CHILDREN HAVE SAME CIVIL RIGHTS AS ADULTS

Editor, The Post-Crescent:

The Kaukauna School District is considering whether to bring dogs into the
school in an effort to catch students who may have brought certain
sniffable drugs into school or who may have the residue of such drugs on
their clothes, body or vehicle.

The Bush administration is also providing funds so that schools can require
mandatory drug screening. Why is the school district not debating that
apparently legitimate anti-drug tool? This will catch students who are too
clever to get caught with the dogs, like students who may only smoke
marijuana on weekends.

Let's face it; most students are not going to bring their drugs to school.
The best way to catch them is to have police randomly search their rooms at
home, preferably with the aid of a dog, while the kids are in school.

If they have nothing to hide, they really shouldn't mind, and they don't
even need to know that their room had been searched. A quick glance around
the rest of the house to make sure the parents aren't up to anything would
also be a good idea. If nothing is found, but a suspicion still remains, a
microphone could be hidden at little cost to monitor their conversations
for a month or two.

Even if they aren't using drugs, who knows what other incriminating
evidence might be uncovered. This may sound somewhat like Nazi Germany, but
if we really intend to fight crime, aren't any tactics legitimate?

If students don't have the rights of adults, these are all legitimate tools
that can and must be employed against them in our war on crime and drugs.
Or we could treat them like every other adult citizen, cloaking them with
the same rights our forefathers fought and died for in the Revolutionary
War. Why don't our children deserve those rights?

John Edmondson,

Appleton