Delaware Valley among two school districts sued by ACLU over drug tests
March 09, 2011
The Delaware Valley School District is one of two districts being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania for its random drug testing of students participating in extracurricular activities.
The separate suits against Delaware Valley and Panther Valley school districts were filed in state court Wednesday.
The ACLU argues that the drug-testing policies violate a 2003 state Supreme Court ruling requiring schools to justify such testing – when there is no suspicion that a particular student is using drugs – with evidence of a widespread drug problem among students.
“These policies teach young people to accept extreme invasions of their privacy when they've done nothing wrong,” said Mary Catherine Roper, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
The ACLU is representing Glenn and Kathy Kiederer in the suit against Delaware Valley School District.
The Kiederer's two children – a seventh-grader and ninth-grader – were not allowed to participate in several after-school activities and sports programs because they and their parents refused to consent to the tests.
Those very same tests at Delaware Valley were declared unconstitutional by the 2003 Supreme Court ruling, which the ACLU says has been ignored by the school district. The ruling required Delaware Valley school officials to show additional evidence that the group of students undergoing testing had a high rate of drug use.
The district has never compiled that data, and its own solicitor at an August 2010 school board meeting admitted the district had not “followed the Supreme Court mandate,” according to the complaint.
The second lawsuit involves two Panther Valley School District, Carbon County, students who were also not allowed to participate in after-school activities after refusing drug tests.
A 12th-grade Eagle Scout and Junior ROTC member was kicked off the high school golf team and not allowed to attend the prom, according to the suit. His sibling, a ninth-grader, was also prevented from participating in extracurricular activities.
The ACLU is representing their parents, Morgan and Donna Thomas, in the suit against the district.
Check back at PoconoRecord.com and read Thursday's Pocono Record for more on this developing story.
More on student drug tests in my 2010 book:
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