SHASTA HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT DROPS DRUG TESTING PLAN

Cost of Fighting ACLU in Court Deemed Too High

The Shasta Union High School District has given up its three-year
battle to implement a mandatory drug-testing policy for students
participating in extracurricular activities.

The district has maxed out its legal insurance coverage of $100,000
and could spend thousands more fighting the American Civil Liberties
Union in court, district Superintendent Jim Cloney said.

The district policy - which would expand mandatory testing for
students in such programs as band, choir and drama - is in the best
interests of its students, he said, and the board of trustees wants
the most comprehensive policy allowed by law.

"However, given the virtually unlimited resources available to the
ACLU to litigate this case and the potential exposure we have for
paying the ACLU's attorney fees, our board made the difficult
decision to direct our attorneys to attempt to settle the case,"
Cloney said in an email.

The district received a $100,800 federal grant and implemented the
program in fall 2008 over the objections of several parents. The
program expanded a similar program for athletes.

Nonathlete students were randomly chosen weekly to submit to drug tests.

District officials at the time said they felt they were on solid
legal footing because they had created the policy to conform to a
2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing a school district in
Oklahoma to implement a drug-testing policy for students involved in
"competitive extracurricular activities."

The ACLU, however, filed a lawsuit in Shasta Superior Court asking a
judge to issue an injunction stopping the district from testing
students. In May 2009, Judge Monica Marlowe issued the injunction
halting the tests.

Marlowe said in her ruling that the district's policy was not
consistent with the California Constitution and the Supreme Court decision.

The district appealed, but in September 2010, justices of the state
3rd District Court of Appeal upheld Marlowe's ruling. The 31-page
decision said Marlowe did not err in her decision and sent justices
the case back to the Superior Court for trial.

Cloney said the ACLU initially proposed settling the case by having
the district revert back to testing only athletes for the next five
years. The ACLU also wanted $250,000 for legal costs.

The board agreed to pay the ACLU $50,000 for attorney fees. The
district also proposed a voluntary testing program for nonathletes.

An ACLU spokeswoman declined to comment on the proposed settlement
but said her agency planned to make a decision within the next couple of weeks.