3 SUE OVER DRUG TESTS

FLEMINGTON -- Three Hunterdon Central Regional High School students filed a
lawsuit yesterday challenging the school's random drug-testing policy, which
affects those who park on campus or participate in athletics and
extracurricular activities.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families of the three students by the
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

J.C. Salyer, a staff attorney with the ACLU, said the policy violates
student privacy rights under the state constitution and provides no
justifiable reason for testing.

"Random suspiciousless testing is what it boils down to," Salyer said.

The policy was adopted during the last academic year and goes fully into
effect Sept. 8, Salyer said. It is an expansion of an existing 1997 policy
that randomly tested student athletes at the school in grades nine through
12, he said.

One of the students who filed the suit is Shaun Joye, who was barred by
school officials from participating in a play last spring after his parents
refused to sign a consent form authorizing the drug test.

Joye, who said yesterday's filing coincided with his 17th birthday, said he
participated in the suit because the policy violates his right not to be
searched without cause.

"The way I think of it is that we have the Constitution in this country,
which our entire government and our rights and everything are based on, and
I don't think any violation of that, however insignificant it may seem,
should be tolerated -- especially by something as trivial as the Hunterdon
Central school board," said Joye, a former writer for the school's online
magazine. Joye will be a junior in September.

"We have no choice," Joye's mother, Deborah, added. "We want him to
participate but we don't feel we should go along with the school's policy."

The other two students represented in the lawsuit are a varsity gymnast and
a Model United Nations participant.

Former Superintendent Raymond Farley has said that between 70 and 80 of the
school's 2,350 students will be subject to mandatory, random testing of
their urine and saliva for the presence of drugs. Currently, about 1,200
athletes at the school are affected by the policy.

On average, about 10 percent of those eligible for the testing have
undergone the process, Farley has said. During the 1997-98 school year, 107
students were tested, with fewer than 10 percent testing positive, officials
have said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed random drug testing for student athletes
if a school shows reasonable suspicion, but state courts have been broader
in interpreting individual privacy rights, Salyer said.

Salyer said although the New Jersey Supreme Court has never ruled on a case
involving school drug testing policies, a state Superior Court judge stuck
down a drug-testing policy at Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional School
District in 1985.

Last year, the Ridgefield Park School District dropped a drug testing policy
after a lower court issued a temporary injunction against the school for
failing to justify the testing, Salyer said.

"Singling these students (out) is not only unfair but counterintuitive," he
said. "It's hard to show a special need when they are the good kids."

Students from Raritan, Readington, Delaware, East Amwell and Flemington
attend Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

Acting Hunterdon Central Superintendent Judith Gray said she couldn't
comment on the lawsuit because she had not received a copy of it.

A telephone message left for school board President John Brasell yesterday
was not returned.

NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.