Pubdate: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA) Copyright: 2002 Athens Newspapers Inc Contact: http://www.onlineathens.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535 Author: Ben Bartlett Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Note: Ben Bartlett grew up in the Athens area and is a junior political science major at the University of Georgia. GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT IN OCONEE Recently, the doors of Oconee County High School were locked -- not to keep people out but to keep students in -- as members of the private security firm RAID Corps. swept the school with drug dogs in search of any signs of drugs or weapons. Oddly enough, school officials reportedly received no complaints from parents in the days immediately following the search. In light of the high levels of protest seen when other schools around the country have implemented similar lockdowns, it seems unlikely that no one disagrees with the tactics. So why the silence. Perhaps would-be critics simply see no point in protest, for the courts have thus far upheld the legality of such lockdowns. But just because a policy may receive passive community acceptance doesn't mean there are no grounds for objection. The tactics employed at Oconee County High School and countless other schools are only part of a much larger national trend of sacrificing student privacy for safety. School security is a major concern, and we are thankful to see administrators determined to keep students safe. But the intrusive means by which officials often obtain security today may do more harm than good. We seem to have become so preoccupied with protecting our schools that we've lost sight of what we're fighting for. Our goal is to offer students a school environment that is conducive to learning, but instead of fighting for students, we have begun fighting against them. Much can be said about a society by the way its citizens treat their children, so what can be said about our society when children attend schools that could be mistaken for prisons. We can turn our schools into fortresses, but conditions will continue to deteriorate as long as we ignore the problem that students remain unmotivated to think. I've tutored high school students who were unable to perform long division. The most troubling aspect wasn't their lack of understanding, but that they didn't seem to care. This will not change as long as students must check their dignity at the door each morning. To do well in school, students must first respect themselves, but how can they when they are treated collectively as potential criminals. Drug searches like the one in Oconee County aren't implemented in response to any specific wrongdoing. Used as a preventative measure, they imply a constant suspicion of guilt. If expectations are set so low, then what kind performance can we predict. I've heard students say they weren't the least bit bothered when drug dogs searched their backpacks. To me, this seems far more troubling than a few students with small amounts of marijuana on campus -- the final product of Oconee High's drug search. The problems of school security and student drug use may not have any easy answers, but imagine, just for a moment, what might happen if we were to begin focusing on policies that afford students a little more dignity, not less. What if instead of asking what they can legally do, administrators started asking what they should do. What if we were to begin treating students not as potential delinquents but as the future leaders of our country. Certainly, it would be naive to think that a concept as simple as treating students with greater respect could solve anything -- or would it. Perhaps, but it wouldn't be a bad place to start. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager