DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOLS IS A WITCH HUNT

Hats off to Melissa Heald, the Union-Endicott High School student featured
in the March 24 article on the drug test witch hunt. Think about the guts
it takes to be 17 years old and speak up at a time when the witch hunters
equate refusal to give up your privacy freedoms with perversion,
subversion, even treason.

And think about the cynicism engendered by self-serving officials and
administrators and testing companies who conjure up phony safety issues
(the stoned quarterback, the pot-crazed tuba player) to justify trashing
young people's privacy, and at $17 a pop.

Young people, who fear that John Ashcroft threatens their lives more than
do Cheech and Chong, should be heartened to know that most European nations
have decriminalized pot use. The Green Party stands for joining them.

School officials and parents concerned about these kids should put their
efforts into moving our tax money out of Star Wars and corporate bailouts,
and into school budgets.

Mike Bernhard, Afton