STUDENT DRUG TESTING POLICIES INCONSISTENT ACROSS REGION

Testing students for drug use is tricky business, so while some local
school systems recently have adopted policies, others have
experimented and stopped testing altogether.

In December, Bradley County Schools began using a new policy that
allows officials to test students if there is reasonable cause -- the
student smells of alcohol or marijuana or if officials find evidence
or hear reports of drug or alcohol use by teachers or other students.

"(Drug testing) is common, but it's certainly not something that every
school system does," said Chris McCarty, the attorney for Bradley
County Schools who helped draft the system's new policy. "It is a
difficult area of the law, because you're going to run into Fourth
Amendment search-and-seizure issues."

The issue of drug testing surfaced after police found drug
paraphernalia earlier this month in a car in the parking lot of
Calhoun High School in Georgia. Investigators said at the time they
believed that students from several Northwest Georgia schools were
involved in the use of the drugs.

When Chuck Rockholt was a principal in Cleveland City Schools, he
always wished the system had a drug policy, he said, but the laws on
what is allowed are "too vague."

"Depending on who you talk to, they'll interpret different things
differently," said Mr. Rockholt, who now is the spokesman for the
school system. "A school system is kind of sticking their neck out,
setting themselves up for a lawsuit."

He said discussions still arise frequently over whether to implement a
drug-testing policy.

"Obviously, we want to be sure that our students aren't using," he
said. "At the same time, there is no doubt that some are. But how do
we go about determining who is and who isn't?"

A 2007 Tennessee attorney general's opinion states that students who
participate in voluntary extracurricular activities, such as sports,
cannot be randomly drug tested unless there is reasonable cause to do
so.

The opinion said Tennessee law gives students more protection than
they have under a similar U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Marion County Schools officials are in the process of reviewing their
drug testing policy, Superintendent Mark Griffith said. Over
Christmas, a basketball coach drug tested some athletes himself, which
is not allowed in the district's current policy.

Mr. Griffith said the school board likely would vote on a new policy
sometime this month or next.

School systems in Hamilton and Sequatchie counties do not test
students at all. Sequatchie County Superintendent Johnny Cordell said
the district once tested athletes and cheerleaders, but the expense of
the tests made it impossible to continue.

[sidebar]

DRUG TESTING

Bradley: Tests students if there is reasonable cause

Cleveland: Does not drug test students

Hamilton: Does not drug test students

Marion: Tests students if there is reasonable cause; randomly tests
student athletes

Rhea: Tests students if there is reasonable cause

Sequatchie: Does not drug test students

Sources: Individual school systems