Los Angeles Times March 29, 1995
Justices Consider School Drug Tests
Education: Case before Supreme Court could clear The drug culture reached the small logging
the way for random urinalyses of pupils. It was town of Vernonia, northwest of Portland, in the late
brought by a student athlete in rural Oregon. 1980’s, school officials said, and the students were in
a “state of rebellion.” However, five years of drug
By David G. Savage (Times staff writer) testing turned up only two or three instances of
students using illegal narcotics, they said. The test
Washington: Could routine drug tests, like metal did not check for alcohol or steroids.
detectors, soon become an accepted part of daily life The case (Vernonia School District vs. Acton,
at many American high schools? 94-590) has been closely watched by educators
That question was before the Supreme Court because it could clear away legal barriers to
Tuesday, and at least several justices indicated that widespread drug testing in public schools and
they saw no constitutional problem with requiring all colleges.
students to undergo regular drug tests, just as they Ten years ago, the high court gave principals
take physical exams now. and teachers the authority to search school lockers
There is a “nationwide drug problem in the and girls’ purses for drugs, but the justices have yet
schools” which is not limited to a few students or to to rule on the drug tests for students.
big cities, said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. “Why Key courts in California split on the issue last
are there not grounds for school-wide testing?” year. Upholding the drug tests for college athletes,
Under the Constitution, adults cannot be the California Supreme Court said that the right to
searched or tested by authorities without some privacy in the California Constitution does not bar
specific evidence that they have violated the law, but regular drug testing of presumably innocent students.
the rule does not apply to minors, another justice However, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck
noted. down the Oregon school district’s policy last year as
“Students are kids. You’re dealing with a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s ban on
children. You’re not dealing with adults,” Justice unreasonable searches and seizures. But the U.S.
Antonin Scalia said, chiding an attorney who Supreme Court agreed to hear the school district’s
disputed the legality of random drug tests in school. appeal.
When the lawyer representing a fifteen-year-old “You don’t need urine testing to punish and
boy from rural Oregon said he opposed urinalysis on deter disorderly behavior in school,” said Thomas
the grounds that it would violate a child’s right to Christ, an attorney for the ACLU Foundation of
privacy, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist scoffed: Oregon. Submitting to a compelled urine test is “an
“How much privacy is there in a boys’ locker room intrusive, degrading experience” for the student, he
with urinals lining the wall?” asserted.
The exchanges took place during a lively Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, a moderate who
argument Tuesday over an Oregon school district’s may be the deciding vote, wondered why the district
policy of requiring its athletes, in seventh grade and had not first tried testing the few students who
above, to submit to urinalysis at the start of the showed signs of drug use.
season and random drug tests thereafter. The justices will meet in private Friday to vote
on the case and are expected to issue a written ruling
by late June.
Topic: Do you support the routine drug testing of all junior high and high school students?
Give reasons.