COURT EXPANDS TESTS FOR DRUGS

Ruling Applies To School Activities

Students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities can be
required to submit to a drug test, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday,
broadening an earlier ruling limited to athletes.

In the Houston area, few school districts now drug-test students, though at
least one district -- Barbers Hill in Chambers County -- is getting ready
to start. The Houston district, which has no drug-testing policy for
students, is reviewing the ruling.

Meanwhile, the tiny Tulia Independent School District in the Texas
Panhandle is celebrating the ruling because a federal judge had ordered
officials there to stop giving random drug tests to students in
extracurricular activities.

Tulia's case was still pending with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
when the Supreme Court issued its ruling against Lindsay Earls, a former
Oklahoma high school student who challenged the Tecumseh school system's
drug policy.

Earls, an honor student, had competed in the district's academic quiz team
and sang in the choir. Though he tested negative for drugs, he filed suit
against the district's policy.

The Supreme Court in 1995 had allowed random urine tests for student athletes.

But Thursday's 5-4 decision broadened the previous ruling to students in
voluntary extracurricular activities, such as band, choir and the Future
Farmers of America. It stops short of allowing school districts to randomly
drug-test any student.

"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 the majority, which also included
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M.
Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote for the dissenters, said the
district's drug policy invades the privacy of students and risks steering
students most prone to drug abuse away from the extracurricular activities
that can help them the most.

"The particular testing program upheld today is not reasonable, it is
capricious, even perverse," Ginsburg wrote.

More than 50 percent of the nation's estimated 14 million high school
students take part in some form of extracurricular activity, education
officials say.

The Drug-Free School Coalition, a national organization of school
administrators, counselors, parents and students, hailed the ruling as "a
victory for common sense."

"This is a real boost for the kids who want to stay safe and drug-free
because testing gives them a chance to say 'no' when approached to use
drugs," said David G. Evans, executive director of the coalition.

Chris Gilbert, a Houston lawyer, argued in a brief filed on behalf of the
National Association of School Boards that schools need more tools, such as
drug-testing, to fulfill their expanded role in society.

"They are expected by the public to provide more services than simply
education," he said, "and one of the things they are expected to do is to
help fight the rising drug problem."

However, Judy Appel, deputy legal director of the Drug Policy Alliance in
New York City, said the court's ruling "is both foolhardy and dangerous in
sending exactly the wrong message to America's children -- that they have
no right to privacy, and that schools can prioritize the cleanliness of
one's urine over academic achievement and participation in student life."

In Tulia, a district of about 1,200 students between Amarillo and Lubbock,
Superintendent Ken Miller called the Supreme Court decision "good news,"
saying it should expedite a 5th Circuit's ruling in the district's favor.

"This board and community feel it's a very viable tool to help kids say no
to drugs and to keep drug-free," said Miller. "I think it's positive for us."

Tulia had been drug-testing students in extracurricular activities until
U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled its policy unconstitutional in
late 2000. Because of her ruling, the district drug-tested only athletes
last year.

In the Houston area, David Thompson, whose firm Bracewell & Patterson
represents numerous area districts, said school officials will have to
evaluate whether it's practical to drug-test students in extracurricular
activities.

"Part of it is going to depend on a district's assessment of its own need
to do it, and the cost of doing it, and the disruption of doing it," he said.

Trustees in Barbers Hill east of Houston already had approved a random
drug-testing policy beginning this fall for students participating in
athletics and cheerleading in grades 7 through 12, said Pam Sapp, executive
director of personnel.

The school board also had agreed to investigate expanding the policy to all
extracurricular activities if the Supreme Court had a favorable ruling on
such a policy. Sapp said the board will be taking a look at the new court
ruling.

In Splendora ISD in Montgomery County, school officials have a policy to
test students suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Janet Thompson, Splendora's assistant superintendent of personnel, said the
district had explored the idea of random testing, but lawyers recommended
against it.

After the Supreme Court ruling, she said, "I imagine everybody is going to
be looking at it again now."

Christy Willman, spokeswoman for the Lamar Consolidated ISD in Fort Bend
County, said the district had discussed drug-testing for extracurricular
activities, but previous court rulings had prevented officials from
starting a program.

"We will probably review this again in light of the new ruling," she said.

Pearland ISD Superintendent Bonny Cain said some board members and
principals had expressed an interest in the past about drug-testing, but
the conversations never went far.

"Now that this has happened, what we'll do is see what direction people
want to go in," she said. "I do know the board and the staff are very much
committed to doing whatever it takes to get drug use out of schools."

Chronicle reporters Cindy Horswell, Steve Olafson and Eric Hanson
contributed to this story.