Earlier today, the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA) attended Oral Arguments in the case of Board of Educ. of Independent School Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, ET AL. As earlier reported, this case is important because it will decide how much of a drug problem a school has to have in order to drug test students. The school in this case had minimal drug use and so the lower court did not allow testing, however, this is not the situation with many schools in the US. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken the position that a school has to be "out of control" with drugs before testing can take place. The ACLU position accepts the status quo of substantial drug use in most schools and asserts that the school must be in a state of rebellion before testing can take place. The stance of the school board is that the purpose of drug testing, and other drug-free school programs, is to stop substance abuse.

During the Oral Arguments, the Supreme Court Justices focused many of their questions on the perceived drug problem of the school. Linda Meoli, counsel for the school board, indicated that while alcohol was more of a problem, drugs were a problem in the school district. Even though there were a limited number of positive drug tests during the short time the program was in effect, there was a decrease in the numbers over that time. When questioned about the use of drugs by students, students surveyed indicated that there was a large amount of drug use going on.

Graham Boyd, counsel for the ACLU, stated that the school suffered from drug abuse by only 5% of their students according to their records, which did not show that the problem “was out of control.” He further indicated that the majority of the students using drugs did not participate in athletics or extra-curricular activities. In addition, there was not a large discipline problem within the school. Therefore, there exists no “special need” to random drug test the students as upheld in Vernonia (Vernonia School District v. Acton, 515 US 646, 115 S. Ct. 2386, 132 L. Ed. 2d 564).

Questions arose from the Justices such as “Must the students using drugs be disruptive for the problem to be great enough to warrant drug testing?”, and “If a school has a low occurrence of drug use, doesn’t it have a right to keep it that way or must the school wait until the problem is out of control?” Multiple Justices, including Justice Renquist and Justice Scalia, argued facts from Skinner (Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 489, US 602, 109 S., Ct. 1402, 103 L. Ed. 2d 685), which stated the special need for random drug testing of railway employees existed because the industry showed a special need rather than just one railroad. The same could be applied here. Over 50% of students try drugs during high school; therefore, there is a special need to reduce drug use amongst the youth of America.

The Justices further questioned that since there is an epidemic of drug use amongst the youth of America, and those affected are not as likely to participate in athletics or extracurricular activities, then wouldn’t that make the case to random drug test all students? This brought up many more questions such as how to handle situations where a student tests positive, but does not participate in activities that are considered privileges for students.

Additional arguments made by Justices included the fact that students must now pass through metal detectors at some schools even though there is no individual suspicion, and that schools have the right to discipline children in various means for violating school rules including after-school detention.

While there were questions from Justices that leaned towards favoring the ACLU stance, DATIA is optimistic that the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to hear this case, which is very closely related to Vernonia, to clear up and reemphasize their earlier opinion in Vernonia. The opinion is anticipated to be announced in May or June, however, DATIA will continue to work on the school drug testing issue in the meantime.

On March 17th and 18th, DATIA participated in meetings with other groups in support of student drug testing initiatives. Attendees included representatives from groups such as the Drug Free Schools Coalition, Drug Free America Foundation, National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy, Drug Free Kids: America’s Challenge, Arizona HIDTA, StartSmart, Sport Safe, and Pinnacle. Together, these groups implemented a strategy and created committees with the single goal of implementing school drug testing into law. Both state and federal legislation has been drafted, and group members will work to make these draft legislations a reality. DATIA is proud to be serving on the group's Congressional Support Team, responsible for Congressional outreach and education. DATIA will also be serving on the School Boards Team responsible for working with school boards to educate them on the benefits of school drug testing, as well as the federal funds available for school drug testing through the President’s Education Bill (HR 1) singed into law earlier this year.

Finally, DATIA is establishing its own School Drug Testing Advisory Committee consisting of DATIA members with experience in administering student drug testing programs. Members of this committee will be able to provide DATIA and the other groups working with us on the issue with key insights into how student drug testing programs work best. Members of this committee will be instrumental on this issue.

Again, we are optimistic on the outcome of today’s Oral Arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, however, we will continue to remain aggressive on this issue until the voices of our members are heard by key legislators and student drug testing is a reality! If you would like more information on the Oral Arguments, please feel free to call Laura Shelton at 1-800-355-1257.