Once again the Supreme Court has taken a swipe at student's rights. Its ruling allowing random drug testing for students participating in extracurricular activities is but one in a series of decisions attacking students' constitutional rights.

The ruling turns every student into a suspect, even if there is no evidence of drug use. Essentially, we students are all deemed guilty until proven innocent, despite the fact that research shows students involved in after- school activities are less likely to use drugs than other students.

Moreover, rulings like this are turning schools into "enclaves of totalitarianism," to quote former Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. To quote Justice Fortas from Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent School District: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights . . . at the schoolhouse gate."

Why, then, did the Supreme Court uphold what would clearly be a violation of the Fourth Amendment if it occurred anywhere besides a school? In my opinion, it is a result of the conservative justices' view that youth are sort- of citizens, who are not entitled to the same protections as adults. If we continue down this road, schools will soon only teach about the Constitution, not abide by it.

As youth, we have to confront this belief every day. Our schools and our society demand adult behavior and responsibility out of us, punish us as adults, but refuse to allow us the same rights and freedoms as adults in return. This is unfortunate because, as William Harvard once said, "The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children."

Ryan Guptill is an incoming ninth grader at Miramonte High School in Orinda, California.

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