OKLAHOMA CITY — White House representatives hosted a summit Thursday morning to promote a random drug testing program in public schools.

About one in five high schools in the U.S. conducts random student drug tests, said Stephen Schatz, White House representative.

Supreme Court decisions in 1995 and 2002 upheld random drug testing in schools, Schatz said. Random tests without suspicion are constitutional if they are confidential, non-punitive and do not affect the academic career of the student.

“The Supreme Court basically said that schools need to be a protective and nurturing environment for students so they can grow behaviorally, socially, etc.,” Schatz said.

In 2002 the Department of Education began giving grants to schools that incorporate random drug testing into their drug prevention programs.

Informing parents and preventing students from participating in extra curricular activities are the only courses of action schools can legally take when a student tests positive, he said.

“It's basically a tool to curb drug use,” Schatz said.

Drugs can give you a disease, said Bertha Madras, an Office of National Drug Control Policy official.

“This [drug testing] is a way of preventing one of the most preventable of all diseases in a population that is more likely to become addicted,” she said.

But not everyone is convinced drug testing will deter students from using drugs.

Jennifer Kern, research associate at the Drug Policy Alliance, said her organization and others, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, think drug testing students can have potential harm.

“Studies show that random drug testing can erode important relationships of trust with adults at school and damage a safe and positive working environment,” Kern said. “It's erecting barriers to extra curricular activities, and these are the very activities that typically provide structure and supervision after school, during the peak adolescent drug use time.”

The Drug Policy Alliance tries to advocate programs that focus on public health. The alliance has a “three-pronged” project for drug education, Kern said.

The first, called the Safety 1st Project, is about drug education for parents. The second program, called Beyond Zero Tolerance, focuses on honest drug education in schools and student assistant programs. The alliance’s third project, called Drug Testing Failed our Youth, looks into programs that they think interfere with what is working at schools.

“You can use words to make it seem benign, but it is a very invasive procedure,” Kern said.

A study conducted by Oregon Health and Science University shows that drug testing does have negative effects.

“Student athletes in schools that conduct drug testing reported a less positive attitude toward schools,” Kern said. “They had less belief in the benefits of drug testing, and less belief that drug testing is a reason to say no to drugs.”

There are currently 19 Oklahoma school districts that are known to randomly drug test students. Norman Public Schools has a committee looking into a drug testing policy, and Newcastle Public Schools adopted a drug testing policy in March 2007.

Bonnie Muelbherg, who attended the summit, said her daughter attends Newcastle High School. Her daughter was not allowed to participate in band because Muelbherg refused to sign the consent form. She said the policy was a surprise to her, and she thought the school was not implementing it by the book.

“The whole passing of the policy was under the table,” Muelbherg said. “If I had known it was going to affect my daughter’s involvement in band, we may not have enrolled her in Newcastle.”

Muelbherg said she would like to see Newcastle Public Schools revise their policy to allow parents the option not to have their children drug tested.