SCHOOLS AWAIT DRUG-TEST RULING

Broader Screening At Issue. Medina County District Among Those Possibly
Affected By High Court Decision.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether
schools may give drug tests to nearly any student involved in after-school
activities, from the chess club to cheerleading, without evidence the
student or the school has a drug problem.

The court's decision in the case, expected to be handed down before next
summer, has implications for some school districts in Ohio -- including one
in Medina County -- that conduct drug tests on students.

Critics say such broad testing is unconstitutional and a step toward
universal screening. Supporters say it is necessary in the face of drug use
by young people.

"I felt they were accusing us and convicting us before they had given us a
chance," said Lindsey Earls, who sang in her high school choir and
participated on an academic quiz team when testing began in Tecumseh, Okla.

Only children involved in competitive extracurricular activities were
tested on the theory that by voluntarily representing the school, they had
opened themselves to greater scrutiny than other students.

"The board did perceive that there was a drug problem among the students,
and wanted to help . . . give students a reason to say no," said Stephanie
Mather, a lawyer for the school. "It was a deterrent. A student could say,
'I want to participate in this band competition, so I'm not going to do
that.' "

The upcoming ruling could answer a question lingering from a major 1995
case, when the court said a school with a pervasive drug problem could
subject student athletes to drug tests.

In that 6-3 decision, the court did not address schoolwide testing, or
extracurricular activities apart from athletics. It is not clear whether an
answer in this case would apply to all extracurricular activities, or only
to competitive pursuits.

The National School Boards Association has no estimate for the number of
children involved in extracurricular activities, but the Oklahoma school
said it assumed its policy would cover a large percentage of students.

The case involves a decision by the board of education in rural Tecumseh,
40 miles from Oklahoma City, to begin "suspicionless" drug testing in 1998.

The board had considered testing all students in the school district, but
settled for the smaller program in light of previous court challenges
elsewhere. The school acknowledges that students involved in activities
such as band and the pompom team are not more likely than others to be
involved with drugs, and has said there was no severe drug problem in the
school.

"It was not where the problem was, but where they thought they could, in
essence, legally get away with doing the testing," said Graham Boyd, the
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer handling the case.

Earls was given a urine test in 1999. The test came back negative, and she
and her family sued.

"It was horrible. Someone would stand outside the bathroom stall and
listen," said Earls, now a freshman at Dartmouth.

A federal appeals court ruled earlier this year that the tests violated the
Constitution's guarantee against unreasonable searches.

The case turns on whether schools have to prove narcotics problems before
testing children and if testing is appropriate only for students involved
in potentially dangerous activities, such as sports, or students who
voluntarily have given up some expectations of privacy.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the school argued that the lower court
drew the wrong conclusions from the 1995 athlete case, and that its ruling
conflicts with other appeals courts.

Drug Testing in Ohio

Perhaps as many as two dozen Ohio school districts randomly test student
athletes for drug use, said Henry Zaborniak, an Ohio High School Athletic
Association assistant commissioner.

He said that the number has grown as the cost of the tests has come down.

In the Akron-Canton area, Highland Schools in Medina County began randomly
testing high school student athletes a number of years ago, said Highland
Athletics Director Fred Pollock.

Karen Ingraham, spokeswoman for Akron Public Schools, said there is no drug
testing of students in the district. She has been with the district for
about 10 years and said the issue had not been officially taken up by the
board during that time.

The Highland program grew out of a concern that students might be using
drugs, primarily marijuana, Pollock said.

So far, no student has tested positive for drug use; 10 percent of student
athletes in each sport are tested each year, Pollock said. For example, if
10 students are on the girls cross country team, one student is tested.

Each test costs the district about $12. If this test -- called a
preliminary test -- shows drug use, results are sent to a lab for further
testing. A couple of the preliminary tests have yielded positive results,
but subsequent lab tests have shown no drug use, Pollock said.

Pollock said some in the community have debated what all the negative test
results mean: Are the tests a deterrent to drug use or are students
learning how to beat the tests?

But, he said, "I think the community as a whole looks at it (testing) as a
deterrent, and we'll probably continue to do it."