Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2001
Source: Huntsville Item (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Huntsville Item and Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.itemonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1126
Author: Cheryl Joy Allman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

BOARD RULING SPAWNS DEBATE

While the Huntsville ISD board of trustees laid the topic of 
mandatory drug testing aside at Thursday night's monthly meeting, the 
controversial issue has left several board members concentrating on 
what to do next.

J.T. Langley, president of the HISD board, said that although he was 
not in attendance at Thursday's meeting, he feels the issue needs 
further study.

An independent survey conducted among students at Huntsville High 
School and Mance Park Middle School indicated about a 30 percent 
incidence of drug use among students, Langley said, and those figures 
are much higher than the figures accumulated by the drug task force 
appointed to study the issue for the school board.

"That's a pretty high number," he said. "Even if you took a third 
off, you're still looking at 20 percent or better. We need to 
readdress our survey. We need to determine whether it's good."

Langley said he feels strongly that while the board has made a 
decision concerning the proposed drug testing plan at HISD, the 
problems may still exist, and he wants to be certain the board and 
the community work together to find solutions that are good for 
children.

"I believe we're headed down the right path in our thinking," he 
said. "But it may take further study. We need to come together and 
work together as a community to solve these problems."

It is not just the issue of drug use that concerns Langley. The 
survey indicated problems with sexual behavior, alcohol use, 
depression and suicidal thinking among area teens, he said.

"Do we tackle them all? As a school district I don't think we can 
tackle them all. I don't think we've got the people or the resources 
to tackle them all."

As a parent of teenagers, Langley understands inherently the problems 
involved in parenting and educating children about the dangers in 
their lives. He said missing the Thursday night meeting was an 
extremely difficult choice for him because it forced him to decide 
between being there for the children of the district and being there 
for his daughter who was involved in playoffs with the Huntsville 
High School volleyball team.

"I felt like I just had to make that choice," he said. "One of my 
things about being on the board is (to be there) for kids, and with 
critical decisions going on, it was a hard decision."

Board member Patrick Antwi, who presided over Thursday's meeting in 
Langley's absence, agrees that discussion on the issue must continue.

"I think from the discussion we had (Thursday) ... we need to look at 
a plan or a policy that deals with substance abuse on our campuses," 
Antwi said. "I think in the end we may go to some kind of drug 
testing."

Although he voted against the policy on Thursday night, Antwi said he 
feels a problem with drugs does exist in HISD and believes it is the 
responsibility of the board to address it.

"I do think there is a problem, and it's something we need to talk 
about or workshop about," he said. "I believe that if you're a 
student, if you take part in any extracurricular or co-curricular 
activity, you need to be drug-free."

Both Langley and Antwi stressed that the board's concerns over drug 
use and the drug-testing policy represent a determination on the part 
of the board to help children, not to hinder, punish or embarrass 
them.

"We need some kind of policy," Langley said, "but it is our first 
priority is to inform the community that we're not out to punish 
kids."

Langley said that whatever action the board decides to take next, it 
needs to be community-driven and community-cooperative so that the 
problem can be addressed from a variety of viewpoints.

"We still need to work on touching kids and helping them," he said. 
"I would say, "it may not be your child. It may not be my child, but 
it's somebody's child,' and as a community we still need to look at 
ways to help our kids.

"The thing is, we want to be able to say, "your child tested 
positive, what can we do to help you?' We're not here to police. 
That's not our job. ... We just want to help."

Langley feels one solution might be a volunteer program whereby 
parents or teachers could identify a problem with a student and 
recommend action be taken. The students would then, with parental 
encouragement and permission, volunteer to submit to drug testing in 
order to get the needed help.

Antwi said he believes such a plan would work well, especially if 
coupled with strong educational tools in the classroom.

"We have a "reasonable suspicion plan' in place now," he said, "and I 
think we should draw on that. We don't want to micro-manage (our 
campuses) or tell them how to do their jobs or check to see that 
they're doing them, you know. They're doing what they can. ... But I 
think we need to be a little more strong, more firm about what we 
teach (the students). I think we need to be more thorough."

Every student should know there are consequences for drug use, Antwi 
said, and that message should come from every teacher and every 
parent, he said, so that children will not give in to the pressures 
that influence them to make negative choices.

"Every teacher and parent should take responsibility so that if you 
suspect somebody is not acting right ... that you make that call and 
get those parents involved.

"Kids face a lot," he said. "We just want to be able to tell them 
"You're going to have tough choices out there as an adult,' but at 
least we can say, "We have done our part in educating you.'"
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MAP posted-by: Josh