Texas Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 41,521 (though a 2004 estimate placed the population at 43,535).

A little more than a year ago, Lockney's school board instituted a policy of mandatory, random drug tests of all teachers and students. Parents were asked to sign consent forms, and if they refused, their children were to be treated as if they had failed the drug test. The first-time penalty was a 21-day ban from extracurricular activities, three days of in-school suspension, and three sessions of drug counseling.

School officials said the drug tests were necessary for public health, to increase students' ability to learn, to help them resist peer pressure, and because of a perceived drug problem. The farming town of 2,300 people saw 12 people arrested in a 1998 cocaine bust -- all adults -- but has shown few indications of drug activity since then.

Tannahill refused to sign the consent form. "Every person has a right to his own opinion, and I do not think they can enforce this," he told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal after the policy was announced. "It's just a matter of principle for me... I cannot let the school say, 'I know how to raise your child better than you.' What scares me the most, if I do not sign it, they are going to punish my child for what I do, and I definitely do not think that's right."

Although the school district eventually agreed to postpone any punishment of Brady Tannahill while the dispute lingered, Tannahill soon picked up support from the ACLU of Texas. Lawyers affiliated with the civil liberties group represented him when he brought suit against the district for violating his son's Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

"We're upset," ACLU Lubbock chapter member Harvey Madison told the Avalanche-Journal. "This is exactly the kind of abuse the founding fathers were trying to protect people from when they wrote the Bill of Rights. We do not live in a fascist country, and the government is not entitled to simply declare that it can conduct intrusive searches of everyone with no reason."

Last week, while expressing sympathy for the school board's motives, Judge Cummings saw it the same way.

"The court recognizes the good-faith efforts of school districts in their attempts to win what has become a frustrating war on drugs; it understands the motives of the district to protect its students," Cummings wrote. "The court further recognizes that given advancements in technology and research, a mandatory drug policy of testing every teenage student could potentially eliminate drug use for such an impressionable segment of our population," he continued.

"But with such an intrusion also comes a great price to citizens' constitutionally guaranteed rights to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects."

Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas ACLU told DRCNet the ruling was "an absolute, resounding victory."

"This is a strong testament that there are still courts with the courage to stand up for individual freedom in the face of the drug-war hysteria that has besieged our nation," Harrell said. "The law has clarified that this policy is unconstitutional as applied."

Harrell urged the Lockney school board not to appeal. "I hope they will respect the courts and let Mr. Tannahill get on with his life. He has been vindicated today and he should be honored for standing up to what is obviously an unconstitutional practice," Harrell told DRCNet.

"This ruling is a signal bell to end of all of these ridiculous and unconstitutional drug testing policies," Harrell continued. "It's not the first, but I hope it's the last of a long line of federal decisions that make clear students don't abandon their constitutional rights at the school house gate."