Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jul 2008
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2008 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Kaitlin Manry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

LAKE STEVENS HIGH SCHOOL'S DRUG TESTS RAN AFOUL OF THE LAW

Lake Stevens High School stops random drug tests for  athletics and
other activities.

The era of random drug testing at Lake Stevens High School is
over.

The school board voted unanimously to end the controversial program
this week. The school was one of  just a few in the state to randomly
test students who  participated in sports and other extracurricular 
activities.

The school suspended drug testing in March when the Washington
Supreme Court ruled that testing student  athletes for drugs is
unconstitutional.

Lake Stevens High School plans to continue offering drug testing to
students who volunteer to be tested and  whose parents agree, district
spokeswoman Arlene Hulten  said.

"We didn't have any options," school board member Janice Thompson
said. "Because of the ruling that came  down from the courts, we could
not keep our policy the  way it was."

Many school administrators and board members believed that random
drug testing motivated students to stay  away from drugs.

Since drug testing was instituted at the school in October 2006, 10
of the 500 students to submit urine  samples tested positive for
drugs. Students who tested  positive continued to attend classes, but
faced a  23-day suspension from their extracurricular activity.  They
were required to seek assessment of their drug use  and to enroll in a
treatment program if that was  recommended.

The day after the Washington Supreme Court ruled against drug testing
in schools, some Lake Stevens  students celebrated with a party that
involved underage  drinking, said Thompson, who has two children at
Lake  Stevens High School.

"I do believe it gives them the opportunity to say,  'No, I'm not
willing to risk either being taken out of  a sports program or a music
program,'" she said.

Around 4,100 schools across the country use random drug tests, said
Stephen Shatz, spokesman for the White  House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. The  office is studying drug tests' effectiveness at 
preventing teen drug use.

"If schools and communities feel this is a need and  their schools and
communities want to pursue local drug  testing, they should," he said.

In some schools with voluntary drug testing programs, 90 percent of
the students agree to be tested, Shatz  said. Some schools use a
random system, but students  can opt not to be tested if their names
are selected.  He hadn't heard of members of entire school teams 
volunteering together for testing.

It's unclear how the Lake Stevens program will work.

Incoming freshman Karlee Wilcox can't imagine many students
volunteering for drug tests.

She was glad the school board decided to stop random drug testing at
the high school. Wilcox, who wants to  participate in dance or
cheerleading, doesn't believe  drug tests would keep most students
from doing drugs.

"I'm for 'Don't do drugs,' but I just don't think  people I know would
really care" about testing, she  said.

Senior Jessica Danielson has mixed feelings about the  board's
decision. Without a movie theater or an arcade  in town, many Lake
Stevens students turn to drugs out  of boredom, she said.

"For students who are participating in school sports,  it would be a
wise idea to continue drug testing if the  parents agree to it because
you don't want to be  competing against someone who's on drugs or
steroids  when you're not," said Danielson, who hasn't been  tested.
"But totally random testing is, in my opinion,  stupid."

The Washington lawsuit was filed by parents of three  Wahkiakum High
School athletes in southwest Washington.  Their students were randomly
selected for drug tests in  school. The American Civil Liberties Union
of  Washington provided lawyers for the parents.

The court unanimously ruled that warrantless, random  and
suspicionless drug testing of student athletes  violates the
Washington State Constitution.

ACLU spokesman Doug Honig was glad to hear that Lake  Stevens has
abandoned random testing.

"It's a sensible decision and it's what we would have  expected
because the State Supreme Court's ruling was  very clear that testing
students in a public school  without suspicion violates their rights,"
he said.

The Lake Stevens district plans to continue testing  students at its
alternative Prove High School for drug  use as a condition of
enrollment. Because testing is  not random at Prove, it isn't affected
by the court  decision, Hulten said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin