SALEM SCHOOLS CHIEF PROPOSES RANDOM DRUG TESTS FOR SOME STUDENTS

Salem's school superintendent has said he will form a task force to
investigate how the school district can carry out random drug testing
of students who participate in sports and other extracurricular
activities, according to The Salem News.

Superintendent Herbert Levine said the region's epidemic of heroin and
prescription drug abuse warrants the push for drug testing. "We can't just
sit back any longer and expect this thing is going to go away, because it
doesn't," Levine told the paper.

Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of
Massachusetts, said her group would challenge any plan to randomly test
public school students for drugs.

"I think . . . they shouldn't go down that path," Wunsch said. "It's
probably going to be found unconstitutional in Massachusetts if they tried
to propose it." Levine made his announcement Monday at Salem High School,
at a forum on the region's drug epidemic. The event was attended by more
than 1,200 people. Levine's son Joel, 20, also spoke about his own recovery
from an addiction to OxyContin. Levine acknowledged that the testing plan
would not be popular among students. "Let them be upset, let them moan and
complain," The Salem News quoted Levine as saying. "But let them live."

Law enforcement officials said there were 39 confirmed cases of fatal
opiate overdoses in Essex County last year.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are working to increase drug abuse
awareness. Today, Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett and Sheriff
Frank Cousins will host a meeting on the region's drug epidemic. The US
Supreme Court has said schools can require drug tests for students who
participate in extracurricular activities, but the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court has not considered the issue. In other cases, the SJC has
occasionally ruled that the state's constitution offers greater protection
of individual rights than the US Constitution.