SUPREME COURT TO HEAR TECUMSEH DRUG TEST CASE

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to use an Oklahoma case to
decide whether schools can require drug tests for students in activities
such as band and FFA even if there are no specific suspicions of drug use.
The board of education in Tecumseh, a Pottawatomie County town about 40
miles southeast of Oklahoma City, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case
after its drug policy was struck down by a federal appeals court. The
Supreme Court will likely decide it before the current term ends next summer.

At issue is a 1998 school board policy mandating drug testing for students
in interscholastic competition -- athletics, cheerleading, pompom, choir,
band, FFA, FHA and academic team.

Under the policy, all students planning to participate in activities must
have their urine tested at the beginning of the year. After that, names are
drawn each month for random testing.

U.S. District Judge David Russell in Oklahoma City upheld the policy after
it was challenged by three students who said the drug test was offensive
and unconstitutional.

But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Russell and the
policy earlier this year, ruling that schools need some level of suspicion
about drug use before requiring tests.

The Denver-based appeals court said the school district had presented
little evidence of a drug problem. It said any district "seeking to impose
a random suspicionless drug-testing policy as a condition to participation
in a school activity must demonstrate that there is some identifiable
drug-abuse problem among a sufficient number of those subject to the testing."

Without some limits, the court said, "schools could test all of their
students simply as a condition of attending school."

Linda Meoli, an attorney representing the Tecumseh School District, said
Thursday she was excited Supreme Court justices agreed to hear the case. In
the wake of the 10th Circuit decision, Meoli said, "boards of education all
over the country need a little guidance on this issue."

A 1995 Supreme Court decision upheld suspicionless drug testing of athletes
in a school district because a severe drug problem involving athletes had
been identified at the school.

The 10th Circuit decision, Meoli said, is too vague about when a school
board can implement a testing policy to deter drug abuse and protect
students' safety. The Denver court's decision doesn't require proof of a
drug epidemic, she said, but it also doesn't define the constitutional
threshold for suspicionless testing.

Meoli, an attorney with the Center for Education Law in Oklahoma City,
argued in a brief to the high court that confusion generated by conflicting
decisions required Supreme Court intervention.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the three Tecumseh
high school students who challenged the policy, urged the Supreme Court not
to accept the case.

The ACLU contends the policy violates students' Fourth Amendment protection
against unreasonable searches.

"The school district's only justification for targeting these students who
are the last to be suspected of drug use is that any group in which a large
number of students may be found, no matter how unlikely it is that they
will use drugs, can be subjected to drug testing as a deterrent measure for
the student body as a whole," the ACLU said in a brief to the Supreme Court.

An ACLU attorney representing the Tecumseh students did not respond
Thursday to a request for comment. However, one student who challenged the
policy, Lindsay Earls, told The Oklahoman earlier this year that she wanted
the Supreme Court to take the case "so there will be a ruling that will
stand for the entire country and not just here in the area."

Meoli said there was some confusion over whether students in athletics were
part of the case. The ACLU brief says the policy was challenged as it
applied to all interscholastic competitive activities except athletics. But
Meoli said the 10th Circuit Court decision included all activities.

Lindsay Earls was in band, in choir and on the academic team. Another
student who was part of the challenge, Daniel James, wanted to be on the
academic team.

According to the ACLU, 505 students were tested under the policy before it
was suspended. The only students who tested positive were three athletes.

The ACLU said the Supreme Court's 1995 case allowed suspicionless drug
testing in the narrow circumstances of a school facing an immediate crisis
because of athletes leading a drug culture. Part of the Supreme Court's
rationale in that case focused on the safety threats unique to athletes,
the organization says.

The Tecumseh case is the second taken by the Supreme Court involving a 10th
Circuit Court opinion regarding an Oklahoma school policy. The other case,
involving the Owasso School District and the question of whether students
can grade each other's papers, is scheduled for oral arguments later this
month.