At least once a year, many Indiana high school students are herded into the gym or auditorium. Over the loudspeakers, they are warned not to stop at their locker or the restroom on the way.

This is not a fire drill -- it is a drug search. While students are in the gym, police and drug-sniffing dogs search the school premises, checking cars, lockers, backpacks and purses.

Such searches are common in Indiana. Some say the searches invade students' privacy. Others say the searches are for the students' own good and are necessary for an optimal learning environment.

These same arguments are being debated in Boone County as Lebanon High School launches its newest drug-testing policy. Sara Romanowski, a junior there, wrote an editorial for her local paper decrying both drug searches and drug testing at her school.

"I think that drug testing is a violation of our rights, and to be taken out of class just to pee in a cup for the police, it's not worth it because I could be learning something instead of going to prove something that I already know and my parents already know, and the teachers don't really (need to) know," she said in an interview.

But three girls from New Buffalo (Mich.) High School see it differently. Senior Sarah Magro, and sophomores Cindle Brewster and Jocelyne Tuszynski are on a community task force discussing a new school drug policy.

"When I first heard of drug testing, I kind of thought it was a way to single out the bad kids in our school. But then when I started going to the meetings, I got the whole gist of it. It was to help our students, to help them become better people," said Jocelyne.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that public schools can perform random drug tests on middle and high school students enrolled in extracurricular activities. And last summer, the Indiana Supreme Court reversed an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling that drug testing violated the state constitution.

Since then, many Indiana middle and high schools, including Lebanon High, are resurrecting policies requiring students in extracurricular activities to submit to random drug checks.

Lebanon's policy calls for random tests for students who drive to school or take part in extracurricular activities, and for seniors who want to leave campus for lunch.

According to Bob DeLaRosa, Lebanon High School's assistant principal, those students are given a number. If their number is selected in a random drawing, they are called out of class and taken to the school's clinic, where they provide a urine sample. If it tests positive for illegal drugs, parents are informed and the student is suspended from extracurricular activities for 30 days.

In contrast, students found with drugs at school face expulsion, suspension or prosecution.

Schools in Michigan appear to be taking a slower approach. When the school year began, the Michigan School Board Association had received no inquiries about drug testing or searches.

The New Buffalo task force has put off a decision until later this spring so that more students could be polled for their views.

Despite their different approaches to developing a policy, both schools have weighed a student's right to privacy with a community's duty to protect its youth.

One of Sara's primary objections to drug testing is that she believes it violates her privacy without any benefit to her.

"If the police can't come in my house without a warrant, then why can they search my bodily fluids without a warrant?" she said.

Cindle said drug users are a danger to themselves and others.

"If you come to a public place with other students and you are using drugs, you're endangering yourself and everyone around you."

But are drug-testing policies effective in discouraging students who use drugs? The New Buffalo students say they can be.

Sarah explained, "I was talking to the captain of the football team this year, and he said that a percentage of the football team did quit using drugs . . . while they were in football just because of knowing that we might put (drug testing) into place any day."

But Sara Romanowski has seen how students get around drug searches.

"The kids (who use drugs) are smart enough to know that if there's an announcement over the intercom that says, 'Go down to the auditorium. Leave everything in the classroom. Don't go to the bathroom. Go straight to the gym,' the kids that have stuff on them are gonna put it in their pocket and they're gonna take it with them," she said.

The New Buffalo students believe the possible benefits of drug testing outweigh concerns about personal rights.

"If we do put this drug testing into place at this school, I believe if we save just like one kid, if we get one kid to stop using drugs, it's worth it," Sarah said.

But Lebanon's Sara believes others share her attitude.

"I just hope someone reads this article and says, 'Yeah, maybe I will refuse the drug test,' because if someone else will speak out about it, then maybe the Supreme Court will look at this case again and declare it unconstitutional like it should be."

REPORTER: Izaak Hayes, 12.