Dreams, drugs and waking nightmares

My old high school has started a fantastic new policy. These two guys who do filing where I… My old high school has started a fantastic new policy. These two guys who do filing where I work are juniors at Cumberland Valley High School, and they explained it to me: If you participate in any sort of school activity, from playing football to parking on school property, you can be forced to take a drug test.

I’ve met all sorts of people who exhibit no capacity for abstraction and seem motivated only by refusing to pay bills and plastering their children’s pictures to every available surface. But as soon as anyone mentions drug use, drug abuse, drug regulation or drug legalization, a coherent and occasionally insightful argument erupts from his or her mouth.

Right, wrong, dangerous, refreshing, enlightening, crippling, illegal or just plain fun – people’s opinions on the topic are of far less concern to me than what some are willing to ignore to hold that opinion.

I’m hardly shocked that the good folks at Cumberland Valley feel that teen drug use must be stopped. Random drug testing doesn’t seem to be a particularly Draconian method by their standards. There are a lot of kids using drugs at that school. Drugs do hurt at least some of those using them. Random drug testing may deter some drug use. It’s all very logical.

The most significant problem with the policy is not its aim, nor is it the actual searching of students. It’s the willingness of the school to strip away the threadbare semblance of rights that these students may still have.

Eighteen is that magical age when we become people. Before that, we have nothing. After that, all those inalienable rights kick in. One of the many things my high school professes to do, and do well, is prepare its students to become citizens. As citizens, we’re responsible for being aware and engaged in our community and in our local, state and national governments.

How exactly do these people expect students to take seriously such a responsibility when the same organization that teaches them about the freedoms everyone deserves simultaneously violates those exact freedoms? Yes, as minors on school property they have no real rights. You’ll not convince many 15-year-olds that the rights of an 18-year-old are ironclad but those of a 17-year-old are nonexistent.

The legalities and moralities are irrelevant. Perceived repression breeds unhealthy discontent. Youth is supposed to resent authority. Those in positions of authority are supposed to recognize the developmental necessity of defiance and should subtly foster it.

It’s only in that need for change that the image of a valuable citizen may take root. Depicting the nation as founded on ideals of freedom made real by the blood of dedicated men is all well and good. But it’s pointless to create that view of America while at the same time betraying its ideals and reinforcing the minority’s impotence.

From Cumberland Valley High School to the White House, a trend of thought is growing: We can face very real fears by masking them with exactly those schemes that cost individual liberty.

After a couple of centuries of quoting Benjamin Franklin: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both,” we’ve come to assume that as we surrender liberty, we necessarily gain safety.

It’s easy to capitalize on that assumption and create a sense of security by instituting practical measures that intentionally puncture smaller liberties. The cries protesting these small violations serve only to reassure us that the bargain has been struck. A couple of kids will pee in a few cups. One kid who would’ve died will now live. Several 17-year-olds will have something real to whine about. The world might just be getting a little safer – a little more sane.

E-mail Zak Sharif at rzs8@pitt.edu and let him know which high school policy you broke most often.