NOT KIDDING

In thinking about teenagers rights, I view with great alarm, the growing and under-reported rise in Fourth Amendment violations in our public schools. Yet another unwarranted drug sweep occurred in Texas at Waxahachie Junior High School this week.

Local law enforcement was not involved in this incident. Based on an unsubstantiated tip from an informant, a dozen 13 and 14 year olds were detained and searched bodily by an assistant principal. Their parents were not even informed much less asked for consent.

One of the more disturbing aspects of these stories is the stink of pedophilia that seems to permeate this moral vigilance. Reading this account, I could help but recall the Goose Greek principal's voice eagerly describing his daily surveillance on young bodies - demonstrating how he can manipulate the cameras for a better view. He however at least only watches and kept his hands to himself which is more than can be said in this case. One mother, who will be filing a civil lawsuit, describes her child's ordeal.

Gallegos said her daughter, who just turned 14, had said an assistant principal reached up her shirt to look for the drugs.

And she wasn't the only one.

According to other students Gallegos' daughter talked to, they, too, had been groped and searched by the assistant principal. The school officials also threatened the students with In-School-Suspension, Gallegos said, if they did not comply with the search.

No drugs were found here, nor to my knowledge, have any significant drugs been recovered at any school during this recent spate of unjustified sweeps. It's unsurprising that our public education system is in such a sorry state when those in charge of it think they can keep kids safe from drugs by intimidating them with civil rights violations. This is no way to foster an supportive learning environment much less instill an respect for authority.

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While we're on the subject of behavior modification by intimidation, The Nation reports on state legislators jumping onto the bandwagon built by the federal HEA Act and denying financial aid to students.

In Ohio, where an Ohio State University football victory over Michigan last year set off a celebratory riot resulting in nine torched cars and $135,000 in police overtime costs, Governor Bob Taft OK'd a law in June that takes away financial aid for up to two years from students convicted of "rioting" or "failing to disperse."

Now these riots are driven by alcohol, not marijuana and the legislation comes in response to the growing costs associated with these drunken victory celebrations.

Living in a five college town, I appreciate the need to address the problem and agree that the participants who irresponsibly celebrate athletic victories by committing vandalism should be held accountable. The problem however is in how to apply these laws in a way that does not infringe on political dissent. Many peaceful protesters have been arrested for asserting their First Amendment right to assemble and refusing to disperse without having caused any property damage and most drunken rioters escape arrest by running away from the destruction they wreaked when the cops arrive.

We're reserving judgment on this trend pending more news on how these laws are ultimately applied and are willing to admit they could perhaps help stem the tide of alcohol induced destruction based on this result of a law approved last year in Colorado that prevents those convicted of riot-related crimes from attending a state school for a year.

Colorado State Representative Don Lee, who sponsored the bill, says it has been a success--nobody has rioted and nobody has been suspended.

One can't help but wonder however if this is simply because they didn't admit anyone with a riot conviction. It certainly doesn't appear that the student body has suddenly stopped drinking.

Lee, meanwhile, is considering bringing something else to the table next year. Noting that the University of Colorado was ranked number-one party school in the country this year by Princeton Review, he says, "One of the things we keep saying is that we want to promote a drug-free society. One of the things I've been batting around is when a student applies for financial aid from the state, they have to pass a drug test."

To which we reply, Mr. Lee drop the bat and read the stats. Alcohol is the number one drug of choice on college campuses today, (as it has been for decades), not marijuana, the drug most likely to be found on a screen. Further, alcohol dependency is the most unrecognized, undertreated problem plaguing our students and it's the one thing your drug test doesn't even screen for.