Court backs drug testing in Oakridge case.Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports A former Oakridge High School student lost her drug-testing case Wednesday in front of the state Court of Appeals. The court unanimously upheld the Oakridge School District, which excluded Ginelle Weber from playing volleyball volleyball, outdoor or indoor ball and net game played on a level court. An upright net, 3 ft (or 1 m) high, the top of which stands 8 ft (2.43 m) from the ground for men, 7 ft 4 1/8 in (2. after she refused to consent to urine tests for drug and alcohol use. Requiring drug tests of students who play school sports doesn't violate search and seizure search and seizure In law enforcement, an exploratory investigation of a premises or a person and the taking into custody of property or an individual in the interest of gaining evidence of unlawful activity or guilt. protections in the state constitution, the court ruled. Thomas Christ, a Portland lawyer representing Weber, said an appeal to the state Supreme Court would be considered. One member of the three-judge appeals panel that decided the case said in a separate opinion the ruling should be considered narrowly. Weber and her family have relocated to Southern Oregon This article is about the southern region of the U.S. state of Oregon. For the University, see Southern Oregon University. Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. and couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. The tests were required under a Oregon Health & Science University study of student drug testing in which several Oregon school districts have participated. The study's purpose is to determine whether random testing (programming, testing) random testing - A black-box testing approach in which software is tested by choosing an arbitrary subset of all possible input values. Random testing helps to avoid the problem of only testing what you know will work. deters alcohol and drug use. In the Oakridge case, the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. argued that the state Constitution provides greater protection from unreasonable searches than the federal Constitution. The appeals court said the tests have ``not been shown to be unreasonable in relation to the purposes of the policy'' of deterring alcohol and drug use among students generally, and preventing increased risk of injury to athletes. "We think the court is wrong on that point," Dave Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. , said Wednesday. "I think the court went through some legal reverse somersaults to avoid reaching the heart of the case." Christ, who argued the case for Weber on behalf of the ACLU, said the ruling was a ``sad day'' for Oregonians. ``I didn't see in the decision any acknowledgment acknowledgment, in law, formal declaration or admission by a person who executed an instrument (e.g., a will or a deed) that the instrument is his. The acknowledgment is made before a court, a notary public, or any other authorized person. that there are limitations on even the most intrusive government searches,'' he said. ``The court seems to be saying any search which is effective is reasonable and therefore lawful.'' - Register-Guard reporter Mark Baker contributed to this report |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion