Pubdate: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2006 St. Petersburg Times Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/ Website: http://www.sptimes.com/home.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419 Note: From Citrus County opinion page Author: Karen Rizzolo DRUG TESTS NOT THE ANSWER FOR STUDENTS IN OUR SCHOOLS Re: District gets grant for drug tests, Oct. 8, Citrus Times As a mother of three children in the Citrus County School District and as a nurse, I urge the Citrus County school educators, parents and board members to be wary of "feel good" promises and to proceed with caution when it comes to student drug testing, as it may be doing more harm than good. Consider the real pitfalls: There is no proof that random drug testing deters drug use. In 2003, the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the largest study ever conducted on the topic. Researchers compared 76,000 students in schools with and without a drug testing program. They found no differences in illegal drug use among students from both sets of schools. Urine testing, the most common and inexpensive form of drug testing is invasive and alienating. The collection of a specimen is humiliating, a violation of privacy and especially embarrassing for an adolescent. Testing can therefore have the unanticipated effect of keeping students from participating in extracurricular programs and activities that would fill their time during the peak teenage drug using hours of 3 to 6 p.m. Random testing also can infuse an insidious sense of suspicion into the delicate student-teacher relationship that contributes to a hostile school environment. This is troubling in light of research showing the strong correlation between school connectedness and student success. Drug testing is expensive. With costs ranging from $10 to $75 per test, per student, even with federal subsidies schools simply cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars each year for a program of questionable effectiveness while valuable extracurricular programs struggle to survive. There are many problems associated with maintaining confidentiality and school districts' legal liability in cases, for example, of false positives or breaches of confidentiality. Testing is inefficient when it comes to detecting drug problems. Testing only detects a tiny fraction of users and misses too many who might be in trouble. We should listen to drug abuse professionals who know that detection of problems requires careful attention to signs of truancy, erratic behavior and failing grades. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional for a school district to require drug testing but it does not say they must do so. The Alachua School District will not conduct drug testing. The Broward County philosophy is that kids come to school to get educated, not interrogated and will not use drug testing. Manatee High School tested in 1996, dismantled the program in 2002 after expressing skepticism about its effectiveness. Miami-Dade Public Schools noted very few parents consented to drug testing and the district's PTA, which represents 850,000 parents, opposed the policy. Their position was that such testing is a job for parents, not schools. Funds would be better spent in the schools. We as parents and taxpayers need to know the potential benefits and the program's potential harms. Only the results of such careful evaluations can and should guide parents and school administrators to do what's best for our youth. Parents need to know who is planning this program, we need to find out what each School Board member feels about the program, what the costs will be, what research has been done on it, how the test will be done with specifics listed, who will be chosen, where will the testing be done and what happens with the results. A forum should be held so ALL of our voices are heard. There are too many unanswered questions. Before we leap into a program that uses students as guinea pigs, we should examine the many repercussions, pitfalls and alternatives to random drug testing. The strongest weapon we have to combat drug use in our children is not the chemistry lab, but heads-up parenting. Let us parents do our job. In the St. Petersburg Times, on Aug. 5, the Crystal River Police Department started providing free drug testing kits to parents, who also can remain anonymous. Officers promised not to make followup calls. Police said they also will provide the kits to officials at Crystal River middle and high schools. In addition to the kits, police will provide materials about local antidrug resources that parents may want to use. Their goal is to help parents intervene before law enforcement has to. It is called the LEAD program and is used in 15 police agencies in Florida. This money comes from police drug forfeiture funds, not taxpayers' money or federal money, which is still taxpayers' money. The School Board needs to research this information from the local police departments. Karen Rizzolo, Crystal River