KENNEDALE TRUSTEES VOICE SUPPORT FOR DRUG TESTING

The Superintendent Is Asked To Review The Costs And Legal Issues Of
Mandatory Screening Before A Decision Is Made.

KENNEDALE - School board trustees voiced support for mandatory drug testing
Monday night but asked their superintendent to look further into legal
issues and cost.

The main question was whether the school district has a drug problem that
is serious enough - and documentable enough - to provide solid legal ground
for a testing program.

High school Principal Ed Farmer gave the board a report showing that 12 of
the high school's 700 students last year were caught with drugs or drug
paraphernalia. Board President Darrell Barnes said that the figure doesn't
shed light on drug use among students and that he doesn't think that is
enough evidence to meet the standards of recent court rulings.

"You can't prove to me with this paper that we have a problem," Barnes said.

The board told Superintendent Gary Dugger to develop several options to
consider, including comparisons between a mandatory and voluntary testing
program, and whether to limit the tests to athletes.

Also the board, which is grappling with a budget deficit, wants staff
members to heavily weigh the costs of a program. More than 400 high school
and junior high students are in athletics, and the tests cost about $15
each. Some trustees said strictly random testing makes more fiscal sense.

Officials said a mandatory program for all students, rather than just those
in athletics or other extracurricular activities, would probably face a
legal challenge. Some want to wait out the appeal of a U.S. district
judge's ruling in West Texas that struck down a Tulia school district
policy requiring students in extracurricular activities to submit to drug
testing. The judge said Tulia didn't prove it had an unusually serious drug
problem.

Athletic Director Richard Barrett said the purpose of a mandatory program
would not be to catch students using drugs but to deter them and provide
ammunition against peer pressure.

"It's a way for them and a means for them to say no," said Barrett, who ran
a mandatory drug-testing program for athletes when he was athletic director
in the Godley school district.

Barrett, who came to Kennedale in April, started the Godley program two
years ago, borrowing from the Joshua school district's program. Godley
randomly tested all athletes at the beginning of their sports seasons and
then randomly tested 50 high school and junior high students every two
weeks throughout the year.

Several Kennedale trustees said a less-intensive program would be
sufficient in Kennedale.