RANDOM DRUG TESTING OK'D FOR STUDENTS IN SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

If students want to toot their horns in band or argue issues on the debate
team, schools can require them to submit to random drug tests, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

But at the local level, where reaction to the decision was mixed, such
testing isn't done and school officials don't foresee a huge community
outcry to change that policy in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The court's decision upheld a program in an Oklahoma school district that
requires middle and high school students who want to participate in school
activities, ranging from cheerleading to the Future Farmers of America
club, to submit to urine screening. Previously, only athletes were subject
to drug tests.

"Because this policy reasonably serves the school district's interest in
detecting and preventing drug use among its students, we hold that it is
constitutional," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas.

The decision has officials with the American Civil Liberties Union shaking
their heads. The group's lawyers represented the Oklahoma choirgirl who
sued against the policy, arguing it was a violation of her privacy.

"This means the court has opened the floodgates to a battle over random
drug testing in every school district in this country," said Howard Simon,
executive director of ACLU of Florida. "What is really needed is
comprehensive drug education for all students, not random testing for a
handful."

Mixed views

South Florida reaction was divided on the 5-4 ruling, which comes at a time
when privacy issues and the question of how far schools are willing to go
to fight student drug use keep cropping up.

"I don't think it's necessarily the school's business unless it's affecting
other students at the school," said Geoff McKee, principal of Spanish River
High in Boca Raton.

Nonetheless, many approved of the ruling, as drugs are seen as a growing
problem in South Florida schools.

Jeff Scudder, a teacher at South Broward High, said the justices did not go
far enough.

"I think [drug tests] should be across the board, for all students," he
said. "We know who the drug users are. We tell the parents until we're blue
in the face, and it's, 'Oh no, not my child.' We need to identify these
kids and get them help."

Kevin Ramsey, whose son attends Pembroke Pines Middle, thinks testing makes
sense. Ramsey says he doesn't buy the privacy line.

"My opinion is, if you're not doing something wrong, you shouldn't have a
problem with it," he said.

Jessica Papitto, a recent graduate of Plantation High and former president
of the school's drama club, thinks such notions are nonsense.

"There are people who can maintain a 4.0 [grade point average] and smoke
pot every once in a while at a party," she said. "And if someone who is
using drugs is involved with an activity," she said, "that's something
positive that is going to keep them off the streets. By testing, it's
totally pushing them away."

Monique Bouvier of Boca Raton, who was a member of her high school's
anti-drug club this year, voluntarily submitted to a drug test. But to ask
all club students to do so is wrong, she said.

"It's a fact of life: Kids try drugs," she said. "If they do this, there'd
be less participation" in clubs.

Hollywood Hills High parent Pat Babski thinks the local community's
ambivalence toward the ruling and other students' privacy issues was made
clear this year, when administrators brought in drug-sniffing dogs. "A lot
of parents didn't like it," she said. "But I didn't mind."

Broward School Board member Paul Eichner, a lawyer, said the district's
decision to allow dogs into schools to sniff property, but not students, is
as far as he wants to go. He called random drug testing offensive.

"There is a Constitution, and we all live under it. There is not a separate
Constitution for children," he said.

Mike Roland, student activities director of the Broward County Association
of Student Councils, thinks a better tool is already in place to ensure
that students aren't wandering off the right path. It's the requirement
that all such athletes and club-going students in middle and high school
must keep a 2.0 grade point average.

Roadblocks

Even if there were no legal issues, the question of time and costs would
come up, said Linda Cowart, program planner for athletics in Palm Beach County.

"Just getting the equipment to do the drug testing and training the people
would take time," Cowart said. "Our coaches and athletic directors aren't
trained to do this."

But that's not the biggest roadblock facing a local policy change,
according to Dave Grad, athletic director and student government adviser
for Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland. Although some parents might advocate
the change, he said, as soon as their children got caught, they'd be
fighting the school board all the way.

"I would personally love it," he said. "But the county would have to go up
against the parents. Because every parent defends their child. It would be,
'Oh, he just ate a poppy seed bagel.'"

Education Writer Kellie Patrick contributed to this report.