Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Statesman Journal (OR)
Copyright: 2002 Statesman Journal
Contact:  http://www.http://www.statesmanjournal.com//
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427
Author: Jody Lawrence-Turner

FORMER DALLAS STUDENTS CHALLENGE DRUG TESTING

Recent High School Graduates Beth Wade And Amy Cordy Say A Federally
Funded OHSU Study Violated Privacy.

Two recent graduates of Dallas High School have filed a lawsuit against 14 
Oregon school districts and Oregon Health & Science University.

Beth Wade and Amy Cordy said they felt violated for having to take drug 
tests as part of a federally funded OHSU study.

They are seeking $9 million in the class action suit that was filed June 28 
in U.S. District Court in Portland.

In addition to being named as a defendant in the suit, OHSU is under a 
federal investigation into its drug study procedures.

In the lawsuit, Wade told lawyers she was forced to participate in the 
federally funded program as a condition of playing soccer.

She declined to comment Wednesday but told the Polk County 
Itemizer-Observer in an interview that she opposed the drug testing program.

"It violates my rights as a student athlete," she said.

Attorney Alan Milstein, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, 
said the lawsuit does not negate the June 27 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that 
mandatory drug testing in schools is OK if a policy is in place.

"This case involves whether or not you can compel a student to take part in 
a human experiment," Milstein said Wednesday from his Pennsauken, N.J., office.

"The students were compelled to be human guinea pigs without their 
voluntary consent."

Martin Munguia, an OHSU spokesman, said the districts chosen for the drug 
testing portion of its study were schools that already had drug-testing 
policies in place.

He said the study was to determine whether students in athletics would be 
less likely to use drugs if they knew there was a possibility of being tested.

Two of the districts cited in the lawsuit, Silver Falls and Dallas, play 
different roles in the study.

Silver Falls Superintendent Craig Roessler said Silverton High School is 
part of the control group.

Control group members were not asked to take drug tests. Instead, they 
filled out anonymous questionnaires about drug testing, Munguia said.

Roessler said Silverton High School does not have a drug-testing policy.

"I would suspect eventually we will be dropped from the lawsuit because our 
students weren't drug tested," he said.

Dallas Superintendent Dave Novotney was not available for comment 
Wednesday, but a copy of the school's drug testing policy indicated it was 
adopted Sept. 16, 2000.

OHSU's research project, Student Athletic Testing Using Random 
Notification, started that year. The project is under federal investigation.

The Office for Human Research Protections, a federal agency under the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services, is investigating the drug-testing 
study. Spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy declined to say when the investigation 
began and did not know when it would be concluded.

Although she could not say specifically why OHSU's study was being 
investigated, she commented on its general procedure.

"In general, it's usually when there is someone who brings it to the 
attention of our office that there might be issues of irregularity," 
El-Hinnawy said.

If wrongdoing is found, El-Hinnawy said, there is a range of actions that 
can be taken.

In most cases, the institution conducting the study accepts the findings 
and works to correct the problems. In the most extreme cases, when an 
institution declines to accept the findings and correct the problems, all 
federally funded research projects at the institution are stopped until the 
problems are corrected.
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