BLANKET DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS A BAD IDEA

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to decide whether schools may give
drug tests to nearly any student involved in after-school activities.
Even without evidence that the school in general or particular
cheerleaders, athletes or debate team members have a drug problem,
some school boards are considering random and/or blanket drug testing
of students. The high court is expected to rule sometime this summer
on whether only schools with pervasive problems may conduct drug
testing, or whether testing would apply only to competitive pursuits
such as athletics or to all extracurricular activities.

The logistics of both selective drug testing and universal screenings
will be a nightmare for students of all age groups and backgrounds.
Parental consent and differing policies among various school systems
will add another bureaucratic and litigious layer to a struggling
educational system. Aside from the fact that there's no logical
starting or ending point for such testing - yanking a second grader
out of math class, rounding up rowdy seniors the day before graduation
or admitting state college students based on SATs and drug tests -
this action is constitutionally indefensible.

All Americans have rights to privacy and should be protected against
randomly selected invasive procedures. The appropriate place to begin
keeping illegal drugs away from students is with the drug kingpins and
their distributors.

Illegal narcotics in the classroom is the symptom of a failed war on
drugs. One of the actual causes is law enforcement's lack of ability
to bring down the well-financed, well-armed cartels. Another cause is
a socio-economic system that fosters escapism over reality and
rewards get-rich-quickies more than hard work ethics.

The likely targets of selective drug testing in schools: The
scruffy-looking kid known to hail from a questionable domestic
situation and the obnoxious, clean-cut suburbanite who's not living up
to his academic potential. At the same time the likely users of drugs
might be the nondescript youngster who's quite the entrepreneur but
who never gets noticed. Drug testing students may be one more
impediment to teachers doing thier job - enouraging learning in an
atmosphere of trust.

The Supreme Court should rule against drug testing of students without
probable cause and parents and communities must bring some
intelligibility to this important debate.