DRUG TESTS HIT A ROADBLOCK

Their hearts were in the right place when three Shelby County high
school principals tried to continue random drug testing of students
engaged in extracurricular activities this week.

"To heck with what the attorney general's office says," however,
might not be the right lesson for young people to take from their
high school experience going forward.

Shelby County Schools officials were correct to halt the testing at
Germantown, Houston and Millington High Schools, pending a review of
an opinion authored by deputy Atty. Gen. Kate Eyler.

According to Eyler, random testing is a violation of a state law
that "allows drug testing of a student only when there are
reasonable indications to the principal that the student may have
used or may be under the influence of drugs."

The opinion seems to reflect the will of the General Assembly on the
issue. Whether the law should be changed or not is a question for
another day, but in the present situation, caution is the proper course.

It's hard to fault school principals for trying to discourage
illegal drug use among students, particularly since random drug
testing for students engaged in extracurricular activities has been
ruled in conformance with the U.S. Constitution.

The focus on students who want to play football, do some
cheerleading and the like seems appropriate, too. While school
attendance is mandatory, team sports, the marching band and the
debate squad are not. They're voluntary acts, much like workers
answering a help-wanted ad at a company that drug tests job applicants.

Germantown High School principal Lonnie Harris, who has been using
random drug testing for more than a decade, reasonably argues that
it gives students a relatively easy, non-confrontational way to
resist peer pressure on the illegal drug issue.

But the state prohibition seems fairly straightforward, and most
schools across the state that have been testing students have
decided to comply, or at least take a wait-and-see attitude, since
the opinion was issued in July.

Whether testing eventually resumes or not, the controversy should
provide a valuable teaching opportunity for students on a variety of
issues, from the civil liberties granted by the Constitution to the
practical realities of the workplaces that are awaiting.

Smart teachers will take advantage of it, and students, like those
in the generations that preceded them, should have plenty to say.