WA high court says random school drug testing unconstitutional

WA high court says random school drug testing unconstitutional, Seattle P-I, March 14, 2008:

A fractured state Supreme Court has ruled that random drug testing of student athletes is unconstitutional, finding that each has "a genuine and fundamental privacy interest in controlling his or her own bodily functions."

The court ruled unanimously Thursday in favor of parents and students in the lower Columbia River town of Cathlamet who opposed the tiny Wahkiakum School District's policy of random urine tests of middle school and high school student athletes, but some justices said random tests could be justified under different circumstances.

York v. Wahkiakum School District No. 200, No. 78946-1, Washington Courts website: majority (Sanders, J.), concurrence (Madsen, J.), concurrence (Chambers, J.), concurrence (J.M. Johnson, J.) (March 13, 2008).

The ACLU of Washington represented the plaintiff students and parents. See the ACLU's press release.

Photo: The Wahkiakum Mules basketball team, which took 4th place in the 2008 WIAA 2B Boys State Basketball Championship. These boys were not plaintiffs. The students in the suit participated in sports at Wahkiakum in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. But I wanted to show the face of student athletics. Source: welcometowahkiakum.com.