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.'" - --- MAP posted-by: Josh