Pubdate: Tue, 26 Apr 2005
Source: Burlington Times-News (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-News Publishing Company
Contact: http://www.thetimesnews.com/letter_to_editor/splash.php
Website: http://www.thetimesnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1822
Author: Mike Wilder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

DRUG TESTING UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED

The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to
require random drug testing for high school students who participate in
extracurricular activities.

The policy will affect students who play sports, participate in band
or chorus, or are part of school clubs.

Under a change to the policy as originally proposed, students who
are not involved in activities can choose to participate in the random
drug-testing program if their parents make that request. Six people
spoke at the board's meeting either to oppose the policy or to ask the
board to delay a decision. Most board members, however, have reported
hearing more positive than negative comments about the policy.
Superintendent Jim Merrill has said the drug-testing proposal stemmed
largely from the system-wide drug bust that resulted in the arrests of
dozens of high school students in February 2004. Board members
approved the policy following a motion by Brenda Foster, the board's
vice chairwoman. "This is not going to solve all our drug problems,
but I think it's a piece to the puzzle," said board member Jackie
Cole. "This gives the kids another opportunity to say no to drugs,"
said board member Steve Van Pelt.

The system is projecting the drug tests will cost $25,000 each year.
The local chapter of the NAACP opposes random drug testing of the
students, and NAACP member Ernestine Lewis brought petitions against
the policy to the meeting. She said they contained about 200 names.
Gregg Lee of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators asked
the school board to delay voting on the policy to "allow the community
a greater opportunity to come together."

Lee, who teaches at Williams High School, said the association's
leadership agreed during a recent meeting to request the delay. He
said the organization is not opposed to random drug testing, but is
concerned about opposition from the minority community. He suggested
that a community meeting similar to a recent event held to discuss
deciding when to open school during bad winter weather would be
helpful. Under the policy, students will be suspended for three months
for the first offense.

Students who participate in drug treatment and then have a negative
drug test result are allowed to be reinstated after the suspension.
Once reinstated, those students will be required to submit to
unannounced drug testing for the next year.

The second offense will mean suspension for a year, and the third
offense will ban the student for the rest of high school. Merrill said
he discussed the drug-testing proposal with teachers from 29 of the
system's 33 schools at a recent teacher advisory group meeting. "They
were unanimous in support of this policy," he said. He said he
recently talked with the student leadership at two of the six high
schools, and reported those students supported the policy. School
board members said they believe the policy has been designed to
preserve students' dignity and to maximize parent involvement if a
student tests positive for drug use.

Helen Evans, a member of the NAACP and local talkshow host, said the
policy amounts to forcing students to comply with the school system's
wishes in order to participate in activities.

"At best, it is heavy-handed," she said. "In order to realize your
desires, you have to give up your constitutional rights." The U.S.
Supreme Court has upheld random drug testing for students who are
involved in activities outside the classroom. Merrill said alcohol
isn't included in the policy because that would involve a separate
test, increasing the cost. He said because alcohol doesn't remain in
the body for long, "you would almost have to have a student drinking
on the way to school in order to test positive."

Sellars-Gunn Education Center, the system's alternative school, was
deleted from inclusion in the policy because it does not offer
extracurricular activities, Merrill said. A reference to
suspicion-based testing was also deleted, although administrators have
said the system sometimes does those tests already.

Merrill said the system is looking into suggestions that teachers and
other system employees be subject either to pre-employment testing or
random on-the-job testing.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin