GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

Education could be described as a process designed to instruct children on
the folly of their elders. If so, kids in one school after another across
America are learning a lot.

One of the common lessons is that normally rational adults sometimes lose
all sense of proportion when dealing with adolescents. Teenagers then end up
victimized by policies that are either excessively punitive or overly
protective--neither of which teaches respect for the rights of others or
prepares kids for the responsibilities of adulthood.

In 1995, the Supreme Court upheld the practice of forcing school athletes to
provide urine samples for drug tests. Since then, many schools have
instituted programs aimed at catching kids using marijuana, cocaine and the
like. But Hoover High School, near Birmingham, Ala., may be the first to
expand the testing to nicotine. Anyone who refuses will not be allowed to
play interscholastic sports, and anyone who tests positive will be suspended
from the team.

This represents the convergence of two unhealthy trends: treating our
children like prison inmates and getting hysterical about tobacco. A recent
survey found that teenagers who take part in team sports are less likely
than their peers to smoke or use drugs. But at Hoover, innocence is no
protection.

Tobacco use by high school kids was once tolerated to the point that schools
had student smoking areas. Now, smoking on campuses is generally banned, and
the purchase of cigarettes by anyone under 19 is illegal in Alabama. Hoover
officials, however, are not content with prohibitions. They insist on
putting teenagers under unblinking surveillance to punish any deviation from
the straight and narrow.

Ron Swann, athletic director for the Hoover city schools, says he hasn't
heard a single objection from parents or students. But the willingness of
most people to tamely submit to an invasion of privacy under duress doesn't
make it any less invasive. Some parents would endorse strip-searches to keep
kids in line.

That may be next. In Michigan's Whitmore Lake School District, school
employees reportedly forced 20 male and female students to disrobe in an
effort to find money stolen from a girl's backpack in a locker room. The
American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a lawsuit accusing the
school of violating the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, an obscure
provision that--if you can believe this--forbids the government from
conducting "unreasonable searches and seizures."

What's wrong with using strip-searches to catch a thief? "It was humiliating
and degrading to be forced to pull down my pants in front of teachers,"
protested one girl. "I did nothing wrong, and there was no reason to treat
me like a criminal."

Did nothing wrong? No reason to treat her like a criminal? Somehow she has
failed to grasp that all high school kids are supposed to be treated like
criminals--or, to be honest, worse than criminals.

The police, keep in mind, can't come into your house and search you unless
they have reason to think you've committed a crime. But school officials
assume the power to conduct searches of a student's locker, backpack,
clothing and bodily excretions even if she has been a model of good
behavior. The humiliation of being forced to drop your pants in the presence
of teachers is getting to be one of the routine indignities of high school,
like cafeteria food and acne.

Some schools have found ways to make it less routine. In Easton, Maryland,
18 high school students were pulled out of class so their urine could be
tested for drugs before an audience of students and parents. One boy, whose
test was misread as incriminating, was suspended and hustled off the school
grounds by security guards. He was later exonerated, though without quite so
much fanfare.

In some places, officials are vigilant about behavior that doesn't even
violate the law. At a junior high in Euless, Texas, two 8th-grade girls,
best friends, were recently punished for hugging in the hallway. The
principal said that was intolerable because it might have been a "sexual
encounter." Besides, he insists, "in junior high, they just don't need to
put their hands on each other, because they can get into trouble."

The school code of conduct doesn't mention hugs, but there is a rule against
"exhibiting inappropriate familiarity"--which the district says also
includes pinching, shoving and kicking. Now, there's a model of consistency:
School officials understand that if you're going to ban violent physical
contact, you have to ban all physical contact.

Some adolescents may wonder if it's really necessary to subject their
behavior to such pervasive regulation. But someday, they'll understand that
measures like these are essential so they can become productive adults in an
orderly society. Like Iran.