HIGH COURT TO MULL DRUG TESTS

Case Pits Safety Issue Vs. Students' Rights

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.

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 Thursday for review by the Supreme Court, 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.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the district had no
justification for drug testing because the district had few problems.

Among the more serious incidents was a choir member caught with alcohol in a
cough syrup bottle during 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 Tecumseh school district told the court in urging it to accept
the appeal.

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

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

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.

In the case, the appeals court said there was no evidence of drug use among
the Oklahoma students who were required to take tests.