Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 Source: Kansas City Kansan (KS) Copyright: 2007 Kansas City Kansan Contact: http://www.kansascitykansan.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1650 Author: Jill Sederstrom Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) PLAN PERMITS TESTING OF STUDENTS FOR DRUGS School Districts Differ On Random Drug Testing Of Students DE Soto Is Studying The Idea, But Other County Districts, Including Shawnee Mission, Say They Don't Plan To. Although the De Soto School District is considering random drug testing of students, other Johnson County school districts, including Shawnee Mission, express no interest in such a program. De Soto is exploring a proposal to require random drug and alcohol testing for middle and high school students who participate in athletics or other school activities, or high school students who use school parking lots. If the district eventually adopts the plan, it would be the first district in the county to do so. The district is only in the initial stages of studying the issue. The proposal was developed by a committee of parents, staff and students who have been meeting since November. The school board recently told the committee to seek advice on the legal ramifications of random testing policy. It also asked the committee to analyze how much the program would cost to implement and run. Representatives from the Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley and Olathe districts said their districts do not do random drug testing and have no immediate plans to examine the issue. Nancy Keith, Olathe School District's executive director of general administration, said the Olathe district talked about the issue in general terms several years ago but decided it was not the way the district wanted to go. "I think we think it's a little too intrusive," she said. "We try to do our prevention stuff through curriculum and classroom guidance." If De Soto decides to adopt a policy, the district wouldn't be entering totally uncharted territory. Similar policies are already in place in El Dorado, Kan., Maize, Kan. and Oak Grove, Mo. Marc Haught, athletics and activities director for Maize High School, said his district plans to start random drug testing for middle and high school students this fall. Haught said the policy has been relatively well received within the community, partly because the district has been slowly working toward it for a number of years. Two years ago, the district began drug testing students based on suspicion and told community members at the time that the district was likely moving toward random drug tests. "We feel like that we want to try to identify and help kids while they are still within our jurisdiction and our control," he said. An important part of the Maize policy is making sure students who do test positive for illegal substances get the help they need, he said. The district also decided that students who do test positive won't be suspended from school, although they will be suspended from participating in school activities. "Generally speaking, the policy is to help kids," he said. But the policies don't come without critics too. The American Civil Liberties Union, a group that advocates for personal privacy, is against the policies and believes they are ineffective in preventing drug use. "It's a very expensive way to go about things," said Kay Johnson, the interim executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri. She said districts could use the money for more effective means of prevention like education. Officials in the De Soto district probably won't make a decision on random testing until next year. Board members have said they need more information before they can decide whether it's a policy they'd like to pursue. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath