OCONEE BOARD OF EDUCATION GOING WRONG WAY ON DRUG TESTING

The Oconee County school board's recent decision to consider
expanding a proposed random drug testing policy to cover even more
students might be more trouble than it's worth.

The board had been scheduled to vote earlier this week on a policy
that would have randomly tested high school student-athletes, and
students who drive to school, for use of a range of drugs including
marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. However, the board decided
Monday to postpone a decision on the policy proposal for a month.

In a Tuesday story in this newspaper, Oconee County Board of
Education Chairman David Weeks said the postponement will allow the
board to both "expand the language" of the proposed drug-testing
policy and "make sure, from a legal standpoint, we're doing it right."

Not that the Banner-Herald's editorial board suffers under any
delusions that its musings have any overarching impact on local
public-policy decisions, but to the extent any Oconee school board
members might have misread an April 16 editorial that wondered why
testing shouldn't be expanded beyond student-athletes and
student-motorists, please understand we weren't advocating such
expansion, but questioning the advisability of any random drug
testing of any students.

Here is the relevant portion of the April 16 editorial: "Isn't it
possible, for instance, that Oconee and North Oconee high school
marching band students, whose practice sessions involve physical
activity, pose a danger to themselves and others if they are under
the influence of drugs? And wouldn't the two schools have an interest
in, say, deterring their science club members from using school
laboratory facilities while under the influence of drugs?

"If a stated goal of the policy is to encourage 'substance-free'
lifestyles, why wouldn't both schools be intent on subjecting every
student to random drug tests?"

Of course, the reason schools shouldn't "be intent on subjecting
every student to random drug tests" is that such a policy - if not in
its words, then possibly in the vagaries of its practical application
- - could place the school system in the position of violating
students' Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches
and seizures.

It's true the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that random testing of
students who participate in athletics and other extracurricular
activities is permissible. It is, however, possible that the Oconee
school board's desire to expand the currently proposed policy, even
in pursuit of the worthwhile goals of ensuring student safety and
encouraging substance-free lifestyles, might extend its testing
protocols into legally questionable areas.

Thus, it might be wise for the Oconee school board, in conjunction
with school system administrators, to look at how it might advance
its interests in student safety and substance-free lifestyles in the
least intrusive manner possible, rather than moving the system toward
a wide-ranging policy that might place it in some legal jeopardy.