Pubdate: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX) Copyright: 2006 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas Contact: http://www.star-telegram.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/162 Author: Katherine Cromer Brock Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) TRUSTEES HEAR FIRST-YEAR RESULTS OF DRUG TESTING Nine Grapevine-Colleyville students tested positive for illegal drug use during random drug screens over the past academic year. Steve Trachier, the district's executive director of administration, discussed the first year of Grapevine-Colleyville's drug testing practices with trustees at Monday night's school board meeting. Under the district's policy, students in school-sponsored extracurricular activities are randomly tested for 11 substances, including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine and opiates. The students are in activities such as debate, choir, band and dance, and on athletic teams. Of the random sample of students who were tested, another random sample was taken, and those students were tested for steroids. Throughout the last school year, 403 students were randomly tested for illegal drugs. Of those, 59 students, or about 14.6 percent, were also screened for steroids. Fourteen students were registered as having "positive" results -- eight for marijuana, one for cocaine and five students who refused to take the test, which is recorded as a positive result. Students who test positive are banned from extracurricular activities for 30 days and must attend counseling sessions. A second offense warrants a 90-day suspension from activities, and for a third positive test, students are suspended from activities for the remainder of their enrollment in the district. There were no positive results for anabolic steroids. The drug-testing program was triggered by the revelation last year that nine Colleyville Heritage High School students had used steroids during the spring of 2004. A random drug screening costs $13.50 per student. It costs $115 more to add the steroids test. After Monday night's meeting, trustees said they believe that it was money well-spent. "It's a wonderful deterrent," trustee Lisa Hall said. "The students know it's a possibility they can be tested and what can happen to them." IN THE KNOW School drug testing 403 students screened for illegal drug use 59 students screened for steroid use 8 students positive for marijuana 1 student positive for cocaine 5 students refused to be tested 0 students positive for steroids SOURCE: Grapevine-Colleyville school district - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom