DRUG TESTING OF STUDENT ATHLETES HAS BLESSING OF SUPREME COURT

SHANDON -- Mandatory drug testing of student athletes appears to have
widespread support in Shandon, but is it legal? The U.S. Supreme Court says
yes.

Two months ago the high court upheld a ruling allowing such policies at
high schools in Indiana, reaffirming its groundbreaking decision in 1995.

The latter case involved the mandatory drug testing of athletes at the high
school in Vernonia, a small logging town in northwestern Oregon.

An official with the California School Boards Association said he knew of
no lawsuits filed to challenge school drug-testing policies in this state,
but said schools in other states have run into trouble when they tried to
expand the policy to include students in other extra-curricular activities
such as band.

Pete Carton, an attorney for a Bakersfield legal firm used by school
districts across central California, said he advises districts that they
can legally conduct mandatory drug testing of students who go out for sports.

"The law is if a district really wanted to do it, and it's simply not
targeting the linebacker who everyone knows is using marijuana, heck yes,"
he said.

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HOW SUPREME COURT VIEWED PRIVACY ISSUE

Parents and school officials in Vernonia, Ore., were desperate to solve the
drug problem overtaking their high school. In 1989 they implemented
mandatory drug testing of all student athletes.

One family appealed and in June 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of the testing program on a 6-3 decision saying it did
not violate privacy rights extended by the Fourth and 14th Amendments. Here
are some excerpts from Judge Antonin Scalia's majority opinion:

"Legitimate privacy expectations are even less with regard to student
athletes. School sports are not for the bashful. They require 'suiting up'
before each practice or event, and showering and changing afterwards.
Public school locker rooms, the usual sites for these activities, are not
notable for the privacy they afford.

"... There is an additional respect in which school athletes have a reduced
expectation of privacy. By choosing to 'go out for the team,' they
voluntarily subject themselves to a degree of regulation even higher than
that imposed on students generally. In Vernonia's public schools, they must
submit to a preseason physical exam ... they must acquire adequate
insurance coverage or sign an insurance waiver, maintain a minimum grade
point average, and comply with any 'rules of conduct, dress, training hours
and related matters as may be established for each sport by the head coach
and athletic director with the principal's approval.'

"... And of course the effects of a drug-infested school are visited not
just upon the users, but upon the entire student body and faculty, as the
educational process is disrupted. In the present case, moreover, the
necessity for the State to act is magnified by the fact that this evil is
being visited not just upon individuals at large, but upon children for
whom it has undertaken a special responsibility of care and direction.
Finally, it must not be lost sight of that this program is directed more
narrowly to drug use by school athletes, where the risk of immediate
physical harm to the drug user or those with whom he is playing his sport
is particularly high.

"... It seems to us self evident that a drug problem largely fueled by the
'role model' effect of athletes' drug use, and of particular danger to
athletes, is effectively addressed by making sure that athletes do not use
drugs.

"Taking into account all the factors we have considered above - the
decreased expectation of privacy, the relative unobtrusiveness of the
search, and the severity of the need met by the search - we conclude
Vernonia's Policy is reasonable and hence constitutional."

Checked-by: Richard Lake