DRUG TESTING: THEY MAY BE ONLY KIDS, BUT THEY DO HAVE RIGHTS

As a deterrent to drug use, voluntary testing of public school students is
showing great promise. The fear of being caught, or the pleasure of having
one's drug-free life validated by a test, is a good motivator for children
to do what's right and what's good for them.

But it takes only one misstep, only one abridgment of a student's rights to
call school drug testing plans into public and judicial scrutiny--and in
some recent cases, the schools have lost.

Most parents seem supportive of voluntary drug testing, if only evidenced
by the lack of a significant number of parental complaints. A voluntary
test is nonintrusive and allows students the ability to opt out should they
or their parents choose. Yet there always is the possibility that a student
whose parents object can be subjected to pressure as a result, and that,
too, will put schools in a tenuous position regarding students' rights.

The Supreme Court says schools are within their legal right to require
mandatory drug tests for students who participate in extracurricular
activities, ruling that the expectation of privacy afforded general
students has been foregone. Yet the Court's ruling could, at some point
amid a credible constitutional challenge, be overturned and that would
leave schools to fend for their testing rights in court--which isn't a
given thing and can be in most cases a very costly way of proving a point.

As long as schools are protected by the courts, and as long as schools
respect the rights of those who choose not to participate in voluntary drug
testing, the potential for problematic litigation is limited. Several local
and area schools have had some successes with these programs. But they are
not a panacea to all that ails the student body.

Schools must be as aware of the downside of drug testing as they are of the
benefits. What the schools gain by having a drug-free student body can be
lost in one court ruling against them if they fail to follow constitutional
standards.

They may be just kids, but they still have rights. Schools that test
students for drugs must be constantly aware of this distinction.