Pubdate: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 Source: Press & Sun Bulletin (NY) Copyright: 2000 Press & Sun Bulletin Contact: P.O. Box 1270, Binghamton NY 13902 Fax: (607) 798-1113 Feedback: http://www.binghamtonpress.com/contact/lettertoeditor.html Website: http://www.binghamtonpress.com/newsindex.html Author: George Basler SV STUDENTS PROTEST DRUG POLICY Demonstrators call tests unfair Last week, David Pollock's mother voted for a new policy to begin drug testing of student athletes in the Susquehanna Valley Central School District. But on Tuesday, the 16-year-old junior, who is an athlete and an honor student, protested the policy by joining a student walkout at the high school. "Basically, it's an invasion of privacy," said Pollock, whose mother Susan Pollock was one of six school board members who supported the policy. About 80 students, many of them athletes, demonstrated to show their opposition to the plan, approved by the school board, to begin mandatory drug testing of student athletes. Susquehanna Valley is the first Southern Tier school district to adopt such a policy. The students walked out of classes shortly after 10 a.m., walked through the high school, marched around the school building and gathered outside the school's front door. After about half an hour, a delegation of seven students met with high school Principal David Daniels. The new policy is "an evasion of civil liberties" and prejudicial because only student athletes will be tested, said Joe Morgan, 17, a junior. Morgan circulated a petition, which was signed by close to 50 students, last week opposing the policy. Most athletes are against the policy, said Nick Hardy, 17, a junior. But the board and school administrators are ignoring this negative sentiment, Morgan said. The 80 students who protested Tuesday represented about 20 percent of the roughly 430 students in the high school. Principal Daniels said he met with the student delegation for about an hour, but he's not sure any common ground was reached. "I tried to emphasize that the whole rationale for the policy was to make it easier for students to avoid drugs and resist peer pressure," he said. Students, on the other hand, worried about confidentiality and privacy issues, he added. Daniels said he told the students that they can take their concerns to the school district's head coaches council and the school board. About half the demonstrators on Tuesday went back to class after about a half hour, while the other half left school grounds. Students who cut multiple class periods will face disciplinary action, Daniels said. A 1998 survey of 159 student athletes found 71.7 percent favored a drug testing program for student athletes, and 84 percent agreed, or strongly agreed, that drug or alcohol use among student athletes is a problem in the SV district. But some student protesters Tuesday said they felt the survey was biased because it grouped drug and alcohol use together. "Policies like this have been passed in schools with large drug problems. We don't have a drug problem," said Anthony Pace, 16, a junior. Other protesters said that if the district tests student athletes, it should also test students in other extracurricular activities, and school administrators. "It's unfair to single out athletes," Hardy said. - --- MAP posted-by: Greg