PAPER SHOULD DEFEND RIGHTS

Never mind that your Nov. 6 editorial (Drug testing: Lawsuit is misguided)
contained factual errors concerning the number of children involved and the
meaning of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on student drug testing;
much more distressing is that the editorial's author forgot the news media's
crucial watchdog role of alerting citizens that their government has gone
awry.

One local division of government, the Conway Public Schools Board of
Education has gone awry. Using an unproved technique (drug testing), it is
forcing students least likely to engage in illicit drug use to prove
themselves innocent, despite a lack of suspicion. All guilty students are to
be yanked out of their activities, which is what a variety of educational
and medical organizations say is the exact opposite of what should be done.

The drug-testing policy defies logic, and it violates our children's civil
rights. The Log Cabin Democrat should be defending these rights, rather than
criticizing those who have enough courage to stand up for this injustice.