KIKER SUES TO STOP TESTS

Blue Ridge attorney Scott Kiker filed a motion in Fannin County
Superior Court this week seeking an emergency injunction to halt the
Fannin County Board of Education from implementing its mandatory drug
testing program at Fannin County High School.

The motion was filed with the Clerk of Superior Court Monday, July 13,
on behalf of petitioner Marion M. Kiker as natural guardian of two
minor children who are students at the school.

It lists the Fannin County Board of Education, board Chairman Terry
Bramlett and high school Principal Erik Cioffi as respondents.

The petition alleges that the newly enacted mandatory drug testing
program is unconstitutional in its nature and application, in that it
violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against warrantless searches
and seizures; federal and state constitutional rights to be free from
unreasonable searches and seizures, rights not to incriminate oneself;
and the right to confidentiality of medical and psychological records.

In addition, the petition alleges that the mandatory testing program
violates the Constitution's equal protection clause in that it applies
only to high school students and not to other students who participate
in the same activities, and that it makes no provision for
confidentiality of test results in violation of the federal Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Kiker said Tuesday that he filed the motion in hopes that it would be
heard in court this week, but said that was not likely because no
judge was available to hear it.

He said that unlike drug testing policies adopted by other school
districts, the Fannin County policy does not limit testing to urine
samples only. Kiker said no court has ever approved any testing other
than urinalysis for school students.

Kiker said the school board may be correct in attempting to apply the
testing procedure only to students who participate in extracurricular
activities because those activities are considered privileges, but he
does not believe that the board has established a rational
relationship between extracurricular activity participants and drug
use.

"They're using the extracurricular activities to capture as many
students in this program as they possibly can," Kiker said of the
school board. But, he said, they have not demonstrated that drug use
in those students is a problem.

Another problem with the board's new policy, he said is that it does
not outline who keeps the collected information like test results, and
how confidential that information will remain.

"I don't know the reliability of how confidential that information
will be," Kiker said. "I think this thing is really overbroad and ambiguous."

When asked why he had not registered a protest with the board while
the policy was being considered, Kiker said he had not known about the
policy before reading about it in the newspaper last week. "I read it
in the paper and I scrambled," Kiker said. "I wish I would have
brought this earlier."

Kiker said he did not know when the motion would be heard in court.