Pubdate: Fri, 28 Jun 2002
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2002 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ardemgaz.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Author: Chris Branam - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Note: Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Deere and 
Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff.

SCHOOLS DON'T PLAN ADDED DRUG TESTING

SPRINGDALE -- A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday approving random drug 
testing for many public high school students won't immediately affect those 
in Northwest Arkansas, officials said.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in allowing an Oklahoma school district to 
continue its policy of randomly testing students who participate in 
extracurricular activities like choir, band and Future Farmers of America.

The move reaffirms some Arkansas school districts' current drug-testing 
policies and allows other schools to adopt similar methods aimed at making 
their students drug free.

The decision broadened the court's 1995 ruling -- Veronia School District 
vs. Acton -- that allowed public schools to randomly test athletes. But 
justices stopped short Thursday of saying it was constitutional to test all 
students for drug use.

"We find that testing students who participate in extracurricular 
activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the school 
district's legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and detecting drug 
use," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for himself, Chief Justice William H. 
Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

The justices argued that schools' interest in ridding their campuses of 
drug use outweighs an individual's right to privacy.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the dissenters, which included 
herself and justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and John Paul Stephens.

"The particular testing program upheld [Thursday] is not reasonable, it is 
capricious, even perverse," Ginsburg wrote.

Added Guidance

"We're happy to have the guidance," said Kristen Gould, staff attorney for 
the Arkansas School Boards Association.

The association doesn't collect the statistics, but Gould estimated that at 
least a third of the state's 310 public school districts now have policies 
requiring some drug testing of student athletes and even other students.

Gov. Mike Huckabee said in a statement Thursday that he supported the policy.

"Participation in activities is a privilege and not a right," Huckabee 
said. "So long as the testing does not discriminate on the basis of race, 
color or other factors, students need not be reluctant considering the need 
to insure a decrease in drug use among youth."

The decision changes little for the Arkansas Department of Education, said 
Scott Smith, a department attorney.

"This is pretty much a local issue for the districts," he said.

The Arkansas Activities Association, the governing body for all school 
extracurricular activities, doesn't have a policy on random drug testing, 
executive director Jimmy Coats has said.

Drug-testing policies are left to school districts, he said.

The activities association proposed a plan a few years ago for random drug 
and alcohol testing for students, but schools rejected the proposal, Coats 
said.

Little Change Locally

The Springdale School District has been testing students since 1996 who 
compete in sports, cheerleading or any activity in which they must take a 
physical examination, said Hartzell Jones, deputy superintendent for personnel.

The Fayetteville School District has had a similar policy since 1998.

The Springdale district's policy probably won't change because of the 
Supreme Court decision, Jones said.

"I would hope that it would be a decision based upon absolute need to do 
so," Jones said. "If a district is having rampant drug problems, then yes, 
they should [test]. But we're not at that point. I hope we don't get to 
that point."

The Path Of Litigation

Arguments in the Oklahoma case were heard by the high court in March.

The Supreme Court ruled against Lindsay Earls, a former Oklahoma honor 
student at Tecumseh High School, who sued the Board of Education of 
Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County for making her 
submit to a drug test.

The Tecumseh School District testing policy covered a range of voluntary 
clubs and sports, including the Future Farmers of America, cheerleading and 
football.

Earls is now a student at Dartmouth College.

In 1998, a similar suit occurred in Arkansas. Pathe Miller, a student at 
Cave City High School, sued the Cave City School District for its drug 
testing policy, which required drug testing for students to participate in 
extracurricular activities.

But U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright rejected Miller's argument that 
the policy was unconstitutional because it violated an individual's right 
to privacy.

The Rogers district considered a similar policy in 1996 but didn't go as 
far, said Charles Russell, an assistant superintendent who supervises 
secondary education.

The only Rogers High students randomly tested for drugs are athletes, 
cheerleaders and members of the drill team, Russell said.

The Rogers School Board never considered subjecting all extracurricular 
activities to random testing, he said.

"I don't think we considered that to be an issue that we needed to work 
around," he said. "The courts have always been hands off on extracurricular 
activities. [Courts] pretty much have said that nobody is entitled to 
participate in those programs."

Nobody in the district is pressuring Rogers to add more activities to 
conduct random drug tests, he said.

Bentonville also tests its athletes, but Superintendent Gary Compton has 
said he doesn't want to start subjecting students in all activities to drug 
tests.

National statistics show illicit drug use among teen-agers has remained 
stable the past five years. But the Bush administration backed the Tecumseh 
district, as did a long list of organizations, including the Drug-Free 
Schools Coalition and the National School Boards Association.
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