Earls Ex Rel. Earls v. Board of Education of Tecumseh Public School District

115 F. Supp. 2d 1281, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12036, 2000 WL 1334980
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 9, 2000
DocketCiv-99-1213-R
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 115 F. Supp. 2d 1281 (Earls Ex Rel. Earls v. Board of Education of Tecumseh Public School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Earls Ex Rel. Earls v. Board of Education of Tecumseh Public School District, 115 F. Supp. 2d 1281, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12036, 2000 WL 1334980 (W.D. Okla. 2000).

Opinion

ORDER

DAVID L. RUSSELL, Chief Judge.

Before the Court are the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. Both sides seek summary judgment on the Plaintiffs’ claims for declaratory and in-junctive relief.

I. Summary of the Evidence.

The Plaintiffs, Lindsay Earls and Daniel James, are students at Tecumseh High School. The Defendants, Board of Education of Tecumseh Public School District and Tecumseh Public Schools, operate the school and establish and implement its policies. For many years, Tecumseh High School has offered a range of student activities, including choir, marching band, color guard, Future Farmers of America and Future Homemakers of .America, which were generally open to all students who wished to participate. The school has also offered various team sports and other activities to a limited number of students on a competitive basis. The vast majority of students participate in one or more school-sponsored activities. Plaintiff Lindsay Earls is a member of the show choir, the marching band and the academic team. Plaintiff Daniel James “seeks to participate” in' the academic team in the 1999/2000 school year, and is enrolled in the academic team class. 1

On September 14, 1998, the school district adopted the Student Activities Drug Testing Policy (“the Policy”), which requires all students who participate in extracurricular activities to submit to suspi-cionless drug testing. (See Plaintiffs Exhibit “O”). By its terms, the Policy requires that “any student that represents Tecumseh Schools in any extracurricular activity such as FFA [Future Farmers of America], FHA [Future Homemakers of America], Academic Team, Band, Vocal, Pom Pon, Cheerleader and Athletics,” will be barred from participating in such activities unless the *1283 student submits a written consent to drug testing. 2 Students are required to undergo drug testing before participating, randomly during the year while participating, and at any time while participating in competitive activities upon reasonable suspicion. The test used by the District detects only amphetamines, can-nabinoid metabolites (marijuana), cocaine, opiates, barbiturates and benzodiaze-pines. 3 A yearly fee of four dollars is charged for each student participating in the drug testing program. 4 It is conceded that the Policy has been applied, since its inception, only to those extracurricular activities of a competitive nature. 5 The student Plaintiffs and their parents challenge those provisions of the Policy which require suspicionless drug testing of students participating in nonathletic activities. 6

II. Reasonableness of the Policy.

The state-compelled collection and testing of urine constitutes a “search” governed by Fourth Amendment principles of reasonableness. Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 at 652 - 653, 115 S.Ct. 2386 at 2390, 132 L.Ed.2d 564 (1995). Under the challenged Policy, the random acquisition and analysis of a urine sample is not supported by a warrant, probable cause, or individualized suspicion. As the Supreme Court has held, however, neither a warrant, nor probable cause, nor any measure of individualized suspicion is an indispensable component of reasonableness in every circumstance. Vernonia, supra; National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 665 - 668, 109 S.Ct. 1384, 103 L.Ed.2d 685 (1989). Officials are permitted to dispense with the warrant and probable cause requirements where a Fourth Amendment intrusion serves special governmental needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement. Id.

A. Existence of a Special Need.

The Supreme Court has historically found “special needs” to exist in the public school context, where the warrant requirement “would unduly interfere with the *1284 maintenance of the swift and informal disciplinary procedures [that are] needed,” and “strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based upon probable cause” would ■ undercut “the- substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools.” Vernonia, 515 U.S. at 653, 115 S.Ct. at 2391, citing New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985). 7 In Vernonia, the Supreme Court found that a public school- district had sufficiently demonstrated a special need justifying a similar drug testing policy. 8

The Plaintiffs argue that the Defendants have 'not made a similar showing of a “special need” beyond the need for normal law enforcement. 9 As the Plaintiffs point out, in approving the drug testing policy at issue in V ernonia, the Supreme Court stressed both the severity and the immediacy of the drug problem in the school district. The Court agreed with the district court’s conclusion that “a large segment of the student body” was “in a state of rebellion,” thát disciplinary’ actions “had reached epidemic proportions,” and that these problems were being “fueled by alcohol and drug abuse as well as by the students’ misperceptions about the drug culture.” 515 U.S. at 662-663, 115 S.Ct. at 2395. 10

*1285 Although the Vemonia Court emphasized the severity of the drug problem in that school, this Court 'does not view the majority’s holding in Vemonia to be limited to those circumstances where the drug problem is of such magnitude. The Supreme Court has found special governmental needs to justify suspicionless drug testing in other contexts, without first finding a pervasive drug problem among the group to be tested. See, e.g., Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989) (Upholding regulation requiring suspicion-less drug testing of railroad employees involved in train crashes); Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 109 S.Ct. 1384, 103 L.Ed.2d 685 (Sustaining a Customs Service program requiring drug tests as a condition of promotion or transfer to positions directly involving drug interdiction or requiring the employee to carry a firearm). 11

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 F. Supp. 2d 1281, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12036, 2000 WL 1334980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/earls-ex-rel-earls-v-board-of-education-of-tecumseh-public-school-okwd-2000.