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SPARE THE ROD: GET THE VIAL - RANDOM VOLUNTARY DRUG-TESTING FOR A MIDDLE SCHOOL IS EYED

HANOVER TWP.  - Reading, writing and - drug testing ?

That may the curricula for some Memorial Junior School students.

Hanover Township School District Superintendent Scott Pepper said on Friday, Jan.  26 that the Board of Education is considering random voluntary testing.

The move, he said, follows the recommendation made last October by Health Officer George VanOrden and the township Board of Health.  If approved, the program would be based on one implemented by the Pequannock Township School District in Bergen County and serve as yet another tool in the war against youngsters' drug use.

But Pepper cautioned that district officials were still some way off from instituting any policy.

"We're at the very early stage of this," he said, adding it might be necessary to obtain input from all residents before a decision was reached.

"It's an important issue to the community," he said.

The move to enforce a drug prevention policy at the middle school comes in wake of "Operation Painkiller," in which 59 people mostly Hanover Park Regional High School students and recent graduates were arrested last July.

Two township residents had also died of heroin overdoses last summer.

The high school already has a state-mandated mandatory drug testing program for students who participate in sports and extra-curricular activities, or who are suspected of being under the influence.

Memorial Junior is a grades 6-8 school whose enrollment is now 580.

'Reduce Dependence'

According to a Board of Health resolution approved on Oct.  11, random drug testing at Memorial Junior School is necessary "to reduce the growing dependence and use of drugs and alcohol in our society."

Random testing, said the resolution, "may provide schools and families with additional deterrent to drug and alcohol use, thereby countering peer pressure which may encourage indulgence."

The testing program would "include follow-up therapeutic measures for students who might test positive, with a focus on drug education and rehabilitation."

The resolution said that, under state law, a school board may authorize its chief administrator "to implement and conduct a program of random drug testing of pupils in grades 9 to 12 who participate in athletics, co-curricular activities, pupils granted parking permits for on-campus parking, pupils who have violated the district substance abuse policy and pupils in grade 6 to 12 who voluntarily elect to participate in the program with parental consent."

According to the resolution, "by agreeing to participate in a voluntary and mandatory random drug and alcohol testing program, the student is making a commitment to live drug and alcohol free."