Opinion ID: 2994252
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The immediacy of the governmental

Text: concern PHM presented evidence regarding its general student population that shows that, in some categories, especially for gateway drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, and marijuana, PHM’s average use is greater than the national average. This situation would appear to justify PHM’s taking action with respect to activities that pose a special risk of injury or death when drug or alcohol abuse is present. Just as such a case was established in Vernonia for athletic activities, it also can be established for driving in the relatively close confines of the school premises. However, PHM has not shown the same possibility of immediate danger from students participating in extracurricular activities. PHM simply has not established that any immediate problem with drugs or alcohol exists for its students in extracurricular activities. The Court in Chandler did not require proof of drug use by the candidates for public office but it stressed that such proof would help in finding a special need. In the circumstances here, we think that PHM was required to show a correlation between drug use and students in extracurricular activities, or other evidence of a particularized special need, before implementing its suspicionless drug testing policy for those particular student groups.