KEEP KIDS SAFE: DRUG TESTS ARE ANOTHER TOOL

A Serious Illness Requires Strong Medicine.

That is exactly what the U.S. Supreme Court has prescribed in giving
educators another tool to address drug abuse among students.

By ruling that school officials have the right to require students to take
a drug test if they plan to participate in extracurricular programs, the
high court justices have acknowledged that America has a monumentally
serious problem with children using drugs. They have recognized that the
fight against drug abuse must be modified and made to be much more
effective if we are to have any control over this scourge.

To be sure, many students and educators are unhappy about the Supreme
Court's decision. They are fearful that students' rights to privacy are
being eroded and that such policy is draconian, serving only to instill
mistrust among students toward adults.

We agree that students are entitled to certain rights and that they should
learn by example how to maintain those rights through responsible behavior.

But overriding the privacy issue is the issue concerning the health and
safety of children, who are still learning how to make responsible
decisions. Clearly, society continues to search for a way to deal with drug
abuse - and it's clear, as well, that what we have been doing in the past
has not been working.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has turned out to be a nostrum,
as evident by the number of school districts that have abandoned it. The
lesson seems to be that education alone will not eradicate drug use among
youngsters.

Drug testing of student athletes has been conducted for a number of years.
One of the goals of the policy has been to ensure a level playing field for
all athletes by monitoring the potential use of performance enhancers.

Obviously, the levels of concern about drug use ought to include more than
a sense of fairness among players. Health and safety issues are paramount,
as well as ensuring that students who represent a school district through
their participation in sports are of a state of mind and behavior that is
appropriate and not influenced by the presence of drugs.

Taken a step further, why shouldn't that standard also be applied to
students participating in extracurricular programs that are not in the
bailiwick of athletic departments? The bar will be - and should be - raised
for students in chess clubs, choirs and bands, school plays and debating teams.

According to some local students, the problem with drug abuse is pervasive.
They say - perhaps with some degree of hyperbole, perhaps not - that if
students were subjected to drug tests, there would be no one playing sports.

By implementing drug testing for all who plan to participate in after-
school programs, the heat of peer pressure is relieved. It affords
teen-agers a nonthreatening reason to turn down a friend's offer to use
drugs, the teen knowing - and being able to explain to others - that such
behavior puts he or she at risk of being dropped from a program.

Is drug testing in itself an effective way to fight the war of drug abuse
among our children? No more so than the approach that relied solely on the
use of educational programs.

The court has ruled that all students can be tested randomly and without
cause - and that is the way schools should apply drug testing.

School districts, in adopting the new rules and formulating their own drug
testing policies, should resist those who would work to minimize the impact
of the court's decision by seeking conditions on who should and should not
be tested.

Let's not dismantle a good tool for helping to keep our children safe while
helping them to make good decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.