Indiana School District To Require Drug Test for Student Parking Permit and School Activities

DRUG TESTING April 1996

High school students in Kokomo, Indiana will soon be required to undergo regular, random drug testing if they wish to park their cars on school property ("A School District in Indiana Links Parking to Drug Testing," Drug Detection Report, February 20, 1996, p. 6).

The new policy also requires random drug screening for participation in driver education, athletics, cheerleading, and open lunch. The regulation will go into effect in April and will entail random testing on one day every week.

Under the policy, students who test positive will attend meetings with their parents and school administrators. Students will be encouraged to seek professional help and may be suspended from school activities subject to drug testing.

School administrators say the policy was developed in response to evidence of increasing drug use by high school students in the Kokomo-Center Township Consolidated School Corporation. A survey of students found that 89 percent reported alcohol use, 58 percent marijuana, 31 percent stimulants, and 24 percent hallucinogens.

"This education and testing program is intended as a helpful part of the overall physical and mental education programs of the Kokomo-Center Schools," the school said in a statement released with the policy. The statement added that the drug testing program is not designed to punish students, but to help diagnose students who may have drug problems.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that random drug testing of student athletes does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution (Veronia School District 47J v. Acton, 115 S. Ct. 2386 (U.S. 1995)).