Thus, according to the ACLU and the two teen-age plaintiffs it is representing in the suit, anyone at Tecumseh High School who refuses to submit to the urine test required for the choir, for example, would have to drop the accompanying music course, which provides a credit for graduation. And that, the civil liberties union argues, is a violation of a student's right to a public education, as well as of the Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure. In filing a complaint in federal District Court in Oklahoma City against Tecumseh, the school district of a rural town about 45 miles to the southeast, the civil liberties union says it is attempting to check a rash of tests for illegal substances that, while largely accepted when applied to athletes, have recently been applied to thousands of students involved in more cerebral pursuits. Individual school districts in Idaho, North Carolina and Wyoming, among other states, have implemented similar policies for cheerleaders, language club members and chess competitors in the last year, while other districts in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Ohio and Florida are considering expanding such testing to nonathletes. Unfortunately, we have to be policemen, we have to be psychologists, we have to be parents, and educators are far down the list.
Some school districts feel like they have to take a proactive role in keeping children safe.
On Jan. 12, she said in an interview, she was pulled out of a choral rehearsal in the middle of the school day and escorted to the girls' bathroom. There, she said, a monitor stood guard outside a stall while she filled a cup with urine. Lindsay said that while she opposed the test philosophically, she did not want to be dropped from the choir, and so she consented. Though the testing was random last year, when the policy began, students were told to present samples before joining activities this year, Lindsay said. The superintendent of schools referred all questions to Ms. Meoli, the district lawyer, who refused to answer any questions about the policy's implementation, including whether any tests had returned positive.