Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. v. Joy

768 N.E.2d 940, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 815, 2002 WL 1060843
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 2002
Docket71A04-0010-CV-437
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 768 N.E.2d 940 (Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. v. Joy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. v. Joy, 768 N.E.2d 940, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 815, 2002 WL 1060843 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

VAIDIK, Judge.

Statement of the Case

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation (Penn) challenges the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Tianna Joy, four other students, and two parents of Penn students (collectively, the Students), after the court found that Penn's drug testing program violated the Search and Seizure Clause-Article 1, Seetion 11 of the Indiana Constitution (Section 11). Because this case presents an issue of great public concern, we find the case is not moot despite the graduation of the students. With respect to the summary judgment, we find no reversible error in *942 the court's findings, which Penn argues are based upon extra-judicial sources of information. However, given recent authority from our supreme court, we must conclude that Penn's program comports with Section 11, except for the testing of student drivers for nicotine. Thus, we reverse in part, affirm in part, and remand.

Facts and Procedural History

Penn is a public school system encompassing 125 square miles of property in northern Indiana. In the 1997-98 school year, 9,664 students were enrolled in the district; 2,868 students attended Penn High School. As part of a statewide program, in 19983, 1995, and 1997, all sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders in Penn schools were surveyed regarding drug use. The results showed that students at Penn were "much more likely" than the national average to use "gateway drugs," defined as alcohol and tobacco, and had a "higher than average use" of "most other types of drugs." Supp. Record p. 10.

Confronted with the 1998 and 1995 survey results, the Penn School Board (School Board) formed a Substance Abuse Awareness Committee to develop a plan for reducing student use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. After receiving the Awareness Committee's report, the School Board created a Drug Testing Investigation Committee, composed of students, parents, and sehool personnel, to study drug testing as a method of reducing student substance abuse. The Drug Testing Investigation Committee recommended that suspicion-less student drug testing be part of Penn's drug prevention program. That recommendation eventually became part of Policy 360, entitled "Student Testing for Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobaeeo," which was approved by the School Board on May 26, 1998, and implemented during the 1998-99 school year.

Policy 360

Policy 360 initially established five categories of students, grades six through twelve, who would be subject to drug testing. Two categories are implicated here. First, all students who participate in extracurricular activities, including athletics, are required to submit to random suspicionless urinalysis. Extracurricular activities for testing purposes do not include activities where the student receives a grade. After the student attends a drug education class, the student and the student's parent are required to sign a written consent form. Refusal to do so means that the student may not participate in the extracurricular activity.

The second category includes students who seek school parking permits, a requisite for parking on school property. Student drivers are subject to the same testing, consent, and education requirements as are participants in extracurricular activities. No parking permits are issued without a signed consent from the student and parent. 1

Students in extracurricular activities were selected for suspicionless drug testing due to the elevated alcohol and drug use at Penn, as well as publicized incidents regarding alcohol abuse. The latter included the temporary suspension from *943 competition of 14 members of the football team who had been drinking on school property. Student drivers were included, in part, due to "a rash of serious accidents involving students and alcohol in the community." Supp. Record p. 11.

Testing Procedures

Under the random drug testing component of Policy 360, 2 students who return signed consent forms are assigned numbers, which are placed into a pool and randomly selected by an independent testing laboratory. When the chosen numbers are reported to the school, a monitor, usually one of two athletic directors, escorts the student to an office where a "health paraprofessional" provides the student with a private restroom. Supp. Record p. 18. Originally, under Policy 360, the student was to identify any drug or prescription medication the student was taking, and that information was documented on the "chain of custody form." Record p. 22. At some point that part of Policy 360 was amended so that students are presently asked "to voluntarily identify" such medications. Supp. Record p. 470.

The monitor visually checks the stall, flushes the toilet, and treats the water with dye. The student washes his or her hands with water only. Thereafter, the student privately collects urine in a specimen container and gives the container to the monitor, who documents any unusual circumstances and visually checks the specimen for signs of contamination. The specimen is then sealed, dated, and temporarily stored in a secured area.

Numbered samples are sent to a hospital toxicology laboratory where they are sereened for amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, opiates, phency-clidine (PCP), cannabinoids (marijuana), ethanol (alcohol), and cotinine (nicotine metabolite). Positive tests are confirmed by re-testing. Resultant student drug profiles are provided to a designated school official, who shares the results with the student's parents or guardian. School staff is provided the information on a need-to-know basis only and may not divulge test results to anyone other than the student and parent exeept under court order.

The school pays for the testing, except that parents must pay for a third positive test. Generally, after a positive test result, Penn works with the parent to provide "evaluation and/or treatment as indicated." Supp. Record p. 18. Students who test positive or who refuse to submit to a drug test "may be subject to exelusion from any extracurricular activities and/or revocation of their parking privileges," but they "are not subject to suspension, expulsion, detention, or any other discipline in connection with the academic school day." Supp. Record p. 454. An exeeption exists for student drivers testing positive for nicotine, as explained below.

Origin and History of Case

Tianna Joy, Candace Petill, and Elizabeth Ward had applied for permits in order to park in designated lots at Penn High School, where they were students. As a condition of obtaining the parking permits, they and their parents were required to execute the Penn drug testing program consent form. As a condition of participation in extracurricular theater productions, Marci Stephens and her parents executed a similar form.

On October 28, 1998, Joy and Steven Ward, Elizabeth's father, filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Declaratory Judgment in the St. Joseph Superior Court, alleging that Penn's suspicionless drug testing policy violates both the United States and the Indiana Constitutions. *944

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768 N.E.2d 940, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 815, 2002 WL 1060843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/penn-harris-madison-school-corp-v-joy-indctapp-2002.