TESTING'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON COURT RULING

The trend towards mandatory drug tests for student athletes is prompting
concern among some parents, students and civil libertarians.

With cries that mandatory testing violates a student's Fourth Amendment
Rights ­which protects all Americans against unreasonable search and
seizures ­ groups are taking their fight against drug testing to court.

The future of student drug testing hinges on a case currently before the
U.S. Supreme Court. The case involves a volleyball player at an Oklahoma
school who refused to take a drug test. When she was suspended from the
team, she filed suit.

An Oklahoma Circuit Court ruled testing athletes even if the system didn't
suspect drug abuse was unconstitutional. The court ruled there must be "an
identifiable drug abuse problem" before schools can conduct random tests.

A decision on the case is expected sometime this summer.

The case is the latest in a series of decisions, appeals and reversals
regarding student drug testing.

The first major court battle over drug testing was in 1995, when the
Supreme Court upheld a policy from Vernonia, Oregon that required all
student athletes and their parents to consent to drug testing. The court
ruled that a system had the right to test an entire sports team, even if
individual players were not suspected of drug use.

The court battles didn't end there, however.

In 2000, the American Civil Liberties Union won a case before the Indiana
Court of Appeals. In that case, a system was testing students who
participated in sports or other extracurricular activities or who drove to
school. A similar suit was filed in New Jersey that same year.

Last August, the cases took another turn when a Maryland school was
required to pay damages to 18 high school students after they were removed
from class and tested for drugs. The students were tested after
administrators were told they were at a weekend party where drugs were used.

The drug testing trend has spurred another industry as well. The internet
features several sites offering products which claim to mask drugs in a
person's system.