HIGH COURT LIMITS DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS

Fourth Amendment Applies To Children As Well As Adults

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, limiting the drug testing of
students, refused Monday to allow a school district to test all 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
said.

``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 testing fading

Mandatory drug testing in schools, once considered a likely next step
in the war on drugs, now 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. And mandatory drug testing in schools has not
been a heated issue in San Jose.

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.

One step further

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

Since then, however, the trend toward more testing has been halted. No
court has condoned the testing of all students, and several courts
have struck down policies that target for testing students who have
violated certain disciplinary rules. In Colorado, the state Supreme
Court recently struck down a drug-testing policy that included members
of the marching band.

The school board in Anderson, north of Indianapolis, adopted a policy
requiring students who were caught fighting or had otherwise violated
significant school rules to submit to a test for drugs and alcohol.

``We figured those are the kids likely to abuse drugs and alcohol,''
said Robert Baker, an attorney for the school district. In one of the
town's high schools, drug testing of students after they had been
fighting showed evidence of an illegal substance in 46 percent of them.

But freshman James Willis, who had been involved in a fight, refused
to take the test and was suspended for it.

When his challenge came before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago,
the judges struck down the school policy as a type of unreasonable
search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The judges stressed,
however, that a school official who had a specific reason to believe a
student was under the influence of drugs could order a drug test.

District appealed

In January, the school district appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing
that ``its responsibilities as guardian and tutor of children
entrusted to its care outweigh Willis' expectation of privacy.'' But
Monday, the justices without comment turned down the appeal in
Anderson Community Schools vs. Willis.

``This means we need to go back to the basics and test only when we
have a reasonable suspicion'' that an individual is impaired, Baker
said.

In another case involving the rights of teenagers, the justices Monday
left intact a Charlottesville, Va., curfew for children under 17. In
San Jose, the city's curfew requires children under 16 to be off city
streets by 10 p.m. Older youths, up to 18, have until 11:30 p.m. The
San Jose law has no criminal sanctions; violators are given counseling
and taken home.