On Monday, the Indiana Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that students cannot be forced to take a drug test in order to play sports, take part in after school activities and park an automobile on campus.
The panel of judges in the case based much of their decision on Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana State Constitution which states, “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search, or seizure, shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.”
In writing the decision, Justice Patrick D. Sullivan wrote “the purpose of Article 1, Section 11 is to protect the ‘areas of life that Hoosiers regard as private’…The framers of the Indiana Constitution intended to protect the people from abuses of police power. We see no reason to depart from requiring individualized suspicion to protect against the abuses associated with blanket suspicionless searches of school children.”
“The Indiana test regarding searches and seizures has always been one of reasonableness. When focusing upon the reasonableness of the official behavior in the instant case, we hold that Northwestern School Corporations’ policy of conducting suspicionless drug testing of students participating in athletics, extracurricular or co-curricular activity, or those who drive to school is unconstitutional.”
The court stated that schools can only drugtest students if there is probable cause to believe the student is using drugs.
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed suit for Rosa Linke and her younger sister Reena last year after they protested the school’s drug testing policy. Both participated in the National Honor Society, the school’s prom committee and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“Schools put a stipulation on students by saying in order to make yourself the kind of person who can get into college, and get a scholarship, you have to submit to a random drug test,” said Rosa Linke, who has since graduated high school and is attending college. “I have the right to take the position that I will not pee in a cup for them.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751. To read the ruling visit: www.state.in.us/judiciary/opinions/wpd/08210001.pds.doc
