ACLU, PARENTS CHALLENGE DRUG-TESTING POLICY

Wahkiakum High School parents, backed by the American Civil Liberties
Union, sued their school district for subjecting student athletes to random
"suspicionless" drug testing. The ACLU said it is the first Washington test
case challenging urine-testing of students, which it considers an
unreasonable search.

The tiny district, headquartered in Cathlamet along the Columbia River 25
miles west of Longview, adopted a policy this fall that students who want
to be on a high school or middle school team must agree to random urine
testing for illicit or performance-enhancing drugs.

The lawsuit, filed with the Wahkiakum County Superior Court Friday,
contends the policy violates the state Constitution's privacy guarantees.

In 1985, the state Supreme Court held in a case brought by the ACLU against
Renton School District that schools can't search students without suspicion
they are breaking a law or school rule. The ACLU also is challenging a City
of Seattle policy of drug testing successful applicants for city jobs.

"Forcing students to submit their urine to officials is a degrading
practice that treats all student athletes as suspects," said Julya Hampton
of the ACLU.

"The districts' policy is an effort to make a symbolic statement about
drugs at the expense of students who simply want to be on sports teams."

One of the plaintiffs, Hans York, a deputy sheriff and parent of a
Wahakikum High School honor student who plays basketball, called the policy
"an unwarranted invasion of privacy."

"We want school to teach our children to think critically, not to police
them," York said.

York and his wife, Katherine, are joined by Dr. Paul Schneider and his
wife, Sharon, in bringing the challenge.

The ACLU said the policy was adopted without any convincing evidence of a
significant drug problem in the district.

District Superintendent Bob Garrett was unavailable for comment, but the
district's legal counsel, county Prosecutor Fred Johnson, said in an
interview that the district policy is on sound legal footing.

"I don't guarantee the outcome of the case, but we certainly have good
arguments in our favor," he said.

He said the district has a drug problem that the school board considers
significant and that school officials have a right to protect athletes from
drug-affected players and to crack down on performance-enhancing drugs such
as steroids.

"I don't feel it is an infringement of any students' rights and the board
believes it should be making policy for this district, and not the ACLU,"
the prosecutor said.

Johnson said the policy, based on one from the Burlington-Edison District
in Skagit County, is similar to an Oregon district's policy that has been
upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. He conceded, however, that Washington's
courts might interpret the state Constitution to give more weight to the
privacy question.

Still, he likes the odds of convincing the courts that the district has
balanced "a relatively limited intrusion of privacy with the interests of
the district" to keep out drugs.

"Are we going to really be serious about drug-free schools and
violence-free schools or just talk about it?" he said.

The policy originally applied to all students who want to go out for
extracurricular activities, but was later narrowed to athletes, he said.

Athletes are required to bring in a signed permission slip from home
permitting the tests. So far no athlete has been kept off the teams because
of the drug-test requirement, he said.

About a dozen athletes have been randomly tested and no one has been
removed from the team for flunking, Johnson said.