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Is Innocence Forever Gone? Drug Testing High School Athletes

NCJ Number
120781
Journal
Missouri Law Review Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1989) Pages: 425-442
Author(s)
M L Scott
Date Published
1989
Length
18 pages
Annotation
High school athletes are challenging the constitutionality of random drug testing programs, claiming that these programs violate their right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Abstract
In 1988, in Schaill v. Tippecanoe County School Corporation, two high school athletes sought declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the implementation of a random drug testing program at their school. An Indiana district court denied the students' petition, emphasizing the need to balance the needs and rights of the parties involved and declining to assert whether individualized suspicion is required to justify school-based drug testing. The facts of the Schaill case are discussed in detail, along with relevant case law and fourth amendment legal analyses. The Schaill court failed to demonstrate a legal rationale to justify random urinalysis for high school athletes. Singling out athletes only assumes that as a group and individually they are guilty until proven innocent, a direct contravention of the American system of justice. 126 footnotes.