FEW OPPOSE JEFFERSON DRUG TESTS

School Program To Start Next Year Foes Of Drug Tests Focus On
Constitutional Rights

During a recent lunch break discussion, most of the teenagers gathered in
the courtyard gazebo at L.W. Higgins High School in Marrero said they
favored some form of drug testing for students.

Senior Joseph Stevens, who used to wrestle, said athletes should be tested
because they're prone to injury if they use drugs. Sophomore Brian Richard
said students should be tested if they behave suspiciously. Junior Anthony
Guidroz said drug testing is common in the workplace, so students might as
well get used to it.

A few dissenters spoke up. "What people do outside of school is their
business," argued senior Rebecca Broussard.

The conversation at Higgins echoed the mood throughout Jefferson Parish:
Little opposition has surfaced against the drug-testing program that all
public high schools in the parish will start next school year.

Drug testing is spreading nationwide, school law experts say, and it's not
just because a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court opinion cleared the way for testing
student athletes.

Being safe and secure

Like in the Higgins gazebo, sentiments across the country seem heavily
tilted in favor of safety and security in schools above all else.

"What people are looking for are some assurances, as much as can be, that
campuses are going to be safe when they send their children to school in
the morning," said Edwin Darden, senior staff attorney for the National
School Boards Association.

Darden said school violence cases in the late 1990s helped fuel the
drug-testing movement. It has taken hold locally, a fact made clear in 2000
when a survey conducted for Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon found 82
percent of respondents favored drug tests for high school students.

In the New Orleans area, testing began in private schools, which face fewer
legal obstacles than public institutions. In 1999, the Louisiana High
School Athletic Association called for testing of students in sports,
although systems varied in their enforcement.

Jefferson's testing policy was approved by the School Board in March and
will be mandatory for athletes and students in other physically demanding
extracurricular activities.

Heading off problems

Beyond increasing school safety, testing advocates argue the tactic saves
children from developing more serious problems and eventually landing in
the criminal justice system.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, a longtime advocate of drug
testing who has helped introduce it to 21 public and private schools,
claims Jefferson's policy is the first in the United States with its
particular guidelines.

Under the system, high school students will be barred from extra activities
if they refuse to have tufts of their hair clipped and analyzed.

If they agree to participate and test positive for drugs, they will be held
out of the activities for 90 days, referred to counseling and tested again
to determine whether they can return.

At two schools, East Jefferson High in Metairie and John Ehret High in
Marrero, students not in physically challenging endeavors can volunteer to
be tested with their parents' consent. The tests will look for marijuana,
cocaine, opiates, PCP and amphetamines, including ecstasy.

The money for testing, about $500,000, comes from the federal government
and nonprofit organizations.

Debate continues

While the School Board heard no complaints when it voted on testing, a
debate rumbles on.

School officials argue the policy protects children's privacy because it
shields results from everyone except students, their parents, their
principal and a school system anti-drug case worker. Children found to be
on drugs will not be turned in to police.

But Joe Cook, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in
New Orleans, argued the privacy safeguards are flimsy.

"If somebody's forced out of band or cheerleading squad, don't you think
people are going to say, 'Well, he's a druggie?' " Cook asked. He argued
that testing breaks down the "bond of trust" between children and adults
with authority.

Jamin Raskin, a school law professor at American University in Washington,
D.C., said drug testing in schools threatens basic ideals of freedom.

"I think the pendulum has swung way too far toward the schools' authority
to search everybody for whatever reason," Raskin said. "We should be
teaching students to understand their constitutional rights, not to
surrender them."

The constitutional issue centers on whether drug testing violates the
Fourth Amendment's prohibition of "unreasonable searches."

In a 1995 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that testing school athletes is
reasonable because drugs can harm children. And the court said schools,
acting in a quasi-parental role, have authority to protect their charges
from that danger.

Dissenters on the court argued that it is unreasonable to test students
without any reason to suspect they are using drugs. But the majority
opinion held that athletes relinquish some their privacy when they choose
to join extra school activities.

Since the decision, school systems across the country have turned to drug
testing, say school law experts and drug testing industry representatives.

New twist

The high court is now considering a case on testing students in nonathletic
extracurricular activities. Legal experts say the court has yet to take up
the question of testing students with discipline problems, which is
something Jefferson Parish School Board member Barry Bordelon has proposed.

But the students most likely to be upset about drug testing, said East
Jefferson junior and track athlete Giselle Hellemn, are the ones doing
illegal drugs anyway. Drugs are a problem among teen-agers, she said. She
praised testing as a way to stop children before they develop dangerous habits.

"I think it'll cut down on a lot of experimentation, like a casual user,"
Hellemn said.

East Jefferson junior Natalie Scheppengrell said schools need ways to push
children away from drugs because parents often don't do the job.

Adam Hyla, a junior in football and track at East Jefferson, said drug
testing could increase pressure on athletes, whom adults already view as
role models for other students. But, he said, it could also do some good.

"Maybe getting kicked off the team for that would help you get your head
right," Hyla said. "It could give people a second chance."