One day we showed up for high school basketball practice and the coach said that we had to take a drug test right there. Some of the guys on the team have been involved with drugs pretty heavily, but I haven’t. Can the school require that we take random drug tests? Probably. Random drug testing of student athletes has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. School officials don’t have to believe that you, or any student basketball player in particular, are doing drugs to require a drug test. You can refuse to take the test, but then you probably can’t play with the team. What if our school district wants to use random drug testing or breathalyzers on any student involved in extracurricular activities? Is that okay too? Most likely, no. Although the U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that random drug testing of any student involved in extracurricular activities does not violate the United States Constitution, the Pennsylvania Constitution affords more privacy rights to students. Under Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, a school cannot perform random drug tests of students involved in extracurricular activities unless the school can show a history of drug abuse and a particular reason for targeting students involved in extracurricular activities, which may be difficult to do. So, I guess random drug testing of all students at school might be a problem?It is very unlikely that a school in Pennsylvania could require drug testing of all students. The U.S. Supreme Court has permitted drug testing for athletics and other extracurricular activities partly because of the voluntary nature of those activities, and it might or might not hold differently if a school tried to test all students. But in Pennsylvania, the stronger protection of privacy in the Pennsylvania Constitution would prohibit an across-the-board testing policy in all but the most extreme circumstances.
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