JUSTICES UPHOLD RANDOM DRUG TESTS AT SCHOOLS

WASHINGTON -The Supreme Court approved on Thursday random drug testing of
public high school students in extracurricular activities. The ruling
increases the tools available to 14,700 public school systems to fight
illegal drug use.

By a vote of 5-4, the court ruled that local school officials'
responsibility for the health and safety of their students can outweigh
those students' concerns about privacy. Mandatory drug testing of students
in activities such as band, Future Farmers of America and chess does not
violate the constitutional prohibition on "unreasonable" searches, the
court said.

The court had already authorized mandatory random drug testing for student
athletes in a 1995 case that noted the special safety risks and lower
expectation of privacy inherent in sports, as well as the fact that
athletes are role models for other students.

But, writing for the majority Thursday, Justice Clarence Thomas made clear
the court had a much broader rationale in mind -- the schools'
quasi-parental role with regard to their young charges.

"A student's privacy interest is limited in a public school environment
where the state is responsible for maintaining discipline, health and
safety," Thomas wrote. "Schoolchildren are routinely required to submit to
physical examinations and vaccinations against disease. Securing order in
the school environment sometimes requires that students be subjected to
greater controls than those appropriate for adults."

Under the Tecumseh, Okla., policy at issue Thursday, students can neither
be prosecuted nor expelled from school.

Thomas was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin
Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

The decision could encourage more school districts to try policies similar
to the one in rural Tecumseh, which school authorities instituted in 1998.
Under that policy, students who refuse to take the test, or test positive
more than twice, face banishment from extracurricular activities for the
rest of the school year.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justices John Paul
Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, wrote that "the particular
testing program upheld today is not reasonable, it is capricious, even
perverse: (It) targets for testing a student population least likely to be
at risk for illicit drugs and their damaging effects."

Bernard DuBray, superintendent of the Fort Zumwalt School District in St.
Charles County, welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling. But he said his
district does not need a mandatory drug testing policy.

"I think it's good that the Supreme Court gave schools another tool to
eradicate the drug problem," he said.

The district's three high schools test athletes and members of the
cheerleading squad and pompon club voluntarily -- and only with the consent
of parents or guardians.

He says this approach has worked because people don't feel coerced or
intimidated.

In this past academic year, he said, five students had tested positive for
drugs. Students who test positive are not punished. Instead, DuBray said,
the district enrolls them in substance abuse counseling.

The test screens urine for traces of 10 drugs, including cocaine, marijuana
and amphetamines.

The Kirkwood schools do not test students for drugs.

"It's not that some of our kids don't have a problem with drugs,"
Superintendent David Damerall said. "Our philosophy is to work more with
the prevention angle."

Damerall said the downside to drug testing is that it's intrusive.

"It makes the assumption that some kids are using drugs even if there is no
evidence that they are," he said.

Leo Hefner, superintendent of Belleville High School District 201, said the
district has not considered any regular drug testing of athletes or other
students.

"I doubt our policy will change," he said.

Drug or alcohol offenses result in a 10-day suspension, which can be
shortened to three days if the student and a parent agree to a six-week
educational program about drug and alcohol use.