Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 Source: News Observer, The (GA) Copyright: 2009 Community Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.thenewsobserver.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5065 Author: Brian K. Finnicum Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) KIKER SUES TO STOP TESTS Blue Ridge attorney Scott Kiker filed a motion in Fannin County Superior Court this week seeking an emergency injunction to halt the Fannin County Board of Education from implementing its mandatory drug testing program at Fannin County High School. The motion was filed with the Clerk of Superior Court Monday, July 13, on behalf of petitioner Marion M. Kiker as natural guardian of two minor children who are students at the school. It lists the Fannin County Board of Education, board Chairman Terry Bramlett and high school Principal Erik Cioffi as respondents. The petition alleges that the newly enacted mandatory drug testing program is unconstitutional in its nature and application, in that it violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against warrantless searches and seizures; federal and state constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, rights not to incriminate oneself; and the right to confidentiality of medical and psychological records. In addition, the petition alleges that the mandatory testing program violates the Constitution's equal protection clause in that it applies only to high school students and not to other students who participate in the same activities, and that it makes no provision for confidentiality of test results in violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Kiker said Tuesday that he filed the motion in hopes that it would be heard in court this week, but said that was not likely because no judge was available to hear it. He said that unlike drug testing policies adopted by other school districts, the Fannin County policy does not limit testing to urine samples only. Kiker said no court has ever approved any testing other than urinalysis for school students. Kiker said the school board may be correct in attempting to apply the testing procedure only to students who participate in extracurricular activities because those activities are considered privileges, but he does not believe that the board has established a rational relationship between extracurricular activity participants and drug use. "They're using the extracurricular activities to capture as many students in this program as they possibly can," Kiker said of the school board. But, he said, they have not demonstrated that drug use in those students is a problem. Another problem with the board's new policy, he said is that it does not outline who keeps the collected information like test results, and how confidential that information will remain. "I don't know the reliability of how confidential that information will be," Kiker said. "I think this thing is really overbroad and ambiguous." When asked why he had not registered a protest with the board while the policy was being considered, Kiker said he had not known about the policy before reading about it in the newspaper last week. "I read it in the paper and I scrambled," Kiker said. "I wish I would have brought this earlier." Kiker said he did not know when the motion would be heard in court. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake