Pubdate: Tue, 09 Jan 2001
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2001 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  P.O. Box 36300, Billings, MT   59101-6300
Fax: 406-657-1208
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Author: Ericka Schenck Smith

BILL MANDATES DRUG TESTING FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

HELENA -- Young athletes and debaters and will have to stay clean to 
compete if Rep. Joan Andersen, R-Fromberg, has her way. The students 
wouldnít be forced to scrub behind their ears, though; they would be 
taking mandatory drug tests under her bill, which was heard Monday.

Andersen is sponsor of House Bill 81, which would require drug and 
alcohol testing for all sixth-through 12th-graders who participate in 
extracurricular activities. They would be tested once each year, 
during the first two weeks of the first activity they participated 
in. Throughout the school, year 10 percent of the kids in each 
activity would be randomly tested to ensure they were staying clean.

Students who tested positive would be suspended from activities for 
two weeks. Testing positive twice in a year would keep them out of 
activities for the rest of the year. Students who tested positive 
would be allowed to get another test, but their parents would have to 
pay for the second test if it were positive.

Several school districts in the state already have drug-testing 
policies. But not all do, and those that do have different policies. 
In a hearing on the bill Monday afternoon in the House Human Services 
Committee, Andersen said she wanted to standardize drug-testing 
policies in schools to make them more fair. The panel took no 
immediate action.

"If there is a statewide criteria for what happens if you do test 
positive, and then exclusion from extra-curricular activities is the 
same for all students, then weíre being fair," she said.

Two students from Custer County High School in Miles City supported Andersen.

Student body president Katie Yother said mandatory testing "would 
give those involved a reason to say no."

Yother, an 18-year-old senior, said she had problems with substance 
abuse when she was in the fifth and sixth grades. She has received 
help and support since then, she said, and has learned to make better 
choices. She said she sees the drug testing as a way to help other 
students make good decisions.

"I see this as a type of deterrent, just as was a change of 
environment in my case," Yother said.

Sophomore Matt Gibbons, 16, said he thinks students will value their 
activities over drugs.

"You are hanging over them that, at any given time, they could be 
tested," he said. "You show them a consequence, and it keeps that in 
their minds."

But not everyone was excited about the idea of mandatory drug testing 
for children.

Scott Crichton, executive director of the American Civil Liberties 
Union of Montana, called the proposal "contradictory to the basic 
tenets of liberty."

He said the bill violates both the federal Bill of Rights and the 
Montana Declaration of Rights because it is an unlawful search and 
seizure conducted without probable cause.

"Do you want (students) to learn that they can be searched without 
reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause?" he asked.

Joe Barbero, superintendent of schools in Pryor and a supporter of 
the bill, said his district has had a drug-testing policy for five 
years. Each student is tested for each activity, and that testing is 
followed up by random testing. Kids who test positive are given 
counseling.

"Our students know whatís expected from them, and they know not to do 
drugs," he said.

Barbero said his program costs about $10,000 a year. In the past 
three years, 393 students have been tested. Six tested positive for 
marijuana during initial testing, and five tested positive for 
marijuana in the random tests.

Having the state pay for testing would be nice, Barbero said. But 
money isnít the only issue, he said. "We have to provide our children 
another opportunity to say no," he said.

Andersen said she expects it would cost $562,400 to implement her 
statewide program. It would be less expensive than the program in 
Pryor because kids would be tested for only one activity each year, 
and counseling is not part of the deal.

Lance Melton, executive director of the Montana School Boards 
Association, said he was concerned about the billís 
constitutionality. Cost was also a concern for Melton, who said he 
would expect lawsuits over positive test results.

Cost also concerned Inga Nelson of the Montana Education Association 
and Montana Federation of Teachers.

"Is this the most appropriate and necessary way to spend that money?" 
she asked. She said school districts could institute their own 
testing programs if they found they had a drug problem and that 
mandating testing statewide is not necessary.

She also had concerns about how testing might affect kids and their attitudes.

"Treating me like I had already done something wrong was not the best 
way to get me not to do something," she said of her own teen-age 
experience.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer