PUPILS, TEACHERS TRY TO CONCOCT DRUG TEST POLICY

TALLAHASSEE -- Students and teachers, with an assist from the Florida
Supreme Court, found developing a school drug testing policy was not as
easy as it first seemed during a town hall meeting shown yesterday in
classrooms across the state via television and the Internet.

It was a lesson not confined to drug testing, said 11th Circuit Chief Judge
Joseph P. Farina, who moderated the meeting of about 30 Florida teachers
and 60 students from three Tallahassee high schools.

''The whole dynamic of discussion and considering the constitutional
principles, and perhaps of developing a policy, could be used for any other
issues,'' Farina said.

The Miami judge added that the meeting in the Supreme Court chambers was
''not an end but a means to an end of discussion, interaction and
developing a policy.''

It was part of the fourth annual Justice Teaching Institute sponsored by
the Supreme Court. Each year, 25 teachers come to Tallahassee for legal
education training.

The meeting began with a survey. The results included majorities of
teachers and students agreeing that students accused of violating drug
policies should get free lawyers and that administrators be required to
prove a violation beyond a reasonable doubt before a student can be
expelled.

They then split into smaller groups to propose specific policies that often
differed from the poll results.

Only one group said proof should be beyond a reasonable doubt, the same
standard as in criminal trials. Three groups proposed standards less
favorable to the accused. One group even proposed shifting the burden of
proof to the accused student.

Only one group proposed free lawyers. Two groups suggested no lawyers be
allowed and two proposed that they be permitted only if paid for by the
students' families.