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.
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath