Traci, were the only parents who
refused to have their child provide a urine sample and, with the help of
the American Civil Liberties Union, took the school board to court and won.

Even though a U.S. district judge overturned Lockney's policy in March, the
Supreme Court now has given administrators nationwide a nod by ruling in a
different case that the random drug testing of students in extracurricular
activities is constitutional.

While teaching teenagers about the dangers of substance abuse is a
legitimate cause, public schools seem to be forgetting their long-accepted
mission of training teenagers for responsible civic living. With drug
testing policies in place, what kind of life lessons are today's students
receiving?

You are guilty until proved innocent. The Supreme Court thus far has
refused to review lower-court decisions banning the testing of entire
student bodies. But it has decided schools can hinge a student's
participation in extracurricular activities on his proving he isn't a drug
user. Although administrators and the courts are quick to characterize drug
tests as voluntary, let's think about that. Sure, a student can refuse to
be tested. But that means he also opts out of extracurricular activities -
and that certainly doesn't help when it comes time to apply to college.

Always go for the quickest fix, even if it won't solve the problem.

Statistics haven't given any clear indication that drug testing is
effective in curbing substance abuse in schools. When drug education is
reduced to "drugs are bad, now pee in this cup," we demonstrate a lack of
trust and undermine any drug education programs that already are in place.
So far, these tests have proved to be only a Band-Aid solution to a larger
problem. Who needs a backbone when you've got rules? Writing for the
majority in the Supreme Court's decision last month, Justice Clarence
Thomas noted that drug tests can be a weapon for students to use in fending
off peer pressure. So much for the courage of one's convictions or a
general respect for one's own health.

If all else fails, find loopholes. Rather than curb usage, students report
the testing has instilled a new sense of creativity. Some have discovered
ways to avoid getting caught - like dropping salt, or a hair coated with
hairspray, into samples to invalidate the results.

As troubling as some of these unspoken lessons are, what's most alarming
about the drug tests is that many students are defending them. As one
clueless Indiana high school student said, "I don't do drugs. I don't have
anything to worry about."

Perhaps the lack of understanding is the worst part of all this. For many
students, this is just business as usual in schools where dress codes grow
ever closer to mandatory uniforms and where illegal locker searches go on
every day.

There seems to be a sense of resignation among today's youth to allow
society to trample on their rights. If a case can be made that it improves
the safety and peace of the whole, there's a mind-set that says it's
patriotic to sacrifice our liberties.

What happens to kids who grow up giving urine samples and thinking it's
normal for principals to watch over them with video cameras? After
graduation, they end up living in a society where it's easier to just
accept authority than to raise hand and question it. And didn't we learn to
raise our hands in kindergarten?

Jeremy Roebuck of Plano is a summer intern in The Dallas Morning News
editorial department. He is a junior at Southern Methodist University and
majoring in journalism and English.