On April 6, 2007, the Drug Policy Alliance and the Washington Education Association (WEA) filed an amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in a case with important implications for the health and well-being of young people in the state of Washington and around the country. York v. Wahkiakum School District, which is being heard by the Washington State Supreme Court, challenges the policy of making students submit to random, suspicionless drug testing as a condition of participating in sports.
 
In 1999 the public school district of Wahkiakum County, Washington, adopted and implemented a mandatory suspicionless drug testing policy, which requires all students who want to participate in athletics to submit to a random testing by urinalysis for the presence of illegal drugs or alcohol. The policy requires every student selected to urinate in a cup under close supervision and to disclose to school officials what prescription and over-the-counter medications they take.  The random drug testing policy bans any student who refuses to submit to suspicionless searches from participating in extracurricular athletic activities regardless of whether there is any reason to suspect the student is involved with illegal drugs. 

Students and parents filed a lawsuit to challenge the policy.
 
DPA and WEA filed a brief in the Washington Supreme Court in support of these students and parents, and argued that random student drug testing: 1) is unsupported by scientific research; 2) may deter students from participating in extracurricular activities and unjustifiably deny important benefits and anti-drug protections to students, particularly to those most at risk; 3) undermines trust in student-teacher relationships while creating a hostile school environment; 4) may evoke oppositional behavior in students who may try to “beat” the test; 5) is  technically complex and prone to error, including false positive test results; and 6) does not respect the proper allocation of responsibility among parents, doctors and schools.
 
A broad and growing body of research indicates that random student drug testing cannot work in the way it is hoped to, and will, for many adolescents, interfere with more sound drug prevention and treatment processes.  A favorable ruling by the Washington high court striking down the school district's testing policy could mark an important blow to the White House's efforts to expand random student drug testing around the country.

DPA's legal efforts to combat random student drug testing complement the ongoing work of the Student Drug Testing Fails campaign. Every year, the Office of National Drug Control Policy holds summits around the country to persuade educators to implement random student drug testing in their schools. DPA organizes opposition to these summits so that educators are not subjected to a one-sided presentation. The latest summit took place in Hawai'i, and there is one more summit this year on April 24 in Las Vegas.