EL DORADO ? The El Dorado school district has adopted a new policy allowing it to test most of its middle and high school students for drugs and alcohol, starting this year.

The new policy covers any student in seventh grade or higher who participates in extracurricular activities – a category that was expanded to cover everyone from athletes to members of the band and academic clubs to those who park in the school parking lot or who attend a homecoming dance or even a school play.

Many districts test students suspected of using drugs, and it’s not uncommon for schools to test athletes. However, El Dorado’s policy, adopted in June, is much more encompassing.

Superintendent Tom Biggs said the policy was meant to make students safe, but some parents and students say it invades students’ privacy.

Students who participate in extracurricular activities and their parents must sign a form allowing the testing. The students are then chosen at random to take the urinalysis drug test. Students will be tested at least once a year, and those who test positive for drugs or alcohol won’t be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities for two weeks. They also will face additional testing and must go through a program – paid for by their parents – to determine the extent of their drug or alcohol use.

After a second positive test, a student would have to attend a substance abuse program.

The district will pay $25 per student per test – for a total of $10,000 to $12,000.

The district points to U.S. Supreme Court cases allowing mandatory testing among athletes and random testing of middle and high school students participating in extracurricular activities.

“We felt we needed to include as many kids as we possibly could,” Biggs said.

Martha McCarthy, chancellor’s professor and the chairwoman of education leadership and policy studies at Indiana University at Bloomington, said the policy skirts the line of the Supreme Court’s rulings.

“You can always test kids that are suspicious,” said McCarthy, who specializes in educational law. “What is controversial is testing the suspicious-less. It sounds like they are pushing the legal definition.”

While some districts include driving to school as part of extracurricular activities, El Dorado’s inclusion of attendance at dances and school plays makes its policy unusual, she said.

“I’ve not seen that,” she said. “But it’s not to say that it couldn’t be upheld (in court).”

Brett Shirk, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, said he hadn’t heard of a policy that makes drug testing mandatory to attend dances and plays.

“It’s extreme, and it’s alienating students,” he said.

El Dorado High School senior Rebecca King said she won’t sign the consent form.

“We have nothing to hide,” said King, 18, who regularly attends games and dances and is prepared not to attend her senior prom. She also parks half a block from the school. “They are not trying to help us. We’re trying to be educated and graduate.”

Her father, David King, is also unhappy with the new policy.

“It’s a giant waste of money,” he said.

But Pam Coley, who has two daughters attending the high school, said she thinks the policy will help a lot of kids stay drug-free.

“The ones that have things to hide don’t like it,” she said.