SUPREME COURT AGREES TO CONSIDER SCHOOLS' DRUG-TESTING POLICIES

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether school
administrators must demonstrate that schools have a serious drug problem
before randomly testing some students.

The court will give more guidance to schools that want to use screening to
keep classrooms drug-free. Justices are following up on their 1995 ruling
that upheld testing of athletes in an Oregon school district, where
drug-using sports team members were blamed for discipline problems. That
ruling stopped short of endorsing blanket drug testing.

In the case accepted for review by the Supreme Court Thursday, an appeals
court said a rural Oklahoma district violated the Constitution's ban on
unreasonable searches by requiring random tests of students involved in
extracurricular activities, such as the chorus.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the district had no
justification for drug testing because it had few problems. Among the more
serious incidents was a choir member caught with alcohol in a cough syrup
bottle on a trip.

The court struck down the district's policy, and school officials appealed
to the Supreme Court.

``The issue presented is of major importance . . . to all public schools in
the nation which are responsible for the safety of the students under their
supervision on a daily basis and must address drug use which threatens
their safety,'' the school told the court in urging it to accept the appeal.

Lawyers for the school said the Supreme Court determined in the 1995 case
that public schools are a special environment and students have a lower
expectation of privacy.

``The mere entrance through the schoolhouse gates does not include the
blanket invitation to subject students in America's public schools to drug
tests,'' American Civil Liberties attorneys, representing three students,
told the court.

The Fourth Amendment case turns on whether schools have to prove narcotics
problems before testing children and if testing is appropriate only for
students who are involved in potentially dangerous activities, such as sports.

Tecumseh school officials tested about 500 students from 1998 to 2000. Four
tested positive for drugs. Officials in the community 40 miles from
Oklahoma City said they use multiple methods to deter drug use, including
surveillance cameras, drug education, drug dogs and the testing program.

Students who test positive must be counseled and quit using drugs to remain
involved in the extracurricular activities.

The Supreme Court in 1989 upheld drug testing of railroad employees
involved in accidents and U.S. Customs agents who enforce anti-drug laws or
carry guns. In both decisions, the court cited public health and safety as
justification.

The high court in 1997 struck down a Georgia law that required political
candidates to take drug tests, partly because there was no evidence of a
drug-abuse problem among the state's elected officials.

In the case accepted Thursday, the appeals court said there was no evidence
of drug use among the Oklahoma students required to take tests -- members
of the academic team, choir, Future Farmers of America and Future
Homemakers of America.