Jewish World Review March 22, 2002 / 9 Nisan, 5762
Debra J. Saunders
Conservative hypocrisy on school drug testing?
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Be very afraid of what was said during
Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing on a case in
which three Tecumseh, Okla., students challenged a
mandatory drug testing program for high school
students participating in extracurricular activities.
Be afraid because statements made by some of the
justices suggest that they are prepared to make the
sort of results-oriented ruling -- based on ideology,
not case law -- that conservatives used to lambaste
when liberals made them.
Enter the war on drugs. Exit the U.S. Constitution.
Here's one example quoted in the New York
Times: Justice Antonin Scalia asked ACLU attorney
Graham Boyd, who opposed the testing program,
"So long as you have a bunch of druggies, who are
orderly in class, the school can take no action.
That's what you want us to rule?"
Yes, that's right, justice. In America, there's this little
thing called probable cause. Right now, teachers
can ask for drug tests when they suspect a student
of drug use, but for the moment, the law has not
allowed schools to test all students for no cause.
Be afraid because precedent doesn't matter. In
1995, the Big Bench ruled that it was legal for an
Oregon school to require athletes to submit to urine
tests because the school had a big drug problem.
The reasoning: Athletes were the main offenders,
football players were role models and there were
safety issues with football players in heavy gear
charging other players while high on drugs.
That was a narrow ruling. Now, some justices want
to make members of Future Farmers of America
and the band tuba player into role models. And they
don't care if a school district doesn't have much of a
drug problem. (Of 505 Tecumseh students tested,
three tested positive.)
Worse, as the Washington Times reported, Deputy
Solicitor General Paul D. Clement suggested that
public schools could test entire student bodies.
Forget the Fourth Amendment protections against
unreasonable searches.
Be afraid because most justices apparently support
drug testing for students who are less likely to be
drug users than, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
said, "students who don't do anything after school."
Students who refuse to take the test or flunk it twice
would be banned from interscholastic clubs.
Be afraid because the Bush administration and some
justices want the government to be Big Father, and
pre-empt parental choice. Parents can give their
kids drug tests if they suspect their kids are using
drugs.
There are parents who have argued that they want
the school to test their kids. They shouldn't expect
schools to do their dirty work for them. And they
should want to keep the government out of the
bathroom.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that he was
helping parents when he gave an analogy of two
schools, one with drug testing and one without. He
then told the ACLU's Boyd that no parents would
send their children to "the druggie school" -- "except
perhaps your client."
I've received letters from readers who support
20-year sentences for low- level, first-time
nonviolent drug offenders because they think those
sentences will protect their kids. It doesn't occur to
these folks that their kids could be drug offenders.
According to the Bush administration's own brief,
54 percent of high school seniors have used illegal
drugs.
Be afraid because when schools give students a
choice between clubs or drugs, marginal kids will
choose drugs. "It's those kids who need those
activities the most (who) are going to be the easiest
to deter," said Daniel Abrahamson of the Drug
Policy Alliance, who wrote a brief against the
Tecumseh School Board for the American
Academy of Pediatrics.
The brief noted, "a strong record of extracurricular
involvement is all but essential to securing admission
to a competitive undergraduate college."
Because the justices weren't focusing overly on
precedent, let me pose a moral question: Would the
justices support a policy labeled: Smoke a joint in
high school, work at McDonald's for the rest of
your
life?
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
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