By Bob Barr

What was good for Iraq is great for kids at Stratford High

Alcohol, drugs, fights, sex and smoking. None are new to American high
schools. The Blackboard Jungle, a 1954 novel by Evan Hunter and a
hugely successful motion picture the next year, was widely recognized
as a realistic depiction of the dark side of high school life in
big-city America.

While today's school officials and the parents of teenage students
know such problems continue to plague our nation's schools a
half-century later, and while most agree that authorities must be
tough in meeting the challenges presented by the threats to students'
well-being, there was something deeply disturbing about the images of
a Nov. 5 drug raid on Stratford High School in Goose Creek, S.C.

The official inquiry into the raid is ongoing. But few who have seen
the closed-circuit TV images are neutral about what happened. The now
widely reproduced black-and-white video shows police barging into the
school with guns drawn and pointed at students. We see dozens of
students lying prone in the school's hallways with armed officers
clearly shouting at them to "get down and put your hands up" while
searching vainly for the drugs that were the justification for the
raid in the first place.

The good news is that no student was killed or injured by any
quick-draw officer's accident or overreaction. The bad news is that
the incident illustrates the degree to which America is now gripped by
a climate of fear and overreaction. It also bears testimony to the
unbridled power with which our society has clothed government, both
local and national.

A recent follow-up article on the incident notes the raid was prompted
by "suspicious activity." Hmm. In high schools, whether in 2003 or
1954, there's an awful lot of activity that goes on in hallways that
would fall into the category of "suspicious." If such activity now
provides the predicate for SWAT-type raids, then be prepared for the
Great Stratford High School Raid of 2003 to become
commonplace.

Is nothing to be placed in rational perspective anymore? Is the term
"measured response" no longer a part of our vocabulary?

A police raid on a school, with guns drawn despite scant evidence,
represents an effort to "be proactive" in creating a "safe
environment" for students, in the words of the local school
superintendent, Chester Floyd. One shudders to contemplate what a
televised record of an "aggressive" approach would reveal.

The same recent article quoted the school's principal, George
McCrackin, who called in the cops, but had "no idea they would come in
with guns unholstered." Come on, George. In today's environment, in
which even the most vague hint of a possible problem communicated to
law enforcement becomes a federal case, what did you expect? Barney
Fife? Get real. You got exactly what you asked for.

Some parents of the students at Stratford are showing their support
for McCracken in such intellectually impressive ways as urging
motorists to "honk if they supported McCracken." But other parents are
expressing concern -- and rightfully so. They also should ask
themselves if the incident isn't merely the logical result of the
over-reactive mentality that has given rise to such goings on in our
schools as conducting intrusive tests of high school students for
tobacco. That's right: Not only are schools now testing for
mind-altering drugs, a step that can properly be justified because of
the danger that use of such substances by students poses to those
around them, but we have now entered the era in which parents have
allowed school officials to conduct random tests for cigarette smoking.

Oh, and by the way, when they're not testing students for drugs,
alcohol, tobacco and, I suppose pretty soon, caffeine, school
officials are disciplining kids for what they're saying to friends on
their personal computers, after school hours and from their homes. Or,
for what they write in their diaries.

Is it really any wonder that school officials -- empowered by parents
to invade students' privacy to the extent of testing them for smoking
cigarettes (whether on or off school property, and regardless of
whether such horrible activity takes place during school hours or
not), and reading their private e-mails after school hours -- feel
they're within their rights to order a SWAT raid on students?

We also should ask what all this is teaching our youngsters. That
government power can properly be exercised arbitrarily? That the best
reaction is an overreaction? That you raid first and ask questions
later? That a pre-emptive strike is the best course of action? That we
always stand by what our government does, regardless of how egregious
the violation of our liberties? That measured responses and reasonable
reactions are things of the past?

Then again, I guess it really doesn't matter. Because, after all, this
is precisely what those same kids see their government doing on a
regular basis since 9-11.