RULING ALLOWS MORE STUDENT DRUG TESTS

School systems across Middle Tennessee will take another look at drug
testing in the wake of yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow
random drug testing for all competitive extracurricular activities, not
just sports.

Several Tennessee school officials applauded the verdict that allows an
Oklahoma high school to test members of groups such as choir, band, Future
Farmers of America and Future Homemakers of America.

School leaders will now have a free hand to test students who participate
in any competitive after-school activities or teams - more than half the
estimated 14 million American high school students.

Drug tests had been allowed previously just for student athletes.

"Any time you have more options available to you as a school administrator
or coach, it's good. I think it's a good decision," said Scott Brunette,
athletic director for Metro schools.

Justices ruled 5-4 that schools' interest in ridding their campuses of
drugs outweighs students' right to privacy, allowing the broadest drug
testing yet of young people whom authorities have no particular reason to
suspect of wrongdoing.

"We find that testing students who participate in extracurricular
activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the school
district's legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and detecting drug
use," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for himself, Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

"Students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities
voluntarily subject themselves to many of the same intrusions on their
privacy as do athletes," Thomas added.

The court stopped short of allowing random tests for any student, but
several justices have indicated they are interested in answering that at
some point.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissent, said the "program upheld today
is not reasonable, it is capricious, even perverse." She was joined by
Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter.

While less than half of Tennessee's systems have instituted drug testing,
all will probably reconsider the issue now, said Dan Tollett, executive
director of the Tennessee School Boards Association.

However, it's unlikely that many school budgets in Tennessee have the extra
money it would take to expand their drug testing practices, said Mike Bone,
superintendent of Bedford County schools.

"When you're talking about drug testing, you're talking about money. It's a
pretty expensive program. I wouldn't think we will see any immediate,
big-time changes."

Metro schools will probably dust off the idea of testing athletes, Brunette
said. He said that the council will weigh the pros and cons, including
costs of $10-$30 per student tested, before making a proposal, which the
school board then would have to vote on.

It's also possible that drug testing could keep students from getting
involved with school activities because "they know they're involved with
drugs and don't want to be tested and found out," said Charlie Daniel,
director of schools for Dickson County.

On the other hand, "I feel like it gives your students an incentive to do
right. It gives them a reason to say no. If they can say, 'I can't do that
because I'm an athlete or on the forensics team or a cheerleader and that's
important to me,' I think the kids trying to get them involved in drugs
will accept that."

Mike Herrmann, director of Tennessee's Safe and Drug-Free Schools program,
disagrees.

"I don't think it's going to make a big difference in terms of preventing
alcohol and drug use. I'm not seeing any evidence that these programs work."

Several schools that test athletes for drug use say parents and students
have been fairly accepting of the policies. But spreading the testing to
other groups could mean opening up a new can of worms.

"I think athletes and parents of athletes generally through the years have
accepted the fact that there are certain expectations students have to deal
with that are above and beyond the norm. That group is probably a bit more
accepting" of drug testing, Bone said.

"But when it opens up to areas outside athletics, that's going to be a
little more intrusive, perhaps, than people are accustomed to."

The court ruled against a former Tecumseh, Okla., high school honor student
who competed on an academic quiz team and sang in the choir. Lindsay Earls,
a self-described "goody two-shoes," tested negative but sued over what she
called a humiliating and accusatory policy. She would not discuss the
decision yesterday.

The ruling is a follow-up to a 1995 case, in which the Supreme Court
allowed random urine tests for student athletes. In that case, the court
found that the school had a pervasive drug problem and that athletes were
among the users. The court also found that athletes had less expectation of
privacy.