COURT ASKED TO RECONSIDER SCHOOL DRUG TESTING DECISION

DENVER - School districts throughout Oklahoma are confused by a recent
federal appeals court decision that barred some drug testing in public
schools, the court was told Wednesday.

The decision conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court rulings and should be
overturned, the Tecumseh School Board told the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"The decision engenders more confusion and litigation than it has avoided,"
the board said in a filing.

It asks the court's nine judges to reconsider the decision and allow school
authorities once again to test students in extracurricular activities for
illegal drug use.

A court panel, speaking for the court, split 2-1 two weeks ago in the
decision, which said that testing violates the Constitution's prohibition
of unreasonable searches unless a school has an "identifiable" drug-abuse
problem.

Many school districts have programs similar to the Tecumseh program that
the court outlawed, a state school boards official said.

"I think it is fairly popular (among school boards)," said Keith Ballard,
executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. "I
think it has grown steadily."

In Wednesday's filing, Tecumseh board members said a rehearing is needed
"to give the school districts ... sufficient guidance and direction on this
constitutional issue that is so important to the futures of the children
they serve."

However, Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who
represented students opposed to the testing, said schools with programs
such as Tecumseh's "should not be doing it."

"Schools in Oklahoma need to take it (the court's decision) to heart and
comply with it," said Boyd, national director of the ACLU's Drug Policy
Litigation Project.

Relatively few school districts outside of Oklahoma test non-athletes, he said.

Drug testing of school athletes is not at issue because the Supreme Court a
few years ago, in a case in another state, said that type of program is
constitutional. At stake is the testing of students in school choir,
marching band and other activities.

Tecumseh's board members contend that their schools do have a drug problem.
They said that the court's decision is too vague.

The Tecumseh problem is similar in extent to the problem in another
district for which the Supreme Court upheld testing, board members said.