'THUMBS UP' TO FATHER

I notice the Lockney School District has instituted a policy whereby all
Lockney students are to be drug tested. Apparently, in order to give this
new policy a more legal appearance, the school board has additionally
decreed that all parents must sign a waiver granting permission for the
school to do this. Refusal of the parent to sign is automatic grounds for
the school to immediately suspend the student as if the student had tested
positive.

By the way, people who believe this is the way to fight a drug war may find
themselves in somewhat of a pickle. For instance, consider that drug
testing is not a precise indicator of drug use -- or of the absence of drug
use. An error rate in the range of five percent would produce 50 wrong
results in a student body of 1,000. Not only that, but the more dangerous
drugs such as cocaine and heroin may be detected only for a few days.
Marijuana, which has never been implicated in causing an overdose death,
may be detected for as long as one month.

Well, to the Lockney School Board members, let me suggest that people do
not check their rights and their brains at the school door. Thumbs up to
real Texans like Larry Tannahill who has the courage to stand up to such
outrageous coercion.

Larry Nickerson, Fort Worth Via e-mail