Pubdate: Mon, 01 Aug 2005
Source: Athens News, The (OH)
Copyright: 2005, Athens News
Contact:  http://www.athensnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1603
Author: Jon Peters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

The Other Side Of The Desk

ISSUE OF SCHOOL DRUG TESTING MORE COMPLEX THAN IT MAY SEEM

In recent weeks, the generally peaceful countryside of Athens County has 
endured galvanizing debates addressing the legitimacy and necessity of drug 
testing within Alexander Local School District. In fact, not since the 
opening of Petland have I seen so many people so upset about a single issue.

The Alexander Local School Board, possibly sealing its collective fate in 
the next election cycle, adopted a policy that requires students who engage 
in athletics or cheerleading, or who drive to school, to undergo urine 
testing for recreational drug use - i.e. marijuana and alcohol.

The ensuing controversy grew volatile as both sides delivered self-serving 
proclamations like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support instead of 
illumination. Most commonly, I've heard opponents describe drug testing as 
an egregious violation of students' right to privacy.

As a matter of law - notwithstanding any discussion of the law's spirit - 
public-school drug testing is NOT an infringement of civil liberties. In 
Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995), the Supreme Court of the United 
States upheld the constitutionality of random drug testing for students who 
participate in sanctioned athletics.

In Board of Education v. Earls (2002), the Court expanded Vernonia to 
include students who participate in any type of competitive extracurricular 
activity.

The reasonableness of a drug test conducted in a public-school setting is 
judged by "balancing the intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment 
interests against the promotion of legitimate governmental interests" 
(Vernonia). Accordingly, in both Vernonia and Earls, the Court balanced the 
students' privacy interest against the school's responsibility to maintain 
"discipline, health, and safety." In this regard, it's important to 
understand that dating back to New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), a landmark case 
concerning students' Fourth Amendment rights, the Court has recognized that 
a student relinquishes certain privacy rights when he/she is entrusted to a 
school for supervision.

Applying analogous logic to drug testing, the Court reasoned that a Board 
of Education's general regulation of extracurricular activities - 
regulation that is established to maintain "discipline, health, and safety" 
- - diminishes the expectation of privacy among those students. Furthermore, 
the "degree of intrusion" caused by the collection of a urine specimen 
"depends upon the manner in which production of the urine sample is 
monitored" (Vernonia). Although we have yet to hear specifics about 
Alexander Local School District's methodology for collecting specimens, the 
Court determined in both Vernonia and Earls that their means of obtaining 
urine samples was minimally intrusive on the students' limited privacy 
interest.

Now we've established the legal basis for drug testing.

Pragmatism, however, demands a higher standard than legality.

Most research shows that students who abuse recreational drugs are more 
likely to drop out of school than drug-free students, inherently lowering 
the druggie's earning power relative to his/her lifetime.

Most research also shows that drug testing can be an effective deterrent to 
drug use. If logic prevails, drug testing should increase economic 
wellbeing while decreasing dropout rates.

Furthermore, as Athens County Common Pleas Court employee Vicki Rhodes 
said, "In the long run, (drug use) is costing the county money because 
we're having to defend these kids, we're having to defend them as adults." 
Recreational drugs are inextricably linked to delinquency and criminal 
recidivism. For instance, drug use during early adolescence has an impact 
on delinquency not only in early adolescence, but also in late adolescence 
and young adulthood, according to the Journal of the American Academy of 
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Still, despite these general truths, individual school boards must assess 
the desirability of drug testing their schoolchildren. By seeking some 
degree of community consensus, a school can greatly increase its chances of 
adopting a successful testing program.

And without sounding too presumptuous, I'll offer this comment: While the 
Alexander Local School Board seems to have traveled all avenues necessary 
for implementing policy, the alarming reaction to the program connotes 
little community input.

Rather, we're left to believe there exists, in the words of Nixon, a 
formidable "silent majority" that supports the policy.

Editor's note: Jon Peters is a junior in the E.W. Scripps School of 
Journalism at Ohio University. He writes a bi-weekly column for The Athens NEWS.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth