WOuld you feel the same way if it were random drug testing?
Absolutely not. If the choice is empyting pockets for a cell phone or random drug testing, I’ll have to go with emptying pockets.
Emptying pockets is demeaning and an invasion of privacy.
Random drug testing, is much worse as it requires people to submit their bodily fluids.
If there is a reason to suspect a particular student is using illegal drugs, that student should be dealt with. But to do a random search without cause is not a way to engender respect for the hanhala. Why treat all the students as suspects?
The one possible exception to this would be a yeshiva for “problem” boys. But in a regular yeshiva where they have standards of admission and the boys come from good families I don’t see any reason to treat the bochurim as possible criminals.