PRESUMED GUILTY

With a U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold mandatory drug testing for
teachers, America has slipped deeper into an age of implied suspicion.

The action Monday was significant not because the high court let stand a
rejection of this constitutional challenge. The court has upheld drug
testing before. Rather, the decision was precedent-setting because of who it
involved -- school teachers in Knox County, Tenn.

School board members in Knox County acknowledge the district has never had
any problems with drug use among teachers. Yet, they voted to require urine
testing for all new teachers in 1994 to take a "firm stand" against drug-use
on campus.

The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union,
took up the case rightly arguing that teachers should not be tested unless
there is reason to believe a drug problem exists.

But the courts rejected that argument, with fuzzy justification.

When the Supreme Court upheld testing 10 years ago, the cases concerned the
screening of train engineers and armed federal agents. The five-judge
majority found that because these workers could pose a safety risk to the
public if they were under the influence, testing did not constitute an
"unreasonable search" as prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.

However, that "safety" standard has slowly been eroded until now it,
inexplicably, has been applied to teachers.

In the decision upheld by the Supreme Court Monday, a U.S. appeals court
found, "The public interest (in a drug-free school staff) clearly outweighs
the privacy interest of the teacher not to be tested."

Given the absence of risk so far among Knox County teachers, that's
debatable. More importantly, what's missing is any limitation to the
measures taken to ensure a drug-free school. Once the court has abandoned
the Fourth Amendment principle of "probable cause" there are few limits.

Wouldn't the public's interest in school safety be even more enhanced by
weekly staff drug tests, drug testing of students and lie-detector testing?

Wouldn't public safety interests also be served if communities set up
sidewalk checkpoints to combat drug sales and use?

Given pressures to reduce insurance costs and exposure to liability, this
decision no doubt will clear the way for testing for teachers across the nation.

Worse, children born today are destined to grow up not knowing of a time
when work places did not have regular, mandatory drug tests and other means
of ensuring employee honesty. And the concept of a "presumption of
innocence" will be only a sentimental notion of an earlier age.