LOCKNEY ISD CHANGES POLICY FOR DRUG TESTS

LOCKNEY - The Lockney school board revised its drug-testing policy
last month in the wake of a lawsuit that charges the policy violates a
Lockney student's Constitutional rights, a lawyer for the school
district said Wednesday.

Austin attorney Don Henslee said the policy was "fine-tuned" at a
regular board meeting to affect only seventh-through 12th-graders
because school activities usually start in the sixth grade.

The policy revision also stipulated that students whose parents have
not signed a permission slip will be subject only to drug counseling
and will not undergo in-school suspension or be barred from
extracurricular activities, Henslee said.

The revised policy goes into effect for the 2000-2001 school year,
Henslee said.

Lockney Superintendent Raymond Lusk did not return phone calls by late
Wednesday.

But Lusk told The Associated Press: "Sometimes you implement a policy
and look back at it and say this should have been done this way."

"The purpose of this is to settle this (issue) because we have a lot
more important things to do as far as the educational process," Lusk
told AP. "We want (our students) in school, not sitting in some
alternate discipline."

Henslee said: "They (school board members) clearly will not get rid of
the policy. They've said from day one that they'll fine-tune the
policy."

The action does not affect pending litigation between the Lockney
Independent School District and the American Civil Liberties Union, he
said.

The ACLU sued the school district in March, charging that sixth-grader
Brady Tannahill's Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and
seizure was violated by forcing him to take a drug test.

Mandatory "suspicionless" testing began in February on Lockney school
staff and sixth-through 12th-graders.

Tannahill's father, Larry Tannahill, refused to sign the required
permission form, citing invasion of privacy and infringement on
parental rights.

Larry Tannahill said Wednesday that he's wary of the school district's
decision.

"It's totally off the wall," he said. "It's something that really needs
to be watched, to see what they do."

He said students whose parents already have signed the permission slip
will be subject to the same rules enacted in December.

"The school district still has control over those students," he said.

Harvey Madison of Lubbock, an area ACLU representative, said the
revisions do little to satisfy ACLU's concerns.

"The policy is still comprehensive," Madison said. "It still violates
Fourth Amendment rights. And it's wrong."

Henslee said lawyers from both sides are in the discovery phase of the
litigation.

Lockney ISD joined a growing number of school districts in the state
requiring their students to be tested for drugs and alcohol. Mandatory
testing, for the most part, has been limited to students in
extracurricular activities.

In Tulia, a former student sued the school district, saying its
mandatory, suspicionless drug-testing violated his rights. The case is
pending in court.

Farwell and Perryton school districts test junior high and high school
students in extracurricular activities randomly in the school year.

Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips has voluntary drug-testing for its students
at West Texas High School.