Pubdate: Sat, 25 Feb 2006
Source: Daily Press (Newport News,VA)
Copyright: 2006 The Daily Press
Contact:  http://www.dailypress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

PARENTS CRITICIZE SCHOOL SYSTEMS'S DRUG TESTING PLAN

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Some parents are criticizing a school system's proposal
to randomly test many high school students for drugs and alcohol use, saying
it would violate privacy rights.

Gary Mathews, superintendent of Williamsburg-James City County
schools, has asked that all students who participate in
extracurricular activities or who use a permit to park their cars on
school property be tested.

The School Board is scheduled to vote March 7 on the proposal, which
could affect roughly 2,000 students at the county's two high schools.
It would affect members of science and debate clubs as well as athletes.

"I don't think the schools have any business demanding urine specimens
of students who are not suspected of drug usage," Kathy Hornsby, who
has two sons in the eighth grade at Berkeley Middle School, said
during a Feb. 21 School Board hearing in Williamsburg.

Most speakers who attended the hearing were against the drug testing.
But several school officials told the board that students are
threatened with widespread drug and alcohol use.

"Kids stay home because they don't want to face it," said Tom Dolan,
athletic director for Jamestown High School. "We have students who
basically shut themselves in their homes on weekends to avoid this.
That's how prevalent it is."

Jamestown High School Principal Chuck Wagner said 17 students at his
school have been cited for possession or use of drugs or alcohol this
school year.

"The problem is much larger than we at the schools know or that
parents are willing to acknowledge," Wagner said. "Whether or not
that's true, I don't know, but that's what we're being told: that
students can't get away from it."

Dan Barner, athletic director for Lafayette High School, said he has
seen the attitudes of many students toward drug use change over the
last several years.

But others weren't convinced that random drug and alcohol testing is
the answer.

"Drug testing is a shotgun approach to address the minority of
students who are taking drugs," parent Curt Gaul said.

Carolee Bush, a former School Board member who also spent more than
three decades as a high school teacher, asked the board: "When we
break the Fourth Amendment, which protects against search and seizure
without probable cause, how can we expect our students to understand
the Bill of Rights?"

Student Zoe Welch said other students are worried that taking allergy
medications or eating poppy-seed bagels could give students a false
positive on a drug test. "I believe drug testing is humiliating,
costly and ineffective," she said.

But student Christine Bottles, who spent the past year on a committee
studying the drug policy, said she agreed with the testing plan.

"This will be done as a deterrent, not as a punishment," she said. "It
will give (students) a reason to say no."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin