FEW HEAR DISCUSSION OF DRUG-TESTING POLICY

SILVER LAKE -- The audience was small Monday night as school board
members scrutinized a policy that would require students to undergo
random drug tests to participate in extracurricular activities.

Only three people -- including the recipient of a
staffer-of-the-month award and a man who said he had reservations
about the drug-testing policy but declined to give his name -- were
in the audience. Steve Pegram, superintendent of Unified School
District 372, said he has received a few calls about the policy from
patrons, and most of them have been positive.

Board members began discussing a random drug-testing policy after
maintenance workers this summer discovered four hypodermic needles
while power spraying the boys' locker room at Silver Lake High
School. Kansas Bureau of Investigation tests revealed the needles
tested positive for steroid residue.

The board took no action Monday, and discussions will resume at the
January meeting.

Pegram said only four Kansas districts use random drug-testing
policies -- Columbus USD 493, Holcomb USD 363, Bluestem USD 205 and
Caldwell USD 360. Silver Lake's draft policy borrows heavily from
theirs, he said.

The policy calls for seventh-to 12th-grade students to enroll in a
drug-testing pool within the first week of school in order to
participate in activities for which they don't receive a grade.
Parents also could voluntarily elect to sign up their child for the
testing pool.

Not less than three times per year, and no more than once a week,
five to 10 students would be randomly selected from the pool to
provide a urine sample. Students who weren't selected through the
random pool could be tested upon the request of a school official or
coach. Students who refused to provide a urine sample would be
ineligible to participate in extracurricular activities.

Pegram said he was told testing for steroids -- the item that sparked
the random drug-testing discussions in the first place -- would cost
too much. Most districts only test for steroids if there is suspicion
of steroid use, he said.

All positive drug tests would be followed up with a confirmation test
before a conference was scheduled to discuss the results. If the test
was disputed, the student ultimately could appeal it to the school
board.

Board members asked that the punishment for the first offense be
changed from a two-week suspension from practices, meetings,
performances and competitions to performances and competitions only.
Punishment for the second offense would remain an 18-week suspension
from all extracurricular activities. Punishment for the third offense
would remain being barred from activities for the remainder of the
student's enrollment in the district.

Board members also asked Pegram to study whether they could make
counseling and education mandatory before students could be allowed
to resume full participation.

"If we identify them and don't get them help," board member Emilie
Fangman asked, "why are we even doing it?"