Drug Testing

HIGH SCHOOLERS DESERVE MORE RESPECT

Regarding school drug testing, the key words are "random" and
"suspicionless" ("Board to vote on drug tests," Jan. 9). The Fourth
Amendment requires a warrant and probable cause to conduct a search,
unless it's "reasonable." I weirdly feel like the town hippie for
pointing out that, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the
dissenting opinion of the 5-4 decision that allowed this, "We (in
schools) are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach
youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes."

If my daughter starts her young adult life having her government,
without suspicion, accusatorily check her bodily fluids for
wrongdoing, won't that lower the bar for future decisions her
generation makes when they are in charge of this free democracy?

These are the values I want the high school to reinforce: Work hard.
Care. Respect people. Don't be a hypocrite. Understand that people
are innocent until proven guilty. Until they invent a urinalysis to
test for those things, I'll rely on the school to guide her the
old-fashioned and reasonable way: through example, high expectations,
respect and inspiration.

Pete Meinberg

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