Pubdate: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2000 The Dallas Morning News Contact: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 Fax: (972) 263-0456 Feedback: http://dmnweb.dallasnews.com/letters/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Forum: http://forums.dallasnews.com:81/webx Author: Sandy Louey Note: Sandy Louey can be reached at 214-977-6984 and http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (drug testing clippings) WYLIE SCHOOL'S DRUG-TESTING POLICY ALTERED Board Votes To Include Band, Choir Students Wylie school trustees decided Tuesday night to extend the district's new random drug and alcohol testing policy to include students in band and choir. Those two groups were not included two weeks ago, when trustees gave final approval to the plan to randomly test junior high school and high school students who participate in extracurricular activities. The revised plan requires all students in grades seven through 12 involved in extracurricular activities to undergo random testing. School board President John M. Simmons said trustees decided to revisit the issue Tuesday night after hearing from some parents of students in athletic programs who complained that band and choir students were being given an unfair exemption from the policy. "We basically went back and looked at it," Mr. Simmons said. The change means that 850 students at Wylie Junior High School and Wylie High School will be affected, an increase of about 50 students. The testing pool will not increase more dramatically because many of the band and choir students are also involved in other extracurricular activities, Superintendent H. John Fuller said. Band and choir had previously been excluded from the policy because those activities are not strictly extracurricular, Dr. Fuller said. Band and choir students take classes in which their grades are based partly on their participation in activities. Administrators did not want punishment under the policy to jeopardize a student's grade. "It was the administration being cautious," Mr. Simmons said. "They were trying to do what was the best for the district." Before Tuesday's meeting, discussions were held with other district staff about how band and choir could be included in the testing program without affecting their class requirements, Dr. Fuller said. Under the revised policy, if a member of these groups tests positive and he or she is suspended, arrangements will made so that the suspension will not hurt the student's grade, he said. "We're not going to take their grade from them," Dr. Fuller said. Under the random drug-testing policy, a student with a confirmed positive test will be referred for substance-abuse counseling and be suspended from all extracurricular activities for 30 days, along with other consequences. A second offense would result in a suspension from all extracurricular activities for one calendar year. Any positive results will remain on a student's record throughout his or her secondary school career. A student who tested positive in junior high would be slapped with the one-year suspension from all extracurricular activities if he or she tested positive again in high school. In addition to band and choir, the policy applies to participants in student government, service clubs, athletics, performing groups, clubs or societies devoted to specific study areas, and leisure-oriented clubs. The policy calls for testing of entire groups when feasible. That had been placed in the policy in response to concerns that the testing would unfairly single out students. Julie Schmader, a mother of a Wylie High student, said she still opposes the testing of students because she does not believe that district officials have proved that there is real drug problem. "They're blowing this way out of proportion," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder