Pubdate: Wed, 20 Mar 2002
Source: Connecticut Post (CT)
Copyright: 2002sMediaNews Group, Inc
Contact:  http://www.connpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/574
Author: Peter Urban
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

HIGH COURT TO RULE ON EXPANSION OF PUPIL DRUG TESTING

Drug Tests In Schools Under Siege

WASHINGTON -- Choked with emotion, Norwalk, Conn., resident Virginia Katz 
pushed her way through a throng of reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court 
and held up a photograph of her son, Ian, who died of a heroin overdose.

"Ian, he was your age. You would have liked him," Katz told Lindsey Earls, 
a 19-year-old Dartmouth College student from Tecumseh, Okla., whose legal 
challenge to high school drug testing was argued before the court Tuesday 
morning.

Katz was named the Connecticut Post's 2000 Woman of the Year, largely for 
her efforts to combat drug and alcohol abuse among teens.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Earls, claims 
that a Tecumseh school board policy to subject students participating in 
extracurricular activities to random drug tests violates the Fourth 
Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

"Couldn't you give up a little bit of your privacy so this will not happen 
to other parents?" Katz asked Earls.

Earls, who appeared startled by the confrontation, did not reply, but moved 
around Katz toward a stand of microphones to respond to questions from 
reporters. Although she sympathized with Katz's loss, Earls said later she 
did not view her school's drug testing policy as the answer to teen-age 
drug abuse.

"I don't feel that the drug testing policy was a life-or-death issue. The 
kids in choir and on the academic team weren't using drugs," Earls said. 
"Maybe if he [Ian] had been in choir it might have helped him."

Earls was a member of Tecumseh's show choir, marching band and academic 
team. She was subjected to a urinalysis test but was found drug free.

"It was an invasion of my privacy," Earls said.

In taking up Earls' case, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue an 
opinion this summer that could broaden a landmark 1995 ruling in favor of 
drug screening for high school athletes to include any student.

Connecticut school boards do not appear to have embraced drug testing for 
athletes or other students, but that could change if perceived 
constitutional barriers are lifted. Katz said she hopes to rally support 
for such a program in the future.

Katz established the non-profit Courage to Speak Foundation in 1997 and has 
since delivered drug-prevention presentations to more than 160 groups in 
Connecticut. Her son, Ian, died of a heroin overdose on Sept. 10, 1996, at 
age 20.

"I truly believe this [school drug testing] will help parents," Katz said. 
"Parents do not believe their children are using drugs. They are very nave 
and many times believe what their children say. But a child using drugs 
will not be truthful. This is the reality of it."

Katz believes that her son would have steered clear of drugs if there had 
been drug testing in his school because he would have wanted to remain on 
the lacrosse team. Moreover, she said, it would provide a ready answer to 
students facing peer pressure to experiment with drugs.

Katz said she felt compelled to confront Earls to let her know that she 
would have welcomed learning that her son was using drugs while in high school.

"I just wanted to ask her if she couldn't give up her ACLU stand -- give up 
a little bit of her privacy -- so that this wouldn't happen to other 
parents," Katz said.

David and Lori Earls, Lindsey's parents, said they were offended by the 
school policy for two reasons. They felt seeing to their child's well-being 
is their job and that the policy focused on students least likely to be 
abusing drugs.

"I was very offended that this group, the choir, would be chosen. They were 
picking on the wrong kids," Lori Earls said.

Graham Boyd, director of ACLU's National Drug Policy Litigation Project in 
New Haven, Conn., who represented Earls, told the high court there was no 
compelling evidence of a drug problem in the high school. He also argued 
that, unlike athletes, students in choir or academic clubs do not face a 
serious risk of injury from mixing drugs with those activities.

Linda Meoli, a lawyer for the school district, argued that the drug tests 
were a deterrent and that any student who strongly objected to the 
urinalysis could simply choose not to participate in an extracurricular 
activity.

In 1995, the Supreme Court split 6 to 3 in favor of aIlowing drug testing 
of school athletes. Not all of the justices who voted in favor are likely 
to vote to broaden the policy to include students participating in other 
extracurricular activities.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who voted with the majority in 1995, said 
Tuesday that in Tecumseh High School there did not appear to be much 
evidence of a drug problem and even less among those students participating 
in extracurricular activities.

But Justice Antonin Scalia questioned why he should not trust the local 
school board to decide when they believe a drug problem rises to the point 
where they vote to "use this Draconian measure."
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