Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jan 2007
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Fayetteville Observer
Contact:  http://www.fayobserver.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Author: Sarah A. Reid
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

SAMPSON DRUG TESTING OFFERS PRIVACY

CLINTON -- Sampson County middle and high school counselors are 
giving free drug testing kits to parents who request them.

School officials say the screening program is a way parents can 
privately intervene. Students say the privacy helps them maintain 
their dignity. "I think it's an easy way to get help if you were 
having a problem without so many people getting involved," said Maria 
Core, a seventh-grader at Midway Middle School.

During the 2005 school year, there were 32 incidents of middle and 
high school students possessing controlled substances, according to 
the school system. The testing kits are one component of a program 
the school system started in November called Substance Abuse 
Screening Saves Youth, or SASSY. As part of the program, pupils in 
sixth through eighth grades study the effects of drugs.

The testing kits and drug education material are being funded through 
a $45,000 grant that DeLeon Wilks said he won last spring from 
Eastpointe Behavioral Healthcare. Wilks is the 4-H agent for the 
Sampson County Cooperative Extension office. The grant specifies that 
the money be used for drug prevention. Wilks got an exemption that 
allows the money to cover one session through either Eastpointe or 
Atlantis Counseling Services for students who test positive.

An instruction card that is handed out with each test lists the 
telephone numbers of both counseling services.

During the initial session, a counselor assesses the student's 
dependence on the drug and talks about treatment options. Any 
additional treatment must be paid for by the parents or their 
insurance company.

"We didn't want it to be a dead end stop," Wilks said. The county 
received 500 tests. Of those, only a few have been distributed. 
Parents who want the home urine test make an appointment with a 
school counselor. The counselor teaches them how to read the test and 
administer the kit. Counselors keep track of how many tests are 
handed out, but not who requested the test or the results.

"People don't have to see them buy the kit in the store," Jackson 
said. "They don't have to report it (test results) back if they don't 
want to. The anonymous bit, we thought, would help parents buy into 
it." School officials have been meeting with parents at PTO meetings 
and at school functions to tell them about the program. An 
information sheet was sent home with students.

Officials say they are still getting the word out and they expect the 
program to grow.

"It's never been an attempt to brand a child or stigmatize a child in 
a school setting or a community setting," Wilks said.

"We made it clear we did not want this to be an administrative tool 
for principals and assistant principals to discipline a child," he 
added. Students at Midway Middle School say there's not been much 
talk about the testing kits. But in general, they think it's a 
positive thing. Students say the testing kits provide them with an 
acceptable out if friends offer them drugs -- whether their parents 
have a kit at home or not. It's also a way they can clear their name 
if their parents don't believe they haven't been doing drugs.

"The ultimate thing it does, I think, is it gives them good refusal 
skills," said Peggy Carter, principal of Union Middle School. In 
December, the Cumberland County Board of Education decided to start a 
random drug testing program in the high schools next school year. 
About 50 percent of students from randomly selected schools will be 
tested before they are allowed to play sports or become involved in 
other extracurricular activities.

Sampson County schools does not drug test. "No one that I am aware of 
is doing what we are doing," Wilks said. "You have people that are 
randomly testing or are testing athletes."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman