ACLU ATTACKS SCHOOL DRUG TEST FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

NEW YORK -- In a pointed challenge to a policy adopted by an increasing
number of U.S. high schools, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit
Wednesday against an Oklahoma school district that administers drug tests to
students who want to participate in extracurricular activities such as
debate, chorus and Future Farmers of America.

Although the Supreme Court refused without comment last year to hear a
challenge to a drug-test requirement for after-school programs at an Indiana
high school, the ACLU contends that the Tecumseh School District in Oklahoma
has gone a step further with extracurricular activities that are tied to
courses.

Thus, according to-the ACLU and two teenage plaintiffs, anyone at Tecumseh
High School who refuses to submit to the urine test required for the choir,
for example, would have to drop the accompanying music course that provides
credit for graduation. That, the plaintiffs argue, violates a student's
right to a public education as well as the Fourth Amendment protection
against illegal search and seizure.

Graham Boyd, a lawyer for the group's National Drug Policy Litigation
Project, wrote in the pleadings that by "targeting a group of students who
are relatively unlikely to use drugs" and who are participating in
activities with "no physical danger," the district was not addressing a
"proven problem."

The ACLU says it is attempting to check a rash of tests for illegal
substances that, while largely accepted when applied to athletes, have
recently been applied to thousands of students involved in more cerebral
pursuits.

Individual school districts in Idaho, North Carolina and Wyoming, among
other states, have implemented similar policies for cheerleaders, language
clubs and chess competition in the past year.

The districts and their supporters argue that an extracurricular activity is
a privilege, not a right, and should be open only to those who are
demonstrably free of drugs and alcohol.