DRUG TESTS AND DOLLARS

If you found yourself with $100,000 a year with which to prevent the use of
drugs and alcohol in Baker County, what would you do?

That's the enviable predicament of the Baker County Prevention Coalition,
thanks to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The grant is renewable annually, so the coalition's job this first year will
be to make a mark and show the federal government that $100,000 is money
well-spent.

No doubt the grant comes with strings attached and was won with a detailed
and prescribed program of action.

But if the money were totally unrestricted, what could you do?

We put that question to our team of sideways thinkers and cooked up a scheme
so ridiculous it just might work.

Step One: Bail out Baker School District 5J. Sure, $100,000 won't even begin
to make a dent in the dollar doldrums the district finds itself in. But
belt-tightening at the district did away with funding for a school resource
officer this year, and that is a position we think should be restored.

Police Chief Jim Tomlinson intends to maintain a presence in Baker schools,
but the job will be assigned to officers on duty during the weekday hours.
And who is on duty changes from week to week to week as the schedule
rotates.

As a result, school officials and students will be working with several
different officers instead of only one.

While we believe this remains a workable situation, having one "go-to"
person for school crime prevention and solutions would be even better. The
coalition could elect to fund part of or all of a school resource position
with their grant.

Not such a strange thought, really.

But consider Step Two: recent legal tests have upheld the right of school
districts to perform random drug tests on students.

Let's test our student population at random -- and reward those who test
negative with a U.S. Savings Bond of a significant denomination, maybe $50
or $100.

Those who test positive should be steered towards appropriate help and
allowed, if possible, to remain in school.

The idea isn't to create a witch-hunt, but an incentive for living a
drug-free lifestyle.

Kids will be clamoring to be tested.

And those who don't trip over themselves to be tested ... well, the school
resource officer could begin cultivating a helping relationship with those
kids to find out what's what and get them the help they need.