SCHOOL BOARD PROPOSES STUDENT DRUG TESTING POLICY

A drug testing policy has been proposed for Conway students. The Conway
School District's Board of Education heard Conway High School-West
Assistant Principal Mickey Siler discuss the fine points of the proposal at
the board's Tuesday meeting.

Administrators decided to look at a testing policy after a 1999 survey
showed significant drug and alcohol use by students. The board will review
Tuesday's proposal for a month and discuss it further at the March meeting.
The survey of grades seven through 12 was funded by a grant from the
National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by Colorado State
University's Department of Psychology. It was taken near the end of
November 1999, and students answered anonymously.

The results indicated about 20.6 percent of the juniors and 22.3 percent of
the seniors got drunk or used drugs nearly every weekend or more
frequently. About 18.3 percent of the juniors and 21.4 percent of the
seniors used drugs occasionally, most of them only a few times a year. But
most juniors and seniors, 61.1 percent and 56.3 percent respectively, are
either drug free, have only tried a drug, or are only light alcohol users.
At the time of the survey, Siler said the numbers are consistent with
national averages. Most drug and alcohol use also seems to be occurring
away from school grounds. The responses indicate a lot of the local drug
and alcohol use is occurring during the weekends at student parties. "Our
students are experimenting with a lot of drugs and there seems to be more
all of the time," Siler said.

School officials based the proposal on others that had passed court
challenges in other school districts. He said the proposal would require
random drug testing of all students participating in extracurricular
activities.

Under the proposal, Siler said, each student would be assigned a number.
When it is time for the drug tests, the testing company would tell the
district to assemble certain numbers. The agency would not know who the
students are beforehand.

"It's being done in a lot of places," Siler said. In 1999, Vilonia and
Greenbrier adopted policies requiring random drug tests for all students
participating in extracurricular activities. Mayflower adopted a policy
requiring tests for students in athletic and cheerleading programs. Those
policies were put into practice over the 1999-2000 school year.

Students who test positive for drugs would be temporarily suspended from
extracurricular activities and required to seek counseling or treatment.
Siler said the proposal also includes an appeals process for students who
test positive. He said a lot of parents and school officials who discussed
the matter agreed the policy should include some way to deal with mistaken
tests. "Occasionally, there is what is called a 'false positive,'" Siler
said. That can happen when students are taking medication or for other
reasons. Siler said students appealing the result would also have the
chance to produce a second sample for another test.

Superintendent Steve Fulmer said few student drug testing policies include
an appeals process.

"We just feel more comfortable with it," Fulmer said. "We just hope we can
administer it properly."

If the policy is approved, Siler said some details will still need to be
worked out. One of them is how to summon students to the office for testing
without letting the rest of the student body know what is going on. "Of
course, confidentiality would be an issue," Siler said. "We rely on
people's professionalism and do not feel that would be a problem."
Confidentiality is necessary because there would be legal limits to what
the district could publicly discuss about testing results. "It's not our
place to provide that information," said board President Dr. Terry Fiddler,
adding that he fears word would get out among the students and cause problems.

"If they find out, it better be from somebody that's not one of us," Siler
said. "If somebody does slip up," Fiddler said, "they've got a problem too.
This is a professional situation. It stays in house."

"A drug testing policy is not a cure all," Siler said, adding that it would
be one component of a comprehensive drug program for the district. "It
gives them an excuse to say, 'No,' and they can blame it on us."