MIAMI SCHOOLS WATER DOWN DRUG TESTS

MIAMI (AP) -- Under threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Miami-Dade County school district has watered down its drug
testing program to allow high school students to refuse random checks.

Even with the modifications made Wednesday night, the plan would be one of
the most extensive drug testing programs in the nation.

The Miami-Dade County School Board is expected to give it final approval in
February.

Tests would begin in March in grades nine through 12, but only on students
whose parents have signed consent forms. If a student refused after his
parents signed, the parents would be notified, but the student would face
no other punishment.

The ACLU's Florida chapter had threatened a lawsuit if students in the
nation's fourth-largest district were not given the right to refuse.

``At least they've recognized that students are human beings and have
constitutional rights,'' said Howard Simon, ACLU state executive director.

School drug testing gained constitutional footing from a 1995 U.S. Supreme
Court decision that public school athletes can be tested.

None of the nation's three biggest school districts -- New York City, Los
Angeles and Chicago -- has random drug testing.

Onelia Lage, a University of Miami clinical pediatrics professor and member
of the school board's health advisory committee, said administrators
shouldn't expect the testing to be very useful.

``A teen-ager who consents to this is not the one we're worried about,''
Lage said. ``The goal should be treatment and intervention.''