Pubdate: Fri, 06 Sep 2002
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer (OH)
Copyright: 2002 The Cincinnati Enquirer
Contact:  http://enquirer.com/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/86
Author: Jim White
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

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
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MAP posted-by: Tom