Pubdate: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard Contact: PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188 Website: http://www.registerguard.com/ Author: Thomas Gushurst DRUG TESTING MISGUIDED I admire Ginelle Weber, her parents and the American Civil Liberties Union for standing up to the drug-testing policy at Oakridge High School (Register-Guard, Nov. 1). Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that deterring drug use by our nation's schoolchildren justifies such drug-testing programs, I believe that such programs are shameful and disgraceful. This is the lesson being taught at Oakridge High: Even if you're innocent, you'll be kicked off the volleyball team if you don't pee in a cup when we say so. Punished until proven innocent! In America! Unbelievable! How proud Dr. Linn Goldberg and his fellow "scientists" at the Oregon Health Sciences University must be knowing that an innocent girl has been kicked off the volleyball team because of their self-contradictory research. (Goldberg, who must hold a doctorate in doublethink, insists that he's not a drug-testing advocate.) The "scientific" results of this $3.6 million study will never be worth even one of Weber's tears - even if the study does prove that random drug testing is a useless practice. Student athlete drug testing may be legal, but it is certainly not ethical. No one has the right to humiliate another person, and being forced to chose between leaving a sports team and peeing in a cup is humiliating. It's a sad day in America when a 15-year-old has to teach her teachers, members of the school board and university scientists basic human decency. If the Oakridge drug-testing policy withstands the ACLU lawsuit, then every police officer, teacher and judge should be subject to the same policy. Thomas Gushurst Eugene - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager