Recently Mike Gomba, a Senior at my town's High School (Allentown/Upper Freehold), wrote a letter to the editor arguing that suspicionless drug testing is a perfectly acceptable practice for society to embrace. He claims that “it is for our benefit, our safety”. He gives the common statist excuse that if you have nothing to hide then you should gladly give up your rights.
While I applaud his choice not to partake in drugs, I find his attitude sickening and immoral. Our Constitution defines the moral underpinnings of our nation. It was written not to grant us rights, rather it enumerate rights that are fundamental and existed prior to government.
The Courts have decided that our students are not deserving of these rights. Joye vs Hunterdon has not only eviscerated the rights guaranteed by the federal and state government, but also ignores the god given rights that all citizens have.
If a government body can take a random youth's bodily fluids for analysis without consent, why can't government randomly monitor our phone calls? Why can't government randomly search homes?
The desire to wage war on drugs should not be permitted to coarsen our sensitivity to constitutional protections. The requirement that searches be reasonable and, at a minimum, based on some particularized suspicion is a constitutional mandate that applies to juveniles as well as adults. The protections of our State Constitution should not be shut out of our schoolhouses. In my view, the majority's application of the special-needs doctrine to support the school drug-testing program at issue here seriously erodes the traditional jurisprudential analysis governing searches and seizures. Simply put, a routine regimen of random drug testing of students who wish to avail themselves of the educational and social enhancements offered through extracurricular school activities ought not be permitted--certainly not on the showing made by this school district that in no way ties any drug use to the group targeted for suspicionless testing. The record is devoid of any special need to permit this random drug testing. - Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, Joye vs Hunderdon Regional High School Board Dissenting Opinion
The drug testing policy as proposed by the board is immoral. It presupposes that the natural rights enumerated by our constitution do not apply to students who attend government schools and participate in extracurricular activities. The Declaration of Independence declares that all people are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”. There is no exception for Government School students. All people have these rights. Surely our school board should be concentrating on improving education instead of enacting immoral policy.
I fully support the efforts of Students Morally Against Random Testing (SMART) and those students who stand up for their rights. I'm happy that. despite our government schools best efforts, our society is not producing robots, rather the student body is fully aware of the loss of their liberties. I will be fighting with them at the next board of education meeting.