Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2006
Source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette (TN)
Copyright: 2006 Shelbyville Times-Gazette
Contact:  http://www.t-g.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1996
Author: John I. Carney
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES RANDOM DRUG TESTING POLICY

Bedford County Board of Education passed a random drug testing policy
Thursday night which will cover all students participating in
extracurricular activities -- not just athletics but clubs, band,
cheerleading and the like.

The policy standardizes random drug testing policies system-wide and
expands the program to non-athletic activities.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable
search and seizure, means the school system can't apply random drug
testing to the student body as a whole. But since participation in
extracurricular activities is considered a privilege, not a right, it
is legal to ask students to agree to random drug testing as a
condition of their participation.

The drug testing would be noted in the parental permission form which
must be filled out before a student joins a team or club. Because the
parent would already have agreed to the drug testing at that point, a
separate parental permission would not be required at the time of the
test.

The random tests will be for amphetamines / methamphetamines,
marijuana, cocaine, opiates and -- in a very limited number of cases
- -- performance-enhancing drugs like steroids. The test for
performance-enhancing drugs is much more expensive than other types of
drug testing, and it's considered more cost-effective to look for
visible signs of steroid use instead of randomly testing for it.

Any student, whether they participate in extracurricular activities or
not, could be asked to take a drug test if the school system had
reasonable cause to suspect the student of drug use. That's governed
by existing policies, not by the new random testing policy passed
Thursday night. A student who refused such a test could be subject to
discipline.

Attorney Chuck Cagle, answering a question from a student at Thursday
night's meeting, said reasonable suspicion would require more than
just a teacher's spur-of-the-moment hunch. A more likely example of
reasonable cause would be an extended pattern of aberrant behavior by
a student.

Several students were in attendance Thursday night to report on their
participation in the Student Congress on Policies and Education, a
mock school board exercise sponsored by the Tennessee School Boards
Association. Since drug testing policies had been one of the issues
discussed by SCOPE participants, board members invited them to share
their thoughts and questions. The students in attendance Thursday
night were generally favorable to the idea of random drug testing.

The school board passed the new policy by voice vote.

The board also approved Thursday night a student wellness policy,
including items such as student nutrition, physical activity and
monitoring of overall student health.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin