Drug Tests For Students Out Of Line - Editorial

Whether your son plays on his high school's football or chess teams, or your daughter is the school's premier debater or basketball star, they could be required to submit to a random drug test if they want to participate. The kid who just shows up for class every day, though, will never have to worry about being singled out, maybe even if there's reason to suspect he or she is using drugs.

That's the bottom line of a movement that is gaining acceptance and being adopted in an increasing number of school districts in many states. In Colorado, random drug testing for students participating in extracurricular activities is policy in three districts and under serious consideration in at least a dozen more.

The program is being promoted by President Bush's Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the idea has been received favorably by many educators. Some parents, who feel something must be done about drug use in schools, support it, too - even though detecting drug use by randomly testing students is like firing into the forest and hoping a deer walks into the shot.

To us, the flaws in random student drug testing are obvious, and outweigh the justifications advanced by all who advocate it.

Rocky Mountain News