Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Quad-City Times (IA)
Section: Front Page, Above The Fold
Copyright: 2001 Quad-City Times
Contact:  http://www.qctimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857
Author: Ann McGlynn

MORE STUDENTS ARE FACING DRUG TESTING

Starting this school year, four students per week among those involved in 
extracurricular activities at Fulton (Ill.) High School will take a drug test.

Every student at Alleman High School in Rock Island, as a condition of 
enrollment in the parochial school, submits a hair sample sometime 
throughout the school year to test for the drugs PCP, cocaine, ecstasy, 
marijuana, opiates and methamphetamine.

United Township High School in East Moline is thinking of implementing a 
drug-testing policy.

Half of the students at Orion (Ill.) High School stepped into a bathroom 
remodeled just for drug testing purposes last year to take the test that an 
increasing number of public and private Illinois high schools are implementing.

"It really has become really routine here," said Mike Nitzel, the principal 
at Orion High School, which is entering its third year of drug testing for 
students involved in non-graded extracurricular activities.

A precedent for drug testing students in extracurricular activities was set 
when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a case involving a 12-year-old boy 
from a logging community in Oregon.

James Acton, then a seventh-grader, went out for his school's football team 
and was given a consent form for drug testing. James and his parents 
decided not to sign, and he was not allowed on the team.

The case went to court. The local court ruled in favor of the school 
district, but an appeals court reversed that ruling. The Supreme Court 
ruled, on a split vote, in favor of the school district in June 1995.

Several cases have gone to court at the state level since then.

Ed Yohnka of the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, said a 
school district "ought to be very certain it has a reason to conduct drug 
tests.

"There ought to be some compelling evidence instead of engaging in a random 
law enforcement," he said. "I think there is a fundamental question here: 
whether or not it is their job or the parents' job to determine whether the 
children are engaged in elicit or illegal behavior. I won't defend people 
who break the law, but I don't think schools were meant to be an adjunct to 
the police department."

He also questioned whether school districts should be using taxpayer 
dollars to conduct the tests.

The River Bend School District, of which Fulton High School is a part, 
decided to look at a drug testing policy when officials became concerned 
about the number of violations of its good conduct code, Principal Jerry 
Klooster said.

The testing will start sometime in September.

"The community has been very supportive," he said.

If a student is found to be in violation in-season, they will be ineligible 
for that season, Klooster said. If the activity is out-of-season, the 
student will be ineligible for one-third of the following season.

There is another option, too.

"If a student is having a problem, they can come forward and as long as 
they participate in a school-approved intervention program, they maintain 
eligibility," he said.

At Alleman, part of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, students must agree to 
a random drug test sometime during the school year just to be allowed to 
enroll there. The student also must pay the $50 fee for the hair test. 
Employees are tested as well.

This is the second year for the program. Less than 1 percent of the 
approximately 500 Alleman students tested positive for drugs last year, 
Principal Colin Letendre said.

If a student does test positive for one of six drugs, the parents and 
school chaplain are called. The student also must attend counseling sessions.

The school nurse did the testing, Letendre said, noting that the time 
allowed students to ask a health question they may not have asked otherwise.

He believes it had another benefit.

"It helped some kids to say no," he added.

In Orion, no one has tested positively since the program was instituted, 
Principal Nitzel said. The school tested 180 students last year at a cost 
of $4,680, or $26 per test. The 268 students involved in non-graded 
extracurricular activities, out of a total enrollment of 375 students, were 
in the pool.

The tests happen on different days at different times of day, he said.

"The school board decided it wanted to take a more proactive approach with 
the issue of drugs and alcohol rather than punishing students after they 
have been found to be using them," he said. "This gives the kids another 
reason to say no."
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MAP posted-by: Beth