LAKE STEVENS DRUG TESTING SUSPENDED AFTER RULING

LAKE STEVENS -- The Lake Stevens School District is suspending its
controversial student drug testing program because the Washington
Supreme Court ruled Thursday that testing of student athletes is
unconstitutional.

Once the district's lawyer reviews the ruling, the policy could
eventually be dumped altogether.

"On first blush, it looks like this ruling would impact our programs
and we'd have to stop our random drug testing programs for grades nine
to 12," district spokeswoman Arlene Hulten said.

Lake Stevens High School is one of just a handful of schools in the
state that uses random drug tests.

After a few high profile incidents involving students and drugs and
months of community forums, the district began testing students
involved in extracurricular activities on Oct. 9, 2006.

Since then, 10 of the 500 students to submit urine samples have tested
positive for drugs.

Students who test positive continue to attend classes. They face a
23-day suspension from their extracurricular activity and must get a
professional assessment and enroll in a program if that's what's
recommended.

Although only a few students have tested positive, Hulten said the
testing has motivated students to stay clean and given them a reason
to turn down drugs at parties.

"They make different choices when they are in social settings because
they don't want to risk not playing on the team or disappointing their
coaches," she said. "It's been extremely powerful and extremely
helpful in helping kids make good decisions."

The lawsuit was filed by parents of three Wahkiakum High School
athletes in southwest Washington. Their students were randomly
selected for drug tests in school. The American Civil Liberties Union
of Washington provided lawyers for the parents.

The court unanimously ruled that warrantless, random and suspicionless
drug testing of student athletes violates the Washington State
Constitution.

The court was split on how far-reaching a ban on drug testing should
be.

"Drug testing without suspicion costs money, and research has shown
that it's not effective," ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said. "They're an
invasion of privacy. They're asking people to supply their urine
without any reason to believe an individual has done something wrong."

Sam Britton, who graduated from Lake Stevens High School last spring,
was one of the first students at his school to have been given a drug
test.

The drum major for the high school band remembers being pulled from an
English class to provide a sample.

"I honestly had no problem with it," he said. "Education is sort of a
privilege. You don't want to blow it by doing something illegal or
something you shouldn't be doing."

Later in the year, his name was chosen again and he gave a second
sample.

His biggest concern was not what might be found in the sample, but
just being able to provide one.

"I had just gone," he said. "I told them, 'If you want more you will
just have to wait a little bit.'"

Junior Grady McGuire recently debated the merits of drug testing in
his Advanced Placement U.S. History class. He's against the policy,
and said the class determined it was unconstitutional.

He was pleased to hear of the court's decision.

"It's a very expensive program that last year only caught two kids,"
he said after class Thursday. "It's a lot of money that I'd like to
see go to school food."

Lake Stevens received a $587,000 federal grant to fund four years
worth of testing and other drug prevention programs. Hulten wasn't
sure how the court decision would affect that money.

In addition to drug testing, the district has an assistance program in
which teachers, parents and others can anonymously refer a student for
any of a number of reasons, such as academic performance, poor
attendance, troubled relationships, behavior problems, suspected
drinking or drug use.

Mari Taylor, president of the Lake Stevens School Board, reacted to
the state Supreme Court decision with a heavy sigh.

"In my mind, the issue has never been that this would be part of a
punitive process," she said. "This was part of a larger student
assistance program and just one component was drug testing. We really
wanted to help students."

Taylor said she doesn't see the Lake Stevens district paying for any
kind of legal challenge because of the costs involved.

The Granite Falls School District used drug tests for athletes and
cheerleaders at Granite Falls High School during the 1997-98 school
year before abandoning the practice because of legal advice and the
threat of a lawsuit.

The Lake Stevens district also tests students at its alternative Prove
High School for drug use as a condition of enrollment. It started
testing at Prove in fall 2005.

Because testing is not random at Prove, it may not be affected by the court
decision, Hulten said. However, the district is asking its attorney to give
an opinion on that issue as well.