Pubdate: Sun, 04 Apr 2004
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2004 PG Publishing
Contact:  http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Milan Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PENNSYLVANIA BUCKS DRUG-TEST TREND IN SCHOOLS

Lack Of Money, Trampling Of Rights Cited

Politicians from the Florida Everglades to the California coast are trying 
to test high school athletes for every drug from steroids to marijuana to 
cocaine.

In this climate where urinalysis is becoming as common as freshman algebra, 
various Pennsylvania school districts have scaled down their drug-testing 
programs or eliminated them altogether.

Lack of money and fears that random testing is trampling students' legal 
rights are the main reasons state districts are resisting the national trend.

Belle Vernon, once stung by critics who said its football players were 
artificially muscular, used to test every athlete and cheerleader for 
steroids and recreational drugs. But Athletic Director Jim Bush said the 
tests cost over $100 apiece, so budget-conscious administrators shrunk the 
program to a fraction of its original scope.

For legal reasons, the Franklin Regional and Canon-McMillan districts have 
stopped all drug tests that targeted students because they played sports or 
drove to school.

Administrators believed they were violating a recent Pennsylvania Supreme 
Court ruling that said schools cannot conduct "suspicionless" drug tests 
aimed at athletes, students in extracurricular clubs and those who hold 
campus parking permits.

"We certainly had no evidence that those students were using drugs," said 
Canon-McMillan solicitor Francis DiSalle, who recommended that the district 
scrap drug tests that targeted entire groups.

But a handful of other state districts, notably Seneca Valley and Delaware 
Valley, require drug tests of all students who go out for interscholastic 
sports.

Delaware Valley, the district that was sued in the Supreme Court case, also 
mandates drug tests for every student who drives to school, as well as 
those in band, National Honor Society and every other club in which 
students participate voluntarily.

Perhaps the only Delaware Valley students not being tested for drugs, the 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court said, were "slackers" who did not play a sport 
or join an activity. These uninvolved students may be more likely than 
athletes, debaters or musicians to use illegal drugs, yet they were not 
subject to providing a urine sample at school, the court said.

Candis Finan, Delaware Valley's superintendent, said her district on the 
New York and New Jersey borders has found no court decision clearing the 
way for random drug tests of students who are not in sports or 
extracurricular activities.

But, she said, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have decreed that 
student-athletes and those in activities can be tested en masse. Given 
those rulings, she said, Delaware Valley feels comfortable in targeting 
entire groups, especially athletes.

"They are looked up to as the leaders of the school," Finan said last week. 
"We are going to hold them to a higher standard."

Much of the district's drug-testing philosophy is based on a U.S. Supreme 
Court ruling that said athletes at Oregon's Vernonia High School could be 
randomly tested for drugs. But in that ruling, the court contended Vernonia 
student-athletes were "a major source of a documented and active drug problem."

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court received no evidence of any drug problem in 
Delaware Valley, much less that boys and girls on athletic teams had 
trafficked in drugs.

State Supreme Court justices upheld the lawsuit against Delaware Valley and 
sent the case back to Pike County Common Pleas Court for litigation. 
Despite the court's position that suspicionless searches are wrong, 
Delaware Valley has not changed any of its drug-testing policies, nor does 
it intend to, Finan said.

She said the school board considers drug testing essential to keeping 
students safe and healthy. More important, Finan said, the district can 
document a drug problem, dating to the 1998 arrests of two students who 
were caught on campus with heroin. She said one was involved in 
extracurricular activities.

Delaware Valley, 73 miles from New York City, has seen an influx of 
newcomers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Given the growth and 
increasing big-city ties to the district, Finan said, the school board 
views drug testing as a means of "a village raising a child."

"Parents like this program. The only complaint we've had is by the couple 
that sued us," she said.

The complaining parents, Louis and Mary Ellen Theodore, challenged the 
drug-testing policy after it was implemented in 1998. One of their 
daughters had to give a urine sample because she was in the National Honor 
Society. The Theodores considered the drug-testing program intrusive and 
unreasonable.

Their daughters both graduated from college before the state Supreme Court 
ruled against suspicionless searches last November. The Theodores decided 
Friday to withdraw their lawsuit, saying the cost of opposing a public 
school district with vast resources was prohibitive.

Nonetheless, their lawyer, Robert Isseks, said Delaware Valley's random 
drug tests are on shaky ground.

One Western Pennsylvania district, Seneca Valley, has embraced testing 
procedures similar to Delaware Valley's.

Seneca initially spent $40,000 a year for drug tests of athletes and 
students who drove to school. It has added another $20,000 to the budget 
for urinalysis of students in certain extracurricular activities.

"We have seen all types of students become involved with drugs," said 
Seneca school board president Dean Berkebile. "Some have argued that there 
is an undue focus on a certain group. I instead prefer to look at it as 
every student who is in the pool has the perfect excuse to stay away from 
drugs."

Berkebile said he was aware that other districts had dropped drug testing 
because of the state Supreme Court's denunciation of suspicionless testing. 
"We have chosen to stay the course until a more definitive ruling is 
given," he said.

For a time in the mid-1990s, Belle Vernon had Western Pennsylvania's most 
exhaustive high school drug tests, though only athletes and cheerleaders 
were subject to the scrutiny.

Bush, the district's athletic director, said football coaches specifically 
asked for steroid testing because opponents had sniped about the size and 
strength of Belle Vernon's players. Bush said Belle Vernon was merely in 
one of those cycles where it had excellent athletes, some of whom would go 
on to play at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.

School board members liked the idea of steroid tests. They also authorized 
urine screenings for recreational drugs.

But testing some 300 student-athletes and cheerleaders each year soon broke 
the budget, Bush said. Belle Vernon now randomly tests 5 percent of its 
athletes and cheerleaders for recreational drugs. A handful of those 
students also receive the more expensive test for steroids.

Bush said Belle Vernon has not considered modifying its program since the 
state Supreme Court ruling. Athletes and cheerleaders have never resisted 
the tests, he said, but they occasionally wonder why they alone are singled 
out.

The man who pushed for Belle Vernon's program, former football coach Gary 
Dongilli, now says it was a colossal mistake.

"I'd never again advise a school system to do it," he said. "It became a 
political thing. There was supposed to be confidentiality with the testing, 
but there wasn't."

Dongilli said at least one school board member gained access to test 
results and spread word about the findings throughout the town.

He did not recall any positive tests for steroids, but said there were 
occasional instances in which athletes were found to have used recreational 
drugs.

Bush said neither he nor anyone else in the district could comment on test 
results.

The Derry Area district modeled its drug-testing program after Belle 
Vernon's. It also targets only athletes and cheerleaders.

Dave McNichol, Derry's athletic director, said he was comfortable with 
randomly testing those groups. But, he said, in a rural area such as Derry, 
alcohol might be a bigger problem and could be going undetected.

McNichol said Derry has had only three positive drug tests for 550 athletes 
and cheerleaders tested in five years.

Greater political momentum for random testing of students, particularly 
high school athletes, exists in the Sun Belt. State legislators in 
California and Florida have introduced bills to add steroid testing to 
screenings for recreational drugs.

Even with a state Supreme Court ruling, Pennsylvania districts are at odds 
over whether random tests are wise.

Random testing was considered problematic enough for the Shaler Area School 
District to decide against it.

North Hills has long had a drug-testing policy, but it does not target any 
group or use random tests. Rather, it tests only on the basis of suspicion, 
such as a student with slurred speech.

Lawyers in the Franklin Regional district said suspicionless testing was 
struck down by the court. That led the school system to kill its random 
testing program before it was a year old, said Superintendent Pamela Pulkowski.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom