NCJ Number
116295
Journal
Willamette Law Review Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1989) Pages: 165-196
Date Published
1989
Length
32 pages
Annotation
Drug testing of high school students is clearly legal under constitutional law, statutes, and administrative rules, but programs should have several specific features if they are to satisfy the various legal standards.
Abstract
The debate over drug testing reflects a clash between the factions that seek to identify student drug users in order to improve the educational system and those that seek to protect the individual liberties of students. The forum for this debate will be the local school board, which will probably produce a compromise between the view advocating random testing for all students and the view opposing testing in any form. In many communities, those who oppose testing will turn to the courts. The programs that will be upheld must have the following four features: 1) an identification method based on individualized suspicion, 2) a urine collection process that is as unintrusive and dignified as possible, 3) a process that ensures that test results are kept confidential, and 4) sanctions that focus on education and treating drug users rather than sanctions that impose punitive or disciplinary measures. The decision on whether to test students is best left for each local community to decide, but such a decision should be made only after the community has considered the many issues involved. 204 footnotes.