CLE ELUM SCHOOL DISTRICT SUSPENDS DRUG TESTING

CLE ELUM -- The Cle Elum-Roslyn School District is suspending its
random drug testing of high school students participating in
extracurricular activities, in response to the state's high court
ruled Thursday that testing students athletes is unconstitutional.

The policy could be abandoned all together pending legal counsel from
the district's attorney.

Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court, responding to a lawsuit over a
drug-testing program in the Wahkiakum School District, ruled
unanimously that random drug testing of students violates the state
constitution.

Parents and students in the Southwest Washington district challenged a
policy adopted in 1999 that required all students participating in
sports to undergo urine tests. If the results indicated drug or
alcohol use, the student was suspended from sports but wasn't reported
to police.

The court agreed with parents and the ACLU that suspicionless testing
violates the "privacy clause" of the state constitution.

In light of the ruling, Mark Flatau, superintendent of the
1,000-student Cle Elum-Roslyn district, said it is immediately ending
the practice of randomly testing students participating in sports and
extracurricular activities. The policy applied to Cle Elum-Roslyn High
School's 320 students.

"Personally I was disappointed," Flatau said of the court's ruling. "I
view our policy as one that provides our youth a reason to say 'no'
when pressured in regards to alcohol and drugs."

Under Cle Elum's policy, which was adopted by the school board in May
2005, a computer randomly selected students participating in sports or
other extracurricular activities to have their saliva tested for
traces of drugs up to three times during the fall, winter seasons.

A student who tested positive could continue to attend class, but
faced varying lengths of suspensions from their involvement with
sports or campus organizations. The student also was required to
enroll in a district-approved treatment program.

Prior to Thursday's ruling, district officials had planned to have at
least two more random tests of students in sports and extracurricular
activities during the spring. Those are now suspended. Thursday's
ruling was the first time the state Supreme Court weighed in on such
random drug testing policies.

Doug Honig, a spokesman for the ACLU, said he's pleased with the
decision and hopes it sets the precedent for other districts to drop
drug-testing policies of students elsewhere in the state. "We expect
that the district will reconsider its plans and drop the suspicionless
drug testing," Honig said.