Douglas school drug test policy blasted by ACLU

RENO " The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has criticized a school board's decision to implement a full calendar-year random drug testing program rather than a seasonal one for high school students who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Lee Rowland, northern coordinator for the group, said she thinks the Douglas County School Board went too far by subjecting students to testing for an entire year, regardless of whether they're engaged in an extracurricular activity at the time or not.

Rowland asked the board to reconsider its decision and said she agrees with county Assistant Superintendent Nancy Bryant, who warned that full-year testing is a legal gray area.

The U.S. Supreme Court has only upheld the constitutionality of testing students while they're engaged in sports or other extracurricular activities.

"This is an unwise decision both from a constitutional standpoint and as a matter of policy," Rowland said. "The protection of student privacy should be one of the values that the school district considers. There's no question there's no authority in the law for what they are doing right now."

Michael Malloy, the district's legal counsel, said the high court has twice upheld random drug testing of students who participate in extracurricular activities and has not ruled on the constitutionality of full-year testing programs.

But he said lower courts have upheld similar programs and he thinks they're legal. Drug use is a major problem, Malloy said, and the board believes full-year testing is a better deterrent to keep athletes and other students from using drugs between seasons.

"I think there's an excellent chance they (high court) would sustain it because the idea is the deterrence," Malloy said Sunday. "I think it's a reasonable extension of their two decisions they've made already. I think there are rational and appropriate reasons to make testing for a full-calendar year."

He stressed that affected students only would be tested at school and not at home.

While the ACLU is concerned about protecting students' privacy, Rowland said it's premature to say whether it will challenge the policy in court.

"Their own assistant superintendent is right on the money in her assessment of the situation," Rowland said. "That should make taxpayers alert and wonder why the school district would risk losing money in litigation in such an untested area."

But Bryant also told the board that the benefits of a year-round program were worth the risk, saying students will not be as tempted to use drugs between seasons, Gardnerville's Record-Courier newspaper reported.

"We hope they (ACLU) don't challenge it because we think it's basically for kids," Malloy said. "We've reviewed it and believe it comports with legal requirements."

Under the policy, students who participate in sports, band, speech and debate and other extracurricular activities will be subject to random testing beginning this fall.

Plans call for an outside company to oversee the testing and to make random selections of students. Urine samples will be tested for a variety of drugs, including alcohol, nicotine and steroids.

Under the policy, only offenders' extracurricular privileges will be affected.