Pubdate: Wed, 21 Aug 2002
Source: Birmingham Post-Herald (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Birmingham Post Co.
Contact:  http://www.postherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/46

TEACHING WRONG LESSON

It was perhaps inevitable in the wake of a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 
June that local school systems would consider expanding their random drug 
testing of students to include all participants in all competitive 
extracurricular activities. After all, concurring Justice Stephen Breyer 
wrote such a "drug testing program, constitutionally speaking, is not 
'unreasonable.'"

However, school board members in Vestavia Hills and Shelby County - to name 
two systems where more drug testing is being considered - would do well to 
read all of the opinions in the case and particularly that of the lead 
dissenter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who laid out the bad lessons that such 
programs can teach.

They would find that Breyer concedes he has no idea whether a random 
testing program would reduce drug use by young people.

And even the author of the majority opinion, Clarence Thomas, specifically 
says the ruling makes no judgment about the wisdom of such drug testing 
programs, only whether they are permissible.

The question for school boards is not whether they should have programs in 
place to discourage drug use. They should. And such programs might even 
include drug tests based on a reasonable suspicion.

The issue is whether random drug testing teaches young people the wrong 
lesson about constitutional rights. As Ginsburg wrote, "The government is 
nowhere more a teacher than when it runs a public school."

Both the majority and dissenting justices agree that school officials have 
to balance their custodial and tutelary responsibilities with the rights 
even children have "against unreasonable searches and seizures." Where the 
justices divided was on the balance point.

We believe Ginsburg was closer to the mark when she wrote for the four 
dissenters, "When custodial duties are not ascendant, however, schools' 
tutelary obligations to their students require them to 'teach by example' 
by avoiding symbolic measures that diminish constitutional protections."

Absent a far more widespread drug problem than anybody claims exists in 
area school systems, random drug testing is precisely the type of symbolic 
measure to avoid.

It teaches the wrong lesson about our constitutional freedoms.
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MAP posted-by: Beth