Linke v. Northwestern School Corp.
| Citation | 763 N.E.2d 972 |
| Decision Date | 05 March 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 34S05-0103-CV-151.,34S05-0103-CV-151. |
| Parties | Rosa J. LINKE, Reena M. Linke (By their next friends and parents), Scott L. Linke and Noreen L. Linke, Appellants (Plaintiffs below), v. NORTHWESTERN SCHOOL CORP., Appellee (Defendant below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Kenneth J. Falk, Indiana Civil Liberties Union, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellants.
Anthony S. Benton, Laura L. Bowker, Stuart & Branigin, Lafayette, IN, David R. Day, Johnson, Smith, Pence & Heath LLP, David J. Emmert, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Amici Curiae.
Julia Blackwell Gelinas, John H. Daerr, Thomas E. Wheeler, II, Locke, Reynolds LLP, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
ON PETITION TO TRANSFER
Rosa and Reena Linke, students in the Northwestern School Corporation in Howard County, contend that the school's random drug testing program violates their rights under the Indiana Constitution to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. After weighing the students' privacy interests and the character of the search against the nature and immediacy of the governmental concern at issue, we conclude that the drug-testing program here is constitutional.
Northwestern School Corporation (NSC) is a public school system covering rural and suburban areas of Howard County near Kokomo. It operates two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
In the mid-1990s, drug usage in middle and high schools became a concern to the administrators at NSC. In the spring of 1995, the Indiana Prevention and Resource Center released a survey regarding drug, alcohol, and tobacco usage by students in grades seven through ten at NSC schools. The survey showed higher than average use of gateway drugs among some students. Specifically, it found that NSC's eighth graders used amphetamines at a rate higher than state prevalence rates; ninth graders used drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes at higher than the state prevalence rates; and tenth graders reported a higher daily use of alcohol than state prevalence rates. Drug abuse continued to be a problem at NSC high and middle schools. During the 1998-99 school year, there were two suspensions and two expulsions in the high school and five suspensions and five expulsions in the middle school because of student drug usage. Beginning in 1987, three Northwestern High School students (including a recent graduate) died in drug related incidents. The most recent death, in 1996, occurred after a student overdosed on morphine pills acquired from a fellow student while at school. These contraband pills passed through a chain of student hands before finding their final resting place.
The 1996 death caused serious concern. In response, a task force consisting of administrators, teachers, staff, and interested parents was formed to examine NSC's approach to drugs. In order better to fulfill NSC's zero tolerance policy towards drug abuse, the task force addressed three primary areas: anti-drug curriculum; incorporation of special anti-drug programs; and development of a student drug testing policy.
The task force created the Northwestern School Corporation Extra Curricular Activities and Student Driver Drug Testing Policy ("Policy") effective January 12, 1999. Its purpose is "(1) to provide for the health and safety of students; (2) to undermine the effects of peer pressure by providing a legitimate reason for students to refuse to use illegal drugs; and (3) to encourage students who use drugs to participate in drug treatment programs." The Policy is explicitly not a punitive enterprise. Under the Policy, testing positive for banned substances does not result in academic penalty, results of drug test are not documented in any student's academic records, and information regarding the results is not disclosed to criminal or juvenile authorities absent binding legal compulsion.
The Policy applies to all middle and high school students, grades 7-12, participating in school athletics, specified extra-curricular and co-curricular1 activities, as well as to all student drivers who wish to park their vehicles on campus. The activities included by the Policy are athletics, academic teams, student government, musical performances, drama, Future Farmers of America, National Honor Society, and Students Against Drunk Driving. Students wishing to engage in one of these activities are required to sign a form consenting to the testing and must also obtain written consent from a parent or guardian.2 Students participating in co-curricular activities who choose not to participate in the testing program are given an opportunity to prepare alternative assignments, for academic credit, in lieu of participating in public performances.
A computer-based system, designed specifically for the purpose of randomly selecting individuals for drug testing, is used to pick the students. Midwest Testing, a testing firm that notifies the school principals who will be tested, currently handles this process. Students are not given advance warning of the testing.
Upon selection, a student is escorted to a trailer that is driven to the school by Midwest Testing. Only one student is taken to the trailer at a time. The student is given a specimen bottle and is allowed to enter the restroom facility in the trailer unattended. The facility has a commode containing blue dye and all water faucets are turned off so that water cannot be used to dilute a specimen. Once inside the restroom facility, the student is separated from the monitor by a closed door. After producing a specimen, the student leaves the restroom, hands the specimen to the Midwest Testing employee to be sealed, initials the sealed bag, and returns to class.
The specimens are sent to Witham Laboratories, an independent laboratory, where they are tested only for the substances banned by the Policy.3 The testing laboratory does not know the identity of the students tested and NSC follows strict procedures regarding the chain of custody and access to test results. Negative test results are mailed to the designated authority. Positive specimens, on the other hand, are retested. If the re-test is positive, Witham communicates the specimen number of the positive result to a building administrator who alerts the student's school principal. The principal is then able to determine the identity of the student by reference to the specimen number. In such instances, the principal holds a conference with the student and his or her parents and at that time the student is given the opportunity to submit documentation that would justify a positive result, e.g., prescription medication. Failure to provide a satisfactory explanation for a positive test results in further action by the school.
Athletes testing positive are governed by an athletic code of conduct. Students participating in all other activities are governed by a student activities code of conduct. Under both codes, a student may be barred from participating in an activity for up to 365 days. However, the consequences vary based upon the activity and substance.
A student is entitled to be re-tested, at the school's expense, when the drug for which the student tested positive would be expected to have disappeared from the student's body. A negative test at this time allows the student to return to full participation in the activity but a positive re-test is deemed to constitute reasonable suspicion, such that NSC reserves the right to re-test the student throughout the remainder of the school year. A positive re-test also bars the student from returning to the activity until such time as the student tests negative. Beyond the first re-test, the Policy does not require the school to pay for additional tests requested by the student.
Rosa and Reena Linke ("the Linkes") were both students at Northwestern High School, a part of NSC, when this lawsuit was filed. At the time of the suit, Rosa was a junior who participated in track, National Honor Society, Students Against Drunk Driving, the Prom Committee, and Academic Competition. She also had a driver's license and wanted to drive to school. Reena was a freshman participating in choir, track, Academic Competition, Sunshine Society, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Their claim was that the Policy violated the Search and Seizure Clause, art. I, § 11, and the Privileges and Immunities Clause, art. I, § 23, of the Indiana Constitution.
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of NSC. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that, in regard to school children, the Search and Seizure Clause, art. I, § 11, of the Indiana Constitution implicitly contains "a general requirement of individualized suspicion," which was not met by the Policy. See Linke v. Northwestern School Corp., 734 N.E.2d 252, 259 (Ind.App.2000)
. We granted transfer. Linke vs. Northwestern School Corp., No. 34S05-0103-CV-151, 2001 Ind. LEXIS 229 (Mar. 5, 2001).
The Search and Seizure Clause, art. I, § 11, of the Indiana Constitution ("Section 11") provides, "[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." Although Section 11 is almost identical to the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, this court's analysis of claims arising under Section 11 is separate and distinct from Fourth Amendment analysis. See Moran v. State, 644 N.E.2d 536, 538 (Ind.1994)
. However, in this regard federal law and the law of sister states may have persuasive force. Id.
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Hoop v. State
...allowed, the police would be given too much latitude to exercise arbitrary discretion. Id. at 440. Id. at 360. Cf. Linke v. Northwestern Sch. Corp., 763 N.E.2d 972 (Ind.2002) (permitting random drug testing of As Litchfield placed overriding weight on the need to restrict arbitrary selectio......
-
Kluge v. Brownsburg Cmty. Sch. Corp.
...mandate the availability of public education. Linke v. Nw. Sch. Corp., 763 N.E.2d 972, 979 (ind. 2002)." The majority opinion also relies on Linke. But Indiana Supreme Court in Linke merely confirmed that the Indiana legislature had codified compulsory school attendance and Indiana school c......
-
Myers v. State
...J., concurring). 3. A similar rationale apparently was at the heart of this Court's majority opinion in Linke v. Northwestern School Corp., 763 N.E.2d 972 (Ind.2002). In that case the Court upheld, on Indiana Constitutional grounds, a school's policy of conducting random drug testing of cer......
-
Theodore v. Delaware Valley School Dist.
...in a school-sponsored activity, a school corporation's interest in deterring drug abuse becomes stronger. Linke v. Northwestern Sch. Corp., 763 N.E.2d 972, 984 (Ind.2002). Accordingly, the Indiana policy was deemed to fall with the scope of the school district's latitude in "experimenting w......
-
What can dissents teach us?
...art. I, [section] 9. (50) Price, 622 N.E.2d at 967-68 (Dickson, J., dissenting). (51) 744 N.E.2d 443 (Ind. 2001). (52) Id. at 446. (53) 763 N.E.2d 972 (Ind. (54) See generally id. (55) 536 U.S. 822 (2002). (56) Scalia, supra note 4, at 33; Brennan, supra note 6, at 435. Randall T. Shepard, ......