Court on Student Drug Testing

* Re “High Court OKs Routine Testing of Students for Drugs,” June 27:

The Constitution guarantees all Americans the right “to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and that that “shall not be violated . . . but upon probable cause.” Probable cause? Apparently Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Justices Clarence Thomas, Steven G. Breyer, Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many other Americans do not understand the meaning of this phrase.

Our fore-parents fought for freedom from English law that permitted unwarranted searches and seizures. They fought for freedom from the British Admiralty Courts and their “guilty-until-proven-innocent” doctrine. Yet now the Supreme Court has subverted their intention by legalizing the Vernonia School District’s unreasonable use of unwarranted drug testing on high school and junior high school athletes and students.

The Supreme Court has made all students second-class citizens; they are no longer protected by our Constitution.

JEAUNNE ISIS OKOWITA

Woodland Hills

* Guess the Constitution does end at the schoolhouse door. What a shame.

JOSEPH B. BLUME

Tustin

* According to the Supreme Court, high school athletes can be drug-tested at random because they’re role models. Glad to hear that outstanding scholars won’t be drug-tested under the same rationale.

LEWIS H. COHEN

Riverside

* As a minor, the court ruling regarding my right to refuse a drug test has distressed me quite a bit. I do not use drugs, and I would submit to a drug test. However, the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled the Constitution inapplicable to minors angers me. It is as if anything we minors do in this country has no significance. Even more distressing is what might come next. Does the First Amendment also not apply to us? So now school prayer could be legalized since we have no freedom of expression. Or what about the Eighth Amendment regarding cruel and unusual punishment?

I don’t think when our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution they were thinking that it wouldn’t apply to children.

BEN Le ROY

Cypress

* I never get used to the repeated blows that are being dealt to individual rights, especially the rights of the young.

The Supreme Court ruling on mandatory drug tests for student athletes is another heavy blow. It was a totally wrong ruling against the Fourth Amendment.

What dismays me almost as much as such rulings is the tendency of people to obediently accept them and give up their rights with no resistance at all.

I hope this time it will be different. A strike on the part of student athletes would be an appropriate action. The strike should be nationwide, but even a local one would make the point that American youth are determined to regain their constitutional protection and be free. The strike must continue until the rules change, regardless. It is a matter of principle. Our precious freedoms are under attack on many fronts. It is time to take the bull by the horns.

ALICE LILLIE

Los Angeles