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." - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel