DRUG TESTS TEACH KIDS TO RELINQUISH RIGHTS

The government should never be engaged in the process of drug testing our
children for any reason. Simple test kits are available at the local
pharmacy for any parent who believes their child might be using drugs.

There are many other reasons why drug testing in schools is a bad idea. For
one thing, testing does not deter drug use; for another, it invades the
rights of children - the right to dignity, the right to be innocent until
proven guilty and the right to keep body parts unexposed. Teaching children
that property, like book bags and backpacks, may be searched at random and
without cause by police and teachers, and teaching them that lockers and
automobiles are subject to random searches, or teaching them to urinate in
a cup to prove their innocence, is not something that should ever be
considered "for their own good." Once you've taught a generation to accept
government searches without probable cause, to automatically submit to
humiliating body cavity searches and to relinquish body fluids on command
only teaches them that they have no rights.

As parents, we are the custodians of our children's rights; they have every
right we do, just not the maturity to exercise all of them yet. If we
surrender those rights before they can exercise them, they'll never have
the benefit of knowing those rights ever existed. If the children of today
are without constitutional rights, so, too, are the parents of tomorrow.

Jim White
Oregon, Ohio