Pubdate: Tue, 08 Oct 2002
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2002 The Star-Journal Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Author: Greg Giuffrida, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HIGH SCHOOLS BEGIN TESTING STUDENTS FOR TOBACCO USE

VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. - Breath mints won't cut it anymore for students who 
have been smoking in the bathroom - some schools around the country are 
administering urine tests to teen-agers to find out whether they have been 
using tobacco.

Opponents say such testing violates students rights and can keep them out 
of the extracurricular activities they need to stay on track. But some 
advocates say smoking in the boys room is a ticket to more serious drug use.

Some addicted drug users look back to cigarettes as the start of it all, 
said Jeff McAlpin, director of marketing for EDPM, a Birmingham 
drug-testing company.

Short of catching them in the act, school officials previously had no way 
of proving students had been smoking.

Testing students for drugs has spread in recent years and was given a boost 
in June when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed random testing of those in 
extracurricular activities. Tobacco can easily be added to the usual 
battery of tests.

I agree with it, said 16-year-old Vestavia Hills High School junior 
Rosemary Stafford, a member of the marching band. It s illegal, it s 
addictive. Maybe the punishment shouldn t be as severe, but they should 
test for it.

In Alabama, where the legal age for purchasing and smoking tobacco products 
is 19, about a dozen districts, mostly in the Birmingham area, test for 
nicotine along with alcohol and several illegal drugs, including marijuana.

In most cases, the penalties for testing positive for cotinine - a 
metabolic byproduct that remains in the body after smoking or chewing 
tobacco - are the same as those for illegal drugs: The student s parents 
are notified and he or she is usually placed on school probation and 
briefly suspended from sports or other activities.

Alabama s Hoover school system randomly tested 679 of its 1,500 athletes 
for drug use this past school year. Fourteen high school students tested 
positive, 12 of them for tobacco.

Elsewhere around the country, schools in Blackford County, Ind., test for 
tobacco use in athletes, participants in other extracurricular activities, 
and students who take driver s education or apply for parking permits.

In Lockney, Texas, a federal judge recently struck down the district s 
testing of all students for the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

In Columbia County, Fla., the school board will vote Tuesday on a testing 
policy that would include tobacco. Teenagers who take part in 
extracurricular activities or apply for permits to drive to school would be 
screened.

Tobacco does and will affect a larger majority of the students than alcohol 
or drugs, said Gloria Spizey, the county s coordinator for Safe and 
Drug-Free Schools. Tobacco use can be devastating. We felt it needed to 
stand with the other drugs.

Screenings can detect cotinine for up to 10 days in regular smokers of 
about a half a pack, or 10 cigarettes, a day, McAlpin said. Experts say it 
is unlikely that cotinine would collect in people exposed to secondhand smoke.

Tobacco is illegal for them to have - it s also a health and safety issue, 
said Phil Hastings, supervisor of safety and alternative education for 
schools in Decatur, which recently adopted a testing program that includes 
tobacco. We ve got a responsibility to let the kids know the dangers of 
tobacco use.

While random drug testing overall is being fought by the American Civil 
Liberties Union and students rights groups, the addition of nicotine 
testing has drawn little opposition.

Guidelines published last month by the White House drug office do not 
specifically address tobacco testing.

On tobacco, we have the same policy as on testing for drugs - it may not be 
right for every school and community, said Jennifer de Vallance, press 
secretary for the office. We encourage parents and officials to assess the 
extent and nature of the tobacco problem.

Shawn Heller, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in 
Washington, said tobacco use by teen-agers is a major problem, but testing 
for it is just another step in the invasion of students privacy.

We re making schools like prisons, he said.
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