Source:   Arizona Daily Star
Pubdate:  September 25, 1997
Contact: http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0805820.html

               Thursday, 25 September 1997

 Fla. school district OKs high school drug tests with parents' approval

 MIAMI (AP)  Dade County yesterday became the nation's largest school
 district to approve random drug testing of all high school students
 whose parents give their approval.

 Parents will be offered consent forms allowing a private testing agency
 to pull students out of classes at random and test them for five drugs:
 marijuana, cocaine, opiates, barbiturates and amphetamines.

 Students whose parents don't sign the forms won't be tested.

 School board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla, who proposed the
 program, said it was intended to help parents without stepping on
 anyone's constitutional rights.

 ``It's total parental empowerment,'' he said following the 63 vote.
 ``Not all parents have the time to make sure their kids aren't doing
 drugs. We're doing this as a service but it's still the parents'
 initiative  they still have the responsibility.''

 August Steinhilber, general counsel for the National School Boards
 Association in Washington, said he did not know of any other district
 in the country with random drug testing of the general student
 population.

 Dade, with 345,000 students, is the nation's fourthlargest district,
 behind New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.

 Steinhilber said Dade went too far, that he usually advises districts
 against such wide drugtesting policies because of concerns over the
 invasion of students' privacy.

 ``Normally random tests are unreasonable,'' he said. ``You would have
 to have reasonable suspicion, or an immediate safety problem.''

 Dade plans to spend up to $200,000 to start the program, with the first
 tests expected in January.

 The testing agency will tell parents when their kids test positive and
 will recommend treatment and counseling programs. Schools won't know
 who tests positive.

 Michael Krop, one of the board members who voted against the measure,
 said he thought it may have been worth a try but not on the general
 student population. If he were a parent faced with the consent forms,
 he would not sign.

 ``It's certainly not my parenting style,'' he said.

 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that public school athletes can be
 tested even if they are not individually suspected of using drugs. The
 court did not say whether a drugtesting requirement can be extended to
 other students.

 As a result, a few schools around the country require drug testing for
 those participating in sports and other extracurricular activities. And
 a few are trying out more modest versions of the plan Dade school
 officials approved yesterday.

 Still, schools across the country are tiptoeing close to the
 constitutional line.

 For example, school officials in Tupelo, Miss., decided to require
 testing only if students are believed to be under the influence of
 drugs or alcohol on school grounds.