DRUG TESTING CALLED OFF

SEVIERVILLE - Call off the drug testing and all those hastily
scheduled meetings.

In response to a July 2 opinion by the Tennessee Attorney General's
Office, the Sevier County Board of Education has decided to hold off
on its new drug-testing policy for athletes that went into effect
just the day before.

Sevier County high school athletic directors had scheduled a number
of meetings this week to inform athletes about the new policy and
distribute parental consent forms. The actual drug testing was slated
to start July 31.

But not anymore.

The AG opinion says Tennessee school districts cannot randomly test
students for drugs just because they participate in extracurricular
activities, even though two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court say
random drug testing does not violate a student's rights.

To avoid the possibility of costly litigation in the future, the
Sevier County Board of Education decided to cancel the upcoming drug tests.

"The Sevier County Board of Education was surprised and disappointed
in the opinion of the Tennessee Attorney General's Office ...
limiting the school system's ability to engage in drug testing of
students," the board said in a press release Tuesday. "The school
system's attorneys have reviewed the Attorney General's opinion and
most respectfully disagree with the opinion. The drug testing policy
that was prepared dealing with extracurricular activities is in
compliance with United States Supreme Court decisions.

"It is the school system's feeling that the policy adopted was valid
and would withstand judicial scrutiny, but on the other hand, to go
through such a process would be long and might lead to expensive
litigation for the school system. Due to the cost factor of such
litigation, the Sevier County School System is going to hold in
abeyance its extracurricular activities drug policy in hopes that the
Tennessee Legislature will enact legislation in keeping with the ...
United States Supreme Court decisions and enable school systems to
enact policies, such as we did, in order to protect students in the
system from drugs."

Two Supreme Court decisions shaped student drug-testing laws -
Vernonia School District vs. Acton in 1995 and Pottawatomie County
vs. Earls in 2002. Both ruled that randomly testing students who sign
up for extracurricular activities does not violate their privacy.
However, Tennessee's law includes additional language that restricts
testing of students unless school officials have reasons to suspect drug use.