DRUG-TESTING POLICY FOR CONWAY DISTRICT PUT OFF TILL DECEMBER

Fearing that a new drug-testing policy for students rests on shaky
legal ground, the Conway School Board voted Tuesday to delay
implementing the procedure until December.

The policy, approved by the board in March, mandates random
drug-testing for students participating in extracurricular programs.
Similar programs have been established in school districts around
Arkansas, but Conway school officials said they want a clear legal
precedent before proceeding.

"We're hoping for direction from the U.S. Supreme Court," said Conway
School District Superintendent Steve Fulmer.

When the Supreme Court ruled in 1995 on the Veronia School District
v. Acton case, the court said that suspicionless drug testing was
constitutional where athletes are shown to be leaders in the school's
drug culture and instigators of rebellion.

The high court's decision paved the way for lower courts to make
their own ruling on where the line stands between students'
constitutional rights and the need for a safe environment for
learning.

The lower courts' decision have established legal precedent in some
cases but contradicted others.

Two years ago, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that it
is legal to require drug testing of students participating in
extracurricular activities.

But the case, involving a high school student in the Cave City School
District in Sharp County who refused to be tested for drugs, was moot
after the student dropped the case, thereby not establishing a legal
precedent.

In June, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a Tecumseh,
Okla., school district's policy of random drug testing was
unconstitutional because it extended beyond student athletes.

Board members said they hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh
in on the court case involving Tecumsah's drug-testing policy by
December.

"There is some legal ambiguity here," said Scott Smith, an attorney
for the state Department of Education. "We have no official policy
about drug testing. It's really a local issue, up to school boards to
decide."

Conway school officials said the policy will create a safer
environment for students and give them a legitimate reason to say no
to their peers if pressured to use drugs.

But such assurances come at the price of constitutional rights, said
Rita Sklar of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We think it is an invasion of privacy, and the Supreme Court agrees
that [suspicionless drug testing] is a warrantless search of bodily
fluids. That is a search as in search and seizure and that is
protected by the Fourth Amendment," said Sklar.

It's the parents, rather than the schools who should be monitoring
their children for drugs and testing them if necessary, she said. "Do
the schools not think the parents are doing well enough," said Sklar.
"The schools are more and more becoming a policing agency. That's not
what they're supposed to be, they're supposed to be an institution of
learning."

The origin of Conway's new policy stems from a study commissioned by
the district in November 1999. A group from Colorado State University
interviewed students in grades seven through 12 to determine drug
usage among the district's students.

They found that while the students mostly fell in line with national
averages regarding drug use, there were some notable categories like
cocaine and hallucinogen use that were more than double the national
rate.

There is cause for such drug-testing policy, said board president
Terry Fiddler, the question of constitutional legality is what still
needs to be answered.

"At the end of the semester [in December] we will revisit the policy
and decide whether or not to implement. Hopefully with the Supreme
Court's decision." This article was published on Wednesday, August
15, 2001