TEENS PRESUMED GUILTY

Recently, there has been much heated debate about drug testing in schools.

It's disturbing that kids, the overwhelming majority of whom are the
upstanding citizens of the future, must put up with the notion that we're a
national pandemic. Little upsets teens more than being viewed as problems
to be fixed.

The Fourth Amendment protects people from random searches and seizures.
According to it, authorities can't conduct a search unless they have
reasonable suspicion that a crime was committed, or probable cause for such
a search. One must think of what kind of world we're living in if students
- -- and eventually all people -- are guilty until proven innocent.

If the Supreme Court allows drug testing in schools, I propose that all
members of the school be tested. If schools see the need to test kids who
join any extracurricular activity, we should have the security of knowing
that all teachers, faculty and employees of the school district are clean.
No group should be singled out.

However, perhaps it would be in the school's (and society's) best interest
to spend tax dollars on helping the less than 5 percent of kids who give us
a bad reputation.

Eric Sansky,

Apalachin