SAMPSON DRUG TESTING OFFERS PRIVACY

CLINTON -- Sampson County middle and high school counselors are
giving free drug testing kits to parents who request them.

School officials say the screening program is a way parents can
privately intervene. Students say the privacy helps them maintain
their dignity. "I think it's an easy way to get help if you were
having a problem without so many people getting involved," said Maria
Core, a seventh-grader at Midway Middle School.

During the 2005 school year, there were 32 incidents of middle and
high school students possessing controlled substances, according to
the school system. The testing kits are one component of a program
the school system started in November called Substance Abuse
Screening Saves Youth, or SASSY. As part of the program, pupils in
sixth through eighth grades study the effects of drugs.

The testing kits and drug education material are being funded through
a $45,000 grant that DeLeon Wilks said he won last spring from
Eastpointe Behavioral Healthcare. Wilks is the 4-H agent for the
Sampson County Cooperative Extension office. The grant specifies that
the money be used for drug prevention. Wilks got an exemption that
allows the money to cover one session through either Eastpointe or
Atlantis Counseling Services for students who test positive.

An instruction card that is handed out with each test lists the
telephone numbers of both counseling services.

During the initial session, a counselor assesses the student's
dependence on the drug and talks about treatment options. Any
additional treatment must be paid for by the parents or their
insurance company.

"We didn't want it to be a dead end stop," Wilks said. The county
received 500 tests. Of those, only a few have been distributed.
Parents who want the home urine test make an appointment with a
school counselor. The counselor teaches them how to read the test and
administer the kit. Counselors keep track of how many tests are
handed out, but not who requested the test or the results.

"People don't have to see them buy the kit in the store," Jackson
said. "They don't have to report it (test results) back if they don't
want to. The anonymous bit, we thought, would help parents buy into
it." School officials have been meeting with parents at PTO meetings
and at school functions to tell them about the program. An
information sheet was sent home with students.

Officials say they are still getting the word out and they expect the
program to grow.

"It's never been an attempt to brand a child or stigmatize a child in
a school setting or a community setting," Wilks said.

"We made it clear we did not want this to be an administrative tool
for principals and assistant principals to discipline a child," he
added. Students at Midway Middle School say there's not been much
talk about the testing kits. But in general, they think it's a
positive thing. Students say the testing kits provide them with an
acceptable out if friends offer them drugs -- whether their parents
have a kit at home or not. It's also a way they can clear their name
if their parents don't believe they haven't been doing drugs.

"The ultimate thing it does, I think, is it gives them good refusal
skills," said Peggy Carter, principal of Union Middle School. In
December, the Cumberland County Board of Education decided to start a
random drug testing program in the high schools next school year.
About 50 percent of students from randomly selected schools will be
tested before they are allowed to play sports or become involved in
other extracurricular activities.

Sampson County schools does not drug test. "No one that I am aware of
is doing what we are doing," Wilks said. "You have people that are
randomly testing or are testing athletes."