NO DRUG-TEST PLANS IN LOCAL SCHOOLS

Color-guard captains, show-choir soloists and quiz-bowl buffs in Richmond
area schools won't have to worry about drug tests anytime soon.

Local school officials have no plans to require random drug testing for
students in extracurricular activities, though the U.S. Supreme Court
yesterday ruled that a policy to do so in an Oklahoma school district is
constitutional.

"I just can't see putting the students, families and school system in that
kind of environment," said Beth Davis, vice chairwoman of the Chesterfield
County School Board.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that random drug testing of students in
extracurricular activities does not violate the Fourth Amendment's
protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas explained that drug
testing policies in public schools must be evaluated against a standard of
reasonableness, rather than one of probable cause, due to schools' unique
custodial responsibility for the children.

"We find that testing students who participate in extracurricular
activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the School
District's legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and detecting drug
use," Thomas wrote.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M.
Kennedy and Stephen Breyer joined him in the majority.

The court ruled against Tecumseh High School students Lindsay Earls and
Daniel James, who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Earls was an honor-roll student and member of the show choir, marching
band, Academic Team and National Honor Society.

Earls and her parents said that the school's policy, which required
agreement to drug testing as a condition for participation in
extracurricular activities, violates Fourth Amendment rights.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissenting, labeled the testing program
"capricious, even perverse." She argued the policy targets the students who
are least likely to be at risk for drug abuse.

Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and John Paul Stevens joined in
the dissent.

The ruling expands a 1995 decision, in which the court permitted random
urine tests for student athletes. Justices said athletes had a lesser
expectation of privacy because they are subject to physicals and engage in
communal undress.

Although no local schools use random drug testing for students, some
require it for pupils who have been previously suspended or expelled for
drug use.

Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield county school officials said they use
random searches of buildings by drug-sniffing dogs. Richmond school
officials did not return repeated calls for comment.

Davis said she does not think random testing is necessary even though
Chesterfield has problems with drugs in school.

"When you put something like that in place, you need to make sure that
there is a need for it and that the community really wants the school
system involved in that area of their children's lives," Davis said.

Davis estimates that drug tests for students in extracurricular activities
would include about 85 percent of students in Chesterfield's middle and
high schools.

Lloyd Jones, assistant superintendent for instructional leadership of
Hanover County schools, said Hanover focuses on educational programming and
other measures to prevent drug use.

"We don't have our heads buried in the sand," Jones said. "But we haven't
seen a need for drug testing because we do so many other things to maintain
heightened vigilance about substance abuse."

Kent Wills, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, argued that the
court's decision yesterday represented an abandonment of the Fourth
Amendment in a school context. He said he fears the decision brings the
court one step closer to allowing random drug testing of all students.

Willis, however, said that practically speaking, the decision will probably
not change most school's drug testing policies dramatically. He said few
schools adopted drug testing policies for athletes following the 1995 ruling.

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