APPEALS COURT TOSSES TULIA DRUG-TESTING LAWSUIT

TULIA - A New Orleans appeals court has tossed out a suit contesting the
constitutionality of the school drug-testing program in Tulia.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down an opinion Thursday that found
moot a lawsuit filed by Hollister Gardner, leading the court to dismiss the
case. The court decided since Gardner has graduated from the Tulia
Independent School District, he has no standing to sue the school, court
records show.

School board members said it's another step toward putting the controversy
to rest.

"It's like anything, you'd like to have closure and just get on with what
you're doing," said school board member Richard Chapman.

The news was not quite so welcome in the Gardner family, which has been
fighting the drug-testing program for more than five years.

"We kind of expected it," said Gary Gardner, Hollister's father. "The thing
that makes me mad is they just said it was moot. They didn't rule on the
legal questions."

The Gardner family filed the suit in 1997, alleging Tulia's drug testing
violated the Gardners' constitutional rights by mandating all students who
participate in extracurricular activities be drug tested.

Amarillo's U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled for Gardner in
December 2000, but the school district appealed. That appeal was made moot
a year ago when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another case that testing
of all extracurricular students was legal.

The 5th Circuit vacated the decision for Gardner based on the High Court's
decision, and the Gardners appealed, an appeal that was rejected this week.

In the decision, the appeals court warned the Gardners for use of
inappropriate language, which peppers their homemade legal briefs. Gary
Gardner laughed off the warning.

"There was some earthy language in there, but we're pretty common people,"
Gardner said. "I read that little thing down at the bottom as just a threat
to keep us from filing something else."

Dan Gardner, whose daughter Molly was a party in the original suit, said
the ruling won't necessarily end the fight.

"You don't stop fighting until you're down for the full count," he said. A
second suit, filed by Alan Bean on behalf of his son, Amos, remains active
in Amarillo's federal court, challenging the drug testing on different grounds.

TISD has reinstituted its policy of randomly testing all students involved
in extracurricular activities, and the most recent decision will not change
the policy, Chapman said.