COURT UPHOLDS SCHOOL POLICY ON DRUG TESTS IN NEW JERSEY

A New Jersey appeals court ruled yesterday that a Hunterdon County high
school can randomly conduct drug tests on students who participate in teams
and clubs or who park their cars in the school parking lot.

The decision overturned a January 2001 injunction issued by a Superior
Court judge that stopped the drug-testing program at the school, Hunterdon
Central Regional High School in Flemington. In the 2001 decision, the judge
agreed with lawyers from the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union that the State Constitution provided more privacy
protection for students against random drug tests than the United States
Constitution.

Yesterday, in a 2-to-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the State Superior
Court Appellate Division disagreed.

"We find no basis for concluding that the State Constitution warrants a
different approach than that taken by the U.S. Supreme Court with respect
to the question of drug testing in the public schools under the Fourth
Amendment," the ruling said.

The issue of testing students for drug use has been hotly debated around
the country since 1995, when the United States Supreme Court upheld the
testing of student athletes.

In June, the court expanded the earlier ruling and upheld the widespread
use of random drug testing of public school students. The 5-to-4 decision
upheld a program in a rural Oklahoma district that required students
engaged in "competitive" extracurricular activities -- including the future
homemakers' club, the cheerleading squad and the choir -- to submit to
random drug testing.

In response to yesterday's New Jersey ruling, Kevin B. Kovacs, a lawyer for
Hunterdon Central, said the school planned to resume testing when school
begins.

"This is a big victory not just for Hunterdon, but for all school districts
in New Jersey," he said, adding that the New Jersey School Boards
Association had filed a brief supporting Hunterdon.

Hunterdon Central began randomly testing athletes in 1998, and tried to
expand the policy in 2000 to include students in all extracurricular
activities and those seeking parking permits at the school. But the
expansion was not put into effect after it was challenged by a group of
students. In August 2000, the state chapter of the A.C.L.U. filed a lawsuit
on behalf of a varsity gymnast, a student involved in a United Nations
program and a writer for the school's online literary magazine.

In 1999, Hunterdon Central was among eight of 600 school districts in the
state that conducted drug testing of athletes. Mr. Kovacs said lawyers for
the A.C.L.U. had already said they would appeal yesterday's decision.
Because the vote on the court's panel was 2 to 1, he said, the decision can
be heard by the State Supreme Court. A.C.L.U. officials could not
immediately be reached for comment.

Drug testing, in the meantime, will proceed, Mr. Kovacs said. "It means
that right now schools are free to conduct random drug testing in New
Jersey," he said.

The high school, in central New Jersey, has 2,500 students and draws from
Raritan, Readington, Delaware, East Amwell and Flemington.