Pubdate: Fri, 28 Jun 2002
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2002, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Gina Holland, of The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

COURT UPHOLDS EXPANDED DRUG TESTING

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court put public high school students on notice 
Thursday: Drug tests may be required for playing chess or joining the 
cheerleader squad.

Justices ruled 5-4 that schools' interest in ridding their campuses of 
drugs outweighs students' right to privacy, allowing the broadest drug 
testing yet of young people whom authorities have no particular reason to 
suspect of wrongdoing.

The decision gives school leaders a free hand to test students who 
participate in competitive after-school activities or teams - more than 
half the estimated 14 million American high school students.

Drug tests had been allowed previously just for student athletes.

"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 
Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.

The court stopped short of allowing random tests for any student, but 
several justices have indicated they are interested in answering that 
question at some point.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissent, said the "program upheld today 
is not reasonable, it is capricious, even perverse."

The court ruled against a former Oklahoma high school honor student who 
competed on an academic quiz team and sang in the choir. Lindsay Earls, a 
self-described "goody two-shoes," tested negative but sued over what she 
called a humiliating and accusatory policy. She said Thursday was "a sad 
day for students in America."
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