SUPREME COURT RESTRICTS DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS

The Supreme Court, limiting the drug testing of students, refused
Monday to allow a school district to test those who violate its
disciplinary rules.

While individuals who appear to be under the influence of drugs can be
tested at school, officials may not routinely test groups of students,
under the ruling that the high court let stand.

The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects students, as well as
adults, from unreasonable searches by public officials, the ruling
stressed.

"This decision says that just because you are a student, you don't
lose all your rights to privacy," said Kenneth Falk, a lawyer for the
Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Falk represented a freshman who
successfully challenged the school drug-testing policy in Anderson,
Ind.

Mandatory drug testing in schools, once considered a step in the "war
on drugs," appears to be fading as an option, experts say, a victim of
privacy concerns, high costs and adverse court rulings.

Most large urban school districts have not adopted widespread or
routine drug testing.

At roughly $50 a student, such testing is expensive for a large
system, officials say. Moreover, it would be seen as a highly
intrusive invasion of privacy for officials to insist that presumably
innocent students undergo drug tests, said Howard Friedman, an
assistant general counsel for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Instead, the lead cases in school drug testing have come from small
towns in Oregon, Indiana and Colorado.

"They have the feeling they don't want to become like New York,
Chicago or Los Angeles. In these (small town) communities, there is
minimal opposition" to mandatory drug testing, Falk said.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court opened the door to routine testing
at schools when it upheld a urine-testing program for school athletes
in rural Vernonia, Ore.

Because students playing sports while under the influence of drugs
could be injured, it is reasonable to force them to undergo regular
urine testing, the high court concluded.

A year later, a school district in Rushville, Ind., went a step
further and adopted regular testing for all students who participated
in extracurricular activities.

Meanwhile, the court also:

- - Agreed to decide whether Hawaii can bar white people from voting to
elect the trustees who oversee a fund for the benefit of native
Hawaiians. The lower courts have upheld the restriction, but the court
will hear the appeal of Harold Rice, a rancher who says the rule is an
example of unconstitutional race discrimination. (Rice vs. Cayetano)

- - Let stand a $1.9 million verdict by a Seattle jury against an
anti-cult group whose members were accused of helping to abduct an
18-year-old from a Pentecostal Christian church to "deprogram" him.
The group said it should not be held liable simply because it referred
the teen-ager's mother to a "deprogrammer." (Cult Awareness Network
vs. Scott)

- - Upheld an Ohio law that required state university professors to
spend more time in the classroom. The state Supreme Court had struck
it down as unconstitutional, citing the principle of equal protection
under the law. In an unsigned opinion, the justices reversed that
ruling in Central State University vs. America Association of
University Professors.