JUDGE AFFIRMS DRUG TESTING PATCHES

Lawsuit Is Misguided

It's deja vu all over again.

The parents of three Conway High School students have filed a lawsuit
to halt random drug testing of students participating in
extracurricular activities, saying the policy violates the Arkansas
and United States constitutions. That's what the courts are there for,
to double check the laws and policies enacted by governmental bodies.
The lawsuit would be a good way to make sure that the school board had
done the right thing, except for the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court
has already ruled that screening for drug use among such students in
this manner is not unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court upheld a policy enacted by an Oklahoma school
district. That district's policy was very similar to the one Conway
would later enact. In fact, last year Conway delayed implementing its
own policy while the Oklahoma case made its way through the judicial
system. For the Conway district to approve the policy at that time
would have been a gamble. If the Oklahoma school's policy had been
struck down, the Conway school district would have been ripe for a
costly lawsuit. We applauded the district in August 2001 for making
the decision to wait.

In August 2002, we again applauded the district, this time for making
the decision to go ahead with the testing. We think the testing will
benefit the students and the district.

The Conway School District's Board of Education has acted responsibly
while the policy was debated and in the way it was enacted. From this
vantage it appeared that the board took seriously the concerns of
those who were against the policy and made an informed decision. The
policy looks to be fair and -- we can only take the word of the
Supreme Court on this -- legal.

We'd hate to see the district have to go through a lengthy, and no
doubt very expensive, court battle only to see its policy upheld. For
that's what we believe will happen.

We'd also hate to see the school board back down and withdraw the
policy under the threat of that court battle.

We don't begrudge those who filed the lawsuit for trying to change or
rescind the policy. It is their right to become involved and try to
change laws or rules that they don't like. That's democracy. But in
this case they are going about it the wrong way.

The Conway school board, backed by the authority of the U.S. Supreme
Court, made the decision to enact the policy, and it should be the one
to change it. If the lawsuit filers can't convince the current board
members to rescind the policy, then they should work to get candidates
elected to the board who are amenable to making the changes.

That's democracy, although it's also a lot of work.