Pubdate: Wed, 01 Nov 2000
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard
Contact:  PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Author: Randi Bjornstad, The Register-Guard

SUIT CHALLENGES STUDENT ATHLETE DRUG TESTING

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Lane County Circuit
Court on Tuesday, seeking to prevent the Oakridge School District from
requiring student athletes to submit to mandatory drug testing in order to
participate in school sports.

The suit, filed on behalf of 15-year-old Ginelle Weber, a sophomore at
Oakridge High School, claims the district's drug-testing procedures "violate
Ginelle's right to be free from unreasonable government searches" guaranteed
by the Oregon Constitution.

Weber began playing on her school's volleyball team this fall but said
school officials dismissed her from the team two weeks ago after she and her
parents, Shannon and John Weber, refused to sign consent forms for her to
participate in the drug-testing program.

The Oakridge district signed up earlier this year to participate in a
three-year, $3.6 million study called SATURN - Student-Athlete Testing Using
Random Notification - in which researchers at the Oregon Health Sciences
University in Portland select student athletes at random and without notice
and require them to provide urine samples to check for illegal drug or
alcohol use.

Curtis Dornath, chairman of the Oakridge School Board, said he knows of no
students other than Weber who have refused to sign the consent forms. "From
everything I've heard, 79 of 80 athletes at our school are participating,"
Dornath said. "We have no intention of discontinuing the program because of
this lawsuit - the board is unanimous, behind this 100 percent."

The SATURN project, which began this fall in about a dozen Oregon school
districts, will try to determine scientifically whether random drug testing
acts as a deterrent to the use of illegal drugs.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit earlier against the Lincoln County School District,
which also joined the program, but that action became moot after OHSU
dropped the district from the program, citing as reasons inadequate and
inaccurate student response to the initial questionnaire. Since then, at
least one other district has asked to take Lincoln County's place in the
program.

Dr. Linn Goldberg, lead researcher on the project, couldn't be reached for
comment Tuesday but has said previously that he and his colleagues "are not
drug-testing advocates" but simply want to find out whether the "billions of
dollars (that) have been spent on mandatory drug testing in government,
business, sports and education ... really result in decreased drug use."

The ACLU believes that the Oregon Constitution protects citizens of the
state from "unwarranted search and seizure" of the type represented by
mandatory testing of student athletes, said David Fidanque, the
organization's state executive director.

"The Constitution says the government can't search citizens without probable
cause," Fidanque said at a news conference. "But this drug-testing program
treats everyone as guilty. This search is very intrusive and very demanding
to undergo - it's government requiring an invasive search of young students
who haven't done anything wrong."

The ACLU suit isn't the first time the courts have been asked to determine
the constitutionality of mandatory drug testing of student athletes. A
student in the Vernonia School District northwest of Portland sued on
similar grounds after that district began random testing of its athletes in
1989. The case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in
1995 that "deterring drug use by our nation's schoolchildren" justified the
drug-testing program.

Testing student athletes for drug use did not violate the Fourth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution because "school athletes have a reduced expectation
of privacy" simply because they choose "to go out for the team," the high
court said. "They voluntarily subject themselves to a degree of regulation
even higher than that imposed on students generally."

Fidanque said his lawsuit differs from the Vernonia case because it will be
brought in state court and will test the strength of Oregon - not federal -
constitutional protections.

"We think the law in Oregon is very clear: Government can't do random
searches on the basis that everyone is guilty," he said. "The specific
wording (in the Oregon Constitution) is very similar to the federal
Constitution, but it has been interpreted by Oregon courts to allow greater
protection of citizens."

Becoming the focal point of such a lawsuit doesn't come without its price, a
nearly tearful Ginelle Weber acknowledged Tuesday.

"I've been affected quite a bit already," she said. "I've played (sports) at
school for years, and I feel that I could be an asset to my team. Now, I
don't know what to do with myself anymore. I go home and do my homework
while all my friends are playing sports."

Nonetheless, she would make the same decision again, Weber said.

"Sports are a big part of my life, but they're only sports," she said. "I
feel it's important to stand up for what you think is right."
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