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April 03, 2002
O pinion
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STOP TREATING STUDENTS LIKE CRIMINALS
There are good reasons to
say ‘no’ to mass drug
testing of students
What do convicted criminals have in common
with American public high school students?
Each can be forced to urinate into a paper cup at
any time — to “prove” they’re drug free. Even if
there’s no evidence that they’ve ever used illegal
drugs.
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Now the Supreme Court will decide, in a case heard
on March 19, the constitutionality of subjecting
public school students to random, warrantless drug
tests as a prerequisite to participating in extracurricu
lar activities.
The case, Board of Education v. Earls, concerns an
Oklahoma school district drug-testing policy. The
school requires drug tests for students in grades 7-
12 who want to participate in after-school events
such as the chess club or the school band.
The plaintiff, Lindsay Earls, was a high school
sophomore trying out for the girls choir when she
was asked to urinate into a paper cup as a teacher
listened outside the bathroom stall.
The experience was “humiliating,” said Lindsay,
who passed her test. Then she and two other stu
dents filed a lawsuit against the district because the
search wasn’t based on “individualized suspicion.”
A ruling is expected in July.
But it gets worse. If the Bush administration has
its way, soon every student in the U SA ’s 14,700
public school systems — not just those involved in
extracurricular activities— could be subject to drug
searches.
T hat's because the administration argued in a
brief to the Supreme Court that every school should
“have the flexibility to adopt reasonable measures,
like the policy in this case.” Note the word “reason
able.” It means that schools should have the power
to test any student, as long as school officials claim
it is “reasonable.”
But there are good reasons for Americans to stand
up and “just say no” to mass drug testing o f students.
It’s unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment,
which prohibits unreasonable searches, clearly states
that “no warrants shall issue, but upon probable
cause.” The Constitution contains no exception for
students.
by
R on C rickenberger
It w on’t work. A drug test can be circumvented
just as easily by high school students as by any other
American who is compelled to take one. If extracur
ricular activities require a drug test, kids using drugs
may simply avoid those activities, and avoid the test
as well. Or simply find a way to falsify the test, as
many American adults already do.
It’s an attack on parental rights. Coercive student
drug testing is based on the assumption that stu
dents are in effect government “property” while
attending government schools.
It’s hypocritical. “I didn’t inhale,” said former
president Bill Clinton. “W hen I was young and
irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible,” said
President George W. Bush. Even high schoolers are
smart enough to recognize hypocrisy, whether the
source is a parent or a politician.
Interestingly,in 1998theU .S.H ouseofRepresen- ’
tatives quietly torpedoed a drug-testing proposal for
themselves and their staffs because lawmakers pro
tested that it was “insulting and undignified.”
So why should we subject our own children to this
insulting and undignified policy?
Clearly, demands for student drug testing have far
more to do with political posturing than with public
safety — and students know it.
Mandatory student drug testing will only em
power politicians and public school bureaucrats;
harass millions o f innocent schoolchildren in the
hope of catching a few drug users; and teach kids to
have no respect for the authority figures who have
so little respect for their rights.
The Supreme Court has the opportunity to remedy
this wrong. It should strike down suspicionless
searches of A m erica’s students. And it should do it
for the children.
Ron Crickenberger is political director of the
Washington, DC-based Libertarian Party.
Welfare Home Visits a Flop
State effort was misguided, ill-designed and inefficient
Family Is Family
No Matter Where You Go.
by C harles S heketofe
O regon C enter for P ublic P olicy
An Oregon Department o f Human Services
report on the results o f its effort to conduct
home visits of clients in the Portland and Salem
regions shows the effort flopped and was mis
guided, ill-designed, and inefficient.
The department set a goal o f visiting 900 to
1,000 households to find out how the agency
could help them become self-sufficient. They
then managed to select only 782 households to
visit and sent out a team of 166 staff who
accomplished only 368 visits, less than half the
homes on the list.
And even at those homes, they found out
from only 213 what help they needed to become
employed. Getting that information from only
213 out o f 782 is an embarrassingly poor perfor
mance.
The agency staff talked with fewer than half
the homes they were assigned, and then got
answers to questions on their questionnaire
from about only 60 percent o f the homes they
actually visited.
The program was doomed from the start
because they chose not to treat the families with
dignity and respect by first making appoint
ments. Not only was it rude, the agency’s low
success rate shows that the unscheduled visits
were an inefficient use of central office staff time
and were ill-designed.
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The department should be embarrassed by
the report. For example, questions such as “What
can we do to help you become employed?” were
answered by fewer than 220 o f the 782 house,-
holds on the visitation list.
If the department was truly focused on help
ing people get jobs, why ask this of only 213 of
the 368 households visited?
The departm ent w ent to great lengths be
fore the visits began to claim that their pur
pose w as to help people and not to conduct
eligibility checks. T heir own data contradicts
those claim s.
The department paid much more attention to
looking for who is actually living in the house
hold and for the role of absent parents, both
eligibility issues.
The department obtained answers to the “who
is in the household” question from 320 house
holds, and answers to the “absent parent role”
question from 290 households.
The focus was ‘are you eligible?’ not ‘how
can we help you?’ Otherwise, they would have
had answers from more o f the homes they actu
ally visited.
Instead, the report makes patently clear the
visitors were focused on looking for who is in the
household and whether absent parents are sup
porting the child or children.
Charles Sheketoffis the executive director of
the Oregon Center for Public Policy.
THE
E D IT O R .
Police Are Not Always Right
Once again, a mother and family are suffering
tremendous pain and sorrow for the disrespect
of human life by Portland Police.
Once again, a murder has been deemed ju s
tifiable in the murder of Byron Hammick Jr.
I knew w hat the grand ju ry w ould say.
Because I have never heard them (the grand
jury) the m ayor or the ch ief o f police step up
to the plate and adm it that the officers were
w rong o r even that a better decision could
have been m ade before the “cow boys started
sh o o tin g .”
There were several methods that could have
been used besides shooting Byron. There were
many lies that were told befofe they (authori
ties) found one that was believable — that he
was abusing a child - after first saying he had
a gun and they were afraid of their lives.
Police could have used tear gas, they could
have called others infto negotiate, but they did
none of these things.
The murderers, with a license to kill, took
matters into their own hands and a young man
is dead. A mother and family members are broken
hearted with no answers justifiable in the murder
of Byron.
This has happened too many times in Port
land and all over the United States with the same
outcome.
No one is right all the time. There comes a time
when we must say police made a great big
mistake — the life cannot be restored.
Only four people know the truth, first God,
then Byron, who is not alive to tell the truth, and
the two policemen who I believe have chosen to
lie about the facts.
God, who knows and holds all truths will be
the judge.
Vesia Lovint
North Por