Cite as: 536 U. S. 822 (2002)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
for testing all participants in every competitive extracurricular activity. See Chandler, 520 U. S., at 319 (drug testing candidates for office held incompatible with Fourth Amendment because program was "not well designed to identify candidates who violate antidrug laws").
Nationwide, students who participate in extracurricular activities are significantly less likely to develop substance abuse problems than are their less-involved peers. See, e. g., N. Zill, C. Nord, & L. Loomis, Adolescent Time Use, Risky Behavior, and Outcomes 52 (1995) (tenth graders "who reported spending no time in school-sponsored activities were . . . 49 percent more likely to have used drugs" than those who spent 1-4 hours per week in such activities). Even if students might be deterred from drug use in order to preserve their extracurricular eligibility, it is at least as likely that other students might forgo their extracurricular involvement in order to avoid detection of their drug use. Tecumseh's policy thus falls short doubly if deterrence is its aim: It invades the privacy of students who need deterrence least, and risks steering students at greatest risk for substance abuse away from extracurricular involvement that potentially may palliate drug problems.4
To summarize, this case resembles Vernonia only in that the School Districts in both cases conditioned engagement in activities outside the obligatory curriculum on random subjection to urinalysis. The defining characteristics of the two programs, however, are entirely dissimilar. The Vernonia district sought to test a subpopulation of students distinguished by their reduced expectation of privacy, their special
4 The Court notes that programs of individualized suspicion, unlike those using random testing, "might unfairly target members of unpopular groups." Ante, at 837; see also ante, at 841-842 (Breyer, J., concurring). Assuming, arguendo, that this is so, the School District here has not exchanged individualized suspicion for random testing. It has installed random testing in addition to, rather than in lieu of, testing "at any time when there is reasonable suspicion." App. 197.
853
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