Pubdate: Tue, 29 Aug 2000
Source: Longview News-Journal (TX)
Copyright: 2000sCox Interactive Media
Contact:  P.O. Box 1792, Longview, TX 75605
Fax: 903.757.3742
Website: http://www.news-journal.com/index.html
Author: Mark Ewy

DRUG TESTS PLANNED AT WHITE OAK

White Oak Independent School District plans to spend $14,800 to drug test 
1,059 students during the course of the next year in an effort to give more 
than "lip service" to their claim of having drug free campuses.

Superintendent Dr. Richard Montgomery said at a Board of Trustees meeting 
Monday night that the society within the school can't help to reflect the 
society the school exists in, but with a new emphasis on drug testing, 
administration will be able to make their campuses a safer environment.

"We don't make air conditioners and we don't make oil. We make people," 
Montgomery said.

The school board is considering some changes in their drug policy. They 
will not only allow dogs to sniff for drugs in student's lockers, but they 
will reserve the right to search lockers if they have probable cause 
because the lockers are school property. Montgomery pointed out that 
students may not be sniffed by the dogs, however.

Just last week, two teen-agers at White Oak High School were caught with a 
bottle of codeine cough syrup.

"They were sent to the principals office because they appeared to be under 
the influence of something," Montgomery said. Principal Sigrid Yeats said 
the students weren't searched but that upon request they produced an empty 
bottle of codeine willingly. The students said they poured the syrup out. 
According to Rolling Stone Magazine, codeine is gaining popularity as the 
drug of choice at clubs in Austin and Houston and is nicknamed "Syrup."

Montgomery said they won't test for drugs to condemn the students but to 
turn them into productive people. White Oak's policy is a four-strike 
policy where students could test positive up to four times before they 
would be expelled.

"The spirit of our drug policy is to help students. We will never give up 
on the kids," Montgomery said.

Tom Thompson of THE Lab was at the meeting to explain how drug testing 
works. He said that a student could legally pass a drug test but still have 
levels of a certain drug in their system, which would suggest prior drug 
use. He said that drug tests can also detect "flushing" of the system with 
fluids and herb remedies to cleanse the body of the chemical. If the 
student showed traces but passed the test legally, Thompson suggested that 
it would be unwise to set sanctions against those students.

Trustee Ronald Smith suggested at the meeting that if there were traces 
present in the students drug test report, administration should notify 
their parents that the traces were found.
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