PA. COURT ALLOWS LAWSUIT AGAINST SCHOOL DRUG TESTS

HARRISBURG - A desire to discourage drug use among students is not a
sufficient reason to justify "suspicionless" drug screening targeted
at student-athletes, parking-permit holders, and participants in
extracurricular activities, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

The justices on Thursday turned down the Delaware Valley School
District's attempt to have a lawsuit in Pike County dismissed, meaning
a legal challenge seeking to block the testing can proceed. The
challenge was filed by two sisters, who had passed the drug screening
and have since graduated, and their parents.

The family's lawyer said the ruling provides Pennsylvania students
with privacy rights beyond the limits of a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court
case that upheld random testing of participants in an Oklahoma school
district's extracurricular activities.

"What the Pennsylvania court did is [it] said, 'Well, the Pennsylvania
Constitution does recognize the privacy right.' That is, it affords
the students [a] broader right of privacy than the U.S. Supreme Court
held," said the lawyer, Robert N. Isseks.

In July, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld Hunterdon Central
Regional High School's policy, which subjects students involved in
extracurricular activities or who park vehicles on school property to
random drug testing. The court ruled that students in public schools
have diminished rights to privacy under the state constitution, and
that the school's policy was not unreasonable or unfair.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's majority opinion said the Delaware
Valley School District had failed to produce sufficient proof that its
students have a drug problem, had not shown that the targeted students
contributed to any drug problem, and had not described how the policy
addressed whatever problem might exist.

The court attacked the northeastern Pennsylvania district's testing of
student leaders as a means of setting an example for the student body.

"The theory apparently is that, even in the absence of any suspicion
of drug or alcohol abuse, it is appropriate to single these students
out and say, in effect: 'Choose one: your Pennsylvania constitutional
right to privacy or the chess club,' " Justice Ronald D. Castille
wrote in a 32-page opinion.

A concurring opinion signed by three justices said they were sending
the case back "for further factual development, without specifically
requiring that the school district proffer evidence of a heightened
risk among the [drug-tested] students as compared to the student
population as a whole."

The sisters, Kimberly and Jennifer Theodore, were tested because
Jennifer belonged to the National Honor Society and academic clubs and
Kimberly played several sports and sought a parking permit.