DISTRICT STILL WON'T ADMIT IT WAS WRONG

The Shasta Union High School District refuses to admit that it was
wrong to require that students who participate in a number of school
activities take a drug test.

The district has now dropped its policy of random, suspicionless drug
testing for students in competitive activities like marching band,
math club, and mock trial, after three years of litigation with the
American Civil Liberties Union. But if the district can't see the
error of its ways, how we can be sure it has learned a lesson about
following the law?

This is personal for my family. My daughter Brittany refused to
submit to a drug test. We both felt that forcing her to urinate in a
cup while a stranger listens from the other side of the stall is a
complete violation of her privacy. We offered to have her tested
privately at an off-site facility. The district wouldn't accept that.

Brittany was a dedicated musician throughout high school, but because
she wouldn't take the drug test at school, the district tried to stop
her from playing with her flute ensemble at a prestigious statewide
competition.

Just days before the competition, a judge ruled that the district's
policy was wrong, in large part because there was absolutely no
evidence to support the district's claims that suspicionless drug
testing does anything to reduce student drug use. Brittany was
allowed to play in the competition and the ensemble won the gold medal.

That wasn't good enough for the district, and it appealed that
ruling. A second judge, who is now the chief justice of the
California Supreme Court, also said the district's policy broke the
law. That seems like a pretty trustworthy opinion. The two other
appeals court judges who heard the case agreed.

Throughout the lawsuit, the district was not even able to convince a
single judge in two courts that the policy would be effective at
preventing drug use.

I'm a parent, so I understand concerns about drug use, and making
sure that our kids are safe and healthy. I also believe it's
important, for schools especially, to set an example about ways to
solve complex problems.

What kind of example does it set when a school district breaks the
law, and then won't admit that it has done wrong? What's more,
shouldn't school district resources - our taxpayer dollars - be spent
addressing drug use with things that work?

It's time the school district admit that, although intentions may
have been in the right place, it was wrong to make students like my
daughter take a drug test just so they could play in the marching band.