TESTING SENDS WRONG MESSAGE

AS A COLLEGE student entering my second year, I urge community
members to consider the ramifications of Rio Rancho school district's
proposal to implement a random drug testing program ("Drug Test Plan
Spurs Argument," July 23, 2007).

In my high school, trust between students and adults was essential
for students who needed help. Yet drug testing erodes this vital
relationship by creating an environment in which students are
considered guilty until proven innocent. As University of New Mexico
associate professor Harry Van Buren points out, students are suspect
if they insist on upholding their privacy rights.

Drug testing inherently sends the message that students are not
worthy of the protections of the constitution afforded to adults.
This was the recent opinion of Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper
who held that random suspicionless student drug testing violated
privacy rights granted by the Tennessee constitution.

I hope New Mexico's Attorney General also determines drug testing to
be unconstitutional. Young people deserve more.

ELISE BERGERSON

Treasurer, Columbia University Students for Sensible Drug Policy,

San Francisco