Supreme Court Allows Expansion Of Schools' Drug-Testing Policies
Education officials say they don't see most school districts suddenly crafting new drug-testing policies just because the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld such testing of students in a wide range of extracurricular activities.
Still, many school leaders are glad they now have the option. And some say the decision gives them the green light they've been waiting for to start their own drug-testing programs.
Ruling 5-4 on June 27 in a case from Tecumseh, Okla., the court held that testing students in such activities as choir and Future Farmers of America is not an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. That ruling— Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 v. Earls (Case No. 01-332)—greatly expands the scope of allowable student drug testing beyond a 1995 decision, Vernonia School District v. Acton , in which the court upheld the testing of students...
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