THE COURT'S DRUG TEST

The U.S. Supreme Court will have to take a flight of imagination to move
high school drug testing beyond athletes to all those in any
extracurricular activity.

The same leap doesn't have to be made by school districts that should use
caution in this eagerly awaited ruling.

The majority of the court at a recent hearing seemed to agree with a
Pottawatomie County, Okla., school policy that requires all middle school
and high school students who want to participate in extracurricular
activities to take drug tests. A decision is months away.

Seven years ago in the landmark Veronia, Ore., case, the court upheld the
testing of school athletes on grounds that there was a substantial drug
problem and the athletes were at the center of it.

Yet, that does not seem to be the case in this Oklahoma community. The 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals said there was no evidence of a specific problem
related to drug use. One young woman, Lindsay Earls, was called out of a
choir session to give a urine sample.

The physical safety cited as a justification in the testing of athletes
simply doesn't apply to choir members or Future Homemakers of America. But
the danger of drug use for all students has worried parents, teachers and
school boards for years.

As it is, Pottawatomie County's policy is not unduly harsh. A refusal to
take the test or failing the test more than twice can mean an end to
extracurricular activities for a youngster, but not prosecution or expulsion.

Only 5% of the nation's 14,700 public schools test student athletes and
fewer test students involved in other school activities. A favorable court
ruling could make those numbers soar. But school boards should seriously
consider Lindsay Earls' complaint on their own, whatever the court may do.
Trust would seem to be a better reward for good students than making them
submit to a drug test.