LAKE STEVENS — The Lake Stevens School District is suspending its controversial student drug testing program because the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that testing of student athletes is unconstitutional.
Once the district’s lawyer reviews the ruling, the policy could eventually be dumped altogether.
“On first blush, it looks like this ruling would impact our programs and we’d have to stop our random drug testing programs for grades nine to 12,” district spokeswoman Arlene Hulten said.
Lake Stevens High School is one of just a handful of schools in the state that uses random drug tests.
After a few high profile incidents involving students and drugs and months of community forums, the district began testing students involved in extracurricular activities on Oct. 9, 2006.
Since then, 10 of the 500 students to submit urine samples have tested positive for drugs.
Students who test positive continue to attend classes. They face a 23-day suspension from their extracurricular activity and must get a professional assessment and enroll in a program if that’s what’s recommended.
Although only a few students have tested positive, Hulten said the testing has motivated students to stay clean and given them a reason to turn down drugs at parties.
“They make different choices when they are in social settings because they don’t want to risk not playing on the team or disappointing their coaches,” she said. “It’s been extremely powerful and extremely helpful in helping kids make good decisions.”
The lawsuit was filed by parents of three Wahkiakum High School athletes in southwest Washington. Their students were randomly selected for drug tests in school. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington provided lawyers for the parents.
The court unanimously ruled that warrantless, random and suspicionless drug testing of student athletes violates the Washington State Constitution.
The court was split on how far-reaching a ban on drug testing should be.
“Drug testing without suspicion costs money, and research has shown that it’s not effective,” ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said. “They’re an invasion of privacy. They’re asking people to supply their urine without any reason to believe an individual has done something wrong.”
Sam Britton, who graduated from Lake Stevens High School last spring, was one of the first students at his school to have been given a drug test.
The drum major for the high school band remembers being pulled from an English class to provide a sample.
“I honestly had no problem with it,” he said. “Education is sort of a privilege. You don’t want to blow it by doing something illegal or something you shouldn’t be doing.”
Later in the year, his name was chosen again and he gave a second sample.
His biggest concern was not what might be found in the sample, but just being able to provide one.
“I had just gone,” he said. “I told them, ‘If you want more you will just have to wait a little bit.’”
Junior Grady McGuire recently debated the merits of drug testing in his Advanced Placement U.S. History class. He’s against the policy, and said the class determined it was unconstitutional.
He was pleased to hear of the court’s decision.
“It’s a very expensive program that last year only caught two kids,” he said after class Thursday. “It’s a lot of money that I’d like to see go to school food.”
Lake Stevens received a $587,000 federal grant to fund four years worth of testing and other drug prevention programs. Hulten wasn’t sure how the court decision would affect that money.
In addition to drug testing, the district has an assistance program in which teachers, parents and others can anonymously refer a student for any of a number of reasons, such as academic performance, poor attendance, troubled relationships, behavior problems, suspected drinking or drug use.
Mari Taylor, president of the Lake Stevens School Board, reacted to the state Supreme Court decision with a heavy sigh.
“In my mind, the issue has never been that this would be part of a punitive process,” she said. “This was part of a larger student assistance program and just one component was drug testing. We really wanted to help students.”
Taylor said she doesn’t see the Lake Stevens district paying for any kind of legal challenge because of the costs involved.
The Granite Falls School District used drug tests for athletes and cheerleaders at Granite Falls High School during the 1997-98 school year before abandoning the practice because of legal advice and the threat of a lawsuit.
The Lake Stevens district also tests students at its alternative Prove High School for drug use as a condition of enrollment. It started testing at Prove in fall 2005.
Because testing is not random at Prove, it may not be affected by the court decision, Hulten said. However, the district is asking its attorney to give an opinion on that issue as well.
The full text of the ruling is here:www.courts.wa.gov/ opinions/index.cfm?fa= opinions.showOpinion &filename=789461MAJ
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
