THE ROAD TO THE SUPREME COURT

When the Tecumseh Board of Education developed it's student drug-testing
program in 1998, its members had no idea that they would have to seek the
assistance of the United States Supreme Court to defend their efforts.

Tecumseh is a city of 6,500. Its people have a sincere concern about
long-standing drug use by their children.

Although the school district uses the usual weapons against drugs, such as
education, counseling and interdiction programs, these efforts have not
been fully effective in a state with high school marijuana use ranking in
the nation's top 10. The board needed a policy focused on deterrence and
intervention in an even handed manner, instead of one based on
individualized suspicion requiring surveillance, accusation and
prosecution, steps which would break the bond of trust between teacher and
student.

The board selected a policy of random drug testing of students engaged in
competitive extracurricular activities. Under the policy, students who
tested positive would have to participate in drug counseling to remain in
the activity.

There are no suspensions, loss of academic credit or criminal prosecution
resulting from a positive test, just a requirement to seek help for the
problem.

The policy would not only be a deterrent to students using drugs, but would
also provide an opportunity for students who don't use drugs to decline
drugs offered by their peers without embarrassment.

When the Tecumseh board adopted the policy, there had been no drug-testing
cases in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The School district sought
guidance from the Supreme Court's decision in Vernonia School District v.
Acton, which found random drug testing of athletes to be constitutional,
and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Todd v. Rush, which
found random drug testing of students in competitive activities to be
constitutional. However, before the policy could be fully implemented, it
was challenged in the Federal District Court for the Western District of
Oklahoma by two students represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
After the district court upheld the policy, the board reinstituted the policy.

Although the Tenth Circuit held that the district had failed to demonstrate
an identifiable drug problem among a sufficient number of students in each
activity before implementing the policy, the court provided no guidelines
on how to meet its standard. Tecumseh's petition to the Supreme Court was
granted and arguments were heard last week.

Tecumseh hopes the Supreme Court will recognize the discretion of local
boards of education throughout the county to use their judgment in
deterring if there is a drug problem among their students, justifying
random drug testing in competitive extracurricular activities.

Tecumseh does not want to have its teachers placed in the position of
having to search out some "sufficient number" of students to be accused and
prosecuted for drug use in order to justify a reasonable and thoughtful
drug-testing policy.

It wants its board of education to be able to act upon reasonable evidence
that a drug problem exists and to implement a policy that addresses that
problem in a non-accusatory fashion. The board wants to provide deterrence
and intervention for its students, not punishment, and it hopes the Supreme
Court will give guidelines to enable school districts across the nation to
develop reasonable student drug-testing policies without the fear of
expensive litigation which interrupts their educational programs.

No one can deny that this country is plagued with student substance abuse.
In a survey conducted last year by the Public Health Service in 435 schools
across America, 54 percent of 12th-grade students and 45.6 percent of
10th-grade students reported they had used an illegal drug.

If Tecumseh is to educate its children to be responsible and productive
citizens, it must be given the opportunity to implement reasonable programs
to deter such drug use and intervene with remedial assistance when
substance abuse occurs.

Bill Bleakley is publisher of the Oklahoma Gazette and an attorney with the
Center for Education Law, which represented Tecumseh.