Pubdate: Sun, 29 May 2005
Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Eagle-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.eagletribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129
Author: Shawn Boburg
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

SCHOOLS WEIGH A DIFFERENT SORT OF TESTING

Andover and North Andover will join a growing number of communities 
considering Gov. Mitt Romney's offer to pay for voluntary student drug 
testing in public schools.

School committee members in both communities expressed reservations about 
the aggressive approach to stemming the rise of drug use among 
Massachusetts' urban and suburban youth, but said they would raise the 
issue at public meetings in the coming months.

Under Romney's plan, unveiled earlier this month, the state would give 
communities $100,000 for each school that participates in the drug-testing 
program - $20,000 to pay for the testing and $80,000 for substance abuse 
counseling. Districts would be allowed to decide how to design and 
administer the testing program, but would be required to get parental 
consent and to offer counseling or treatment for those who show positive 
results. Test results would not be reported to authorities.

"I'm more than willing to explore any way of remedying the problem," said 
North Andover School Committee Chairman Daniel J. Murphy. "But it's 
important that we don't do anything that invades the privacy of students or 
gets away from the concept of teaching kids responsibility .. Perhaps there 
is a way to design a program that is remedial, not punitive or invasive." 
In Andover, School Committee member Arthur Barber said he does not yet have 
a position on testing in schools, but believes it should be considered. He 
said that's partly because a survey showed alarming increases in drug use 
among Andover's seventh-graders this year.

"We have to recognize that Andover schools are no different from other 
communities' schools," he said. "We have our substance abuse problems and 
that is just a sign of the times. This is a question that requires study 
and I would suggest that we discuss the issue, and give parents and schools 
the opportunity to weigh in."

The percentage of Andover seventh-graders who had tried inhalants more than 
doubled, from 4.6 percent last year to 9.6 percent this year, the survey 
found. The percentage who had tried heroin grew from 0.8 percent to 3.4 
percent, mirroring a statewide trend that has pushed Massachusetts' heroin 
use rate to among the highest in the country.

In 2002, nearly one in three Massachusetts youth between 12 and 17 reported 
having been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on school property, 
according to state statistics.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey said testing in high schools and middle schools would 
deter students from experimenting with deadly drugs and prevent addiction. 
The school drug test proposal is part of $9.1 million in drug prevention 
spending that state lawmakers must approve in order to get $14.1 million in 
federal money to combat substance abuse.

Salem School Superintendent Herbert Levine, who appeared with Healey when 
she announced the plan two weeks ago, said a drug-testing program could be 
implemented there as early as 2006. New Bedford is developing a 
drug-testing program that could be in place by next school year and 
Haverhill has created a task force to consider the testing.

But civil liberties advocates and some school leaders argue that the money 
should be spent on educating children about the dangers of drugs and that 
the drug tests would violate student privacy. Some also say government is 
forcing schools to play too broad a role in solving social ills and 
wondered whether $100,000 would cover the entire cost of the program. 
"Where do we draw the line? It's random drug testing today, random DNA 
testing tomorrow," Methuen Superintendent C. Phillip Littlefield said. "The 
mission of our schools is the intellectual development of young minds. If a 
parent is interested in having his or her child tested, I think the parent 
should go ahead and do that."

Methuen School Committee member Robert F. Vogler said he has heard no 
interest in the proposal and doubted school leaders would discuss it. 
Deborah Silberstein, Andover School Committee chairwoman, said Romney's 
school testing plan "was floated to be provocative" and raises more 
questions than answers. She said she would explore the option if fellow 
board members were interested.

"I'd question whether $100,000 is enough to cover all the administrative 
costs," she said. "And I wonder if this is really part of education policy? 
Can and should schools be used to solve all our social problems?" Scott W. 
Wood, a member of both the Haverhill School Committee and the task force, 
said keeping students off drugs is essential for schools to educate 
children. Wood proposed a program that tests only students whom faculty 
suspect are using drugs after getting parental consent. The task force will 
offer its recommendation to school leaders in the fall.

"If parents consent and it's not totally random, I'm not sure that's an 
invasion of privacy," he said.

In North Andover, School Committee member Charles C. Ormsby said he is open 
to the idea as long as parents could choose whether to have their child 
tested or not. "I'm not committed one way or the other," he said. "My guess 
is that unless I heard a compelling argument from a civil liberties person, 
I'd support it ... If I were a student and I knew there was a chance I'd 
get tested and there were consequences, I probably would think twice about 
taking drugs."
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MAP posted-by: Beth