RULING BARS MANDATORY DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court today refused to let an Indiana
school district require all high school students suspended for
disciplinary reasons to undergo drug testing before they are reinstated.

The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that struck down the
requirement as a violation of students' privacy rights.

Today's action is not a decision and sets no precedent. In fact, the
court's denial of review could confuse the already-murky law
surrounding student drug-testing across the nation.

At issue was a drug-testing policy formerly imposed at two Anderson,
Ind., high schools. Lawyers for the Anderson Community School Corp.
asked the justices to reinstate the policy, which they called vital to
``deterring drug and alcohol use among students.''

The Supreme Court in 1995 ruled in an Oregon case that random drug
tests for student athletes do not violate the Constitution's Fourth
Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.

That 6-3 ruling emphasized the ``role model'' effect of student
athletes' drug use but also noted the importance of ``deterring drug
use by our nation's schoolchildren.''

Just last October, the highest court let another Indiana school
district -- in rural Rush County -- continue conducting random drug
testing for all students participating in extracurricular activities.

The justices left that policy intact by rejecting, without comment, a
challenge to it.

But no court has ever condoned the random testing of all public school
students.

In striking down the drug-testing policy in Anderson, a three-judge
panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals drew a distinction
between it and those involved in the Oregon and Rush County cases.

``A testing policy for students in athletics or other extracurricular
activities applies only to students who have voluntarily chosen to
participate in an activity,'' the appeals court said. ``Drug testing
could be construed as part of the `bargain' a student strikes in
exchange for the privilege of participating in favored
activities.''

But in the Anderson case, the appeals court said, ``Such testing is a
consequence of unauthorized participation in disfavored
activities.''

The policy adopted in 1997 for Anderson's two public high schools
required that all students suspended for any reason for three days or
more take a urine test to screen for drug and alcohol use before being
readmitted.

If the test detected drug or alcohol use, the result was disclosed
only to parents and a designated school official. The test result was
not used for additional punishment.

James R. Willis II was a freshman at Highland High School when in
December 1997 he was suspended for five days for fighting. The school
official to whom Willis was taken right after his fight later
testified that there was no indication he had been using drugs or alcohol.

Willis refused to take the required drug test for readmission, and,
with his father, sued the school district.

A federal trial judge upheld the drug-testing policy, but the 7th
Circuit court reversed that ruling.

The appeals court said the school district must restrict drug testing
in such disciplinary cases to students individually suspected of using
drugs or alcohol.

The case is Anderson Community School Corp. vs. Willis,
98-1183.