Pubdate: Fri, 29 Oct 1999
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/
Author: Karen Brooks, Star-Telegram Staff Writer 
Cited: The Lindesmith Center - West:
http://www.lindesmith.org/about_tlc/west.html

NORTH TEXAS STUDENTS MAY BE SACRIFICING RIGHTS

A decade ago, metal detectors, random drug tests, dogs at lockers or
backpack searches were fodder for whispers and rumors.

Now, they are a visible part of the school day -- even more so this week,
as schools wrap up Red Ribbon Week, a national drug awareness campaign
marked by students wearing pins and painting hallway murals with messages
such as "We Have Better Things To Do Than Drugs!" School officials say
keeping children safe from drugs and violence is worth sacrificing some
personal privacy.

But civil rights advocates and some parents say that the nation's frenzied
efforts against illegal drugs at school are teaching children a sinister
lesson: The Constitution's Bill of Rights means nothing.

With school districts being held more responsible for what goes on in their
buildings, entire classrooms are sometimes emptied midperiod so that drug
dogs can sniff books and backpacks.

School officials can frisk a student with less evidence than a police
officer needs to search an adult. In fact, schools don't have to involve
police unless they find something illegal -- although most campuses usually
have at least one officer on duty.

Many districts don't count the number of searches they perform. They record
only the contraband they find, school officials said.

"It's odd that we train our children to live in that kind of society,
because someday they will be the government," said Frank Colosi, legal
committee chairman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Fort Worth.

School officials said their practices are not meant to encourage a
police-state atmosphere.

"They're going to balance a kid's rights against unreasonable search and
seizure with the government's interest in keeping a drug-free school
place," said David Backus, legal counsel for the Texas Association of
School Administrators.

A rash of heroin-related deaths among greater Tarrant County young people
has heightened sensitivity to drug use among youths. Nationally, lawsuits
against schools because of random drug tests, along with public scrutiny of
programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education, have touched off a debate
about how to eradicate drugs from campuses.

Several area junior high school students said they take a no-harm, no-foul
attitude. "I'm not doing anything, so it doesn't matter to me," said Katie
Stephens, 13, an eighth-grader at North Richland Middle School.

Some parents protest when a search happens to their children.

Last week, a mother complained after her 13-year-old son, a student at
North Richland Middle School, was pulled from class after school officials
received a tip from another student that he was dealing drugs. The ensuing
search, which turned up nothing, included requiring the student to remove
his shoes and socks and to expose shorts he was wearing beneath his jeans.
Birdville school district officials said the search was justified.

Birdville plans to have police dogs search all of its elementary schools
this school year. Other Tarrant County districts have similar policies.

Grapevine-Colleyville schools tried to initiate random drug tests last year
but stopped after an uproar from parents.

"People hear things like `search,' and it sounds invasive, but nobody wants
a campus that is full of drugs and gangs," said Robin McClure, Birdville
spokeswoman. "It's a delicate and sensitive issue because people want a
very safe environment. ... We're not trying to create a fortress setting."

In Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district, seventh-graders at one school were
pulled out of at least two classes so that dogs could sniff their books and
bags.

Arlington and Fort Worth school officials said they use metal detectors for
weekly random weapons searches. Arlington uses drug dogs and performs
individual searches only when there is a tip about drug activity, officials
said. In Fort Worth, drug dogs are used for random searches in at least two
high schools and in three to four middle schools every day, officials said.

Metal detectors also are used in Keller. They are installed at all junior
high and high schools and cameras are used on school buses. Officials
conduct random searches throughout the school year, spokeswoman Julie Zwahr
said.

"Classes or hallways are picked at random, and all the students are asked
to come outside with their belongings, empty their pockets and walk through
a metal detector," Zwahr said. "We search through their backpacks, purses
and any personal belongings at that time. ... It's pretty standard."

But what is it, critics ask, when Allen school district forbids students
from mentioning Columbine after two students at the Colorado school killed
13 there in April?

Or when students in Oklahoma have to take a drug test to sing in the choir?

Some call it hysteria. Others call it protecting the children.

"The question is, `How far will people go to make sure kids don't use
drugs?' " said Marsha Rosenbaum of the Lindesmith Center in San Francisco,
a drug-education watchdog group. "I think they'll go as far as they can.
Privacy is violated, widespread drug testing, strip searches. You're
creating an environment of fear."

A group of North Richland Middle School students gathered after school
Tuesday said they don't mind so much.

"If they want to cut down on stuff that's happening to people, if they
search everybody, it'll cut down on that," Katie Stephens said.

There are, however, boundaries. "Strip searches," said Josh Briley, 14.
"That would be too much."

Random drug tests, too -- especially if the student was not suspected of
anything. "I don't think they should be in the room alone with your bags,
because that's invading your privacy way too much," said Megan Johnson, 13.

Stephens' mother, Susan Stephens, said she doesn't believe that schools are
taking security measures too far.

"I stand behind the schools doing everything they can to keep them drug
free," she said.

Karen Anderson agrees. Anderson -- whose steps to rescue her teen-age
daughter from heroin addiction, including calling all the numbers in the
girl's address book -- said sacrificing her daughter's privacy was worth
saving her life.

"Get over it, and be glad those things are going on," the North Richland
Hills mother said about the school policies. Drugs "are killing kids. It
sounds like a Gestapo state, but that's what we've come to. It could have
saved me a lot of trouble, my kid a lot of trouble, had she not had access
to drugs."
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