PASO HIGH TO GET FREE DRUG TESTS

High-schoolers can sign up starting Monday; results will be sent to
parents, not the school

A drug testing program for students and teachers at Paso Robles High
School aims to provide parents with incentives to get their children
involved - and promises to give the results only to parents.

The testing, set to begin Monday, is being organized by Partnership
for Responsible Parenting, a North County nonprofit group that says it
wants to give parents the tools to keep kids from alcohol, marijuana
and other drugs.

Paso Robles High School is the first public school to partner with the
group.

"Paso Robles is really being proactive and wanting to give kids an
option to resist drug use," said Aurora William, cofounder of the
nonprofit group.

Paso Robles Public Schools spokesman Sheldon Smith said the district
supports the program.

"We certainly see eye to eye with Partnership for Responsible
Parenting," Smith said. "It gives parents a method or vehicle by which
they could talk to their students regarding drug abuse, gives stu-
dents a reason to say 'no,' being that they could be randomly drug
tested. It's good for parents; it's good for kids."

The school will not receive the test results.

"We're fine with those results going right to parents because that
gives parents the opportunity to have a frank conversation with their
kids about what they're doing outside of school," Smith said. It's not
clear what would happen if a teacher tested positive for drugs.

"Partnership for Responsible Parenting expects teachers to be drug
free, and so do we (the district)," Smith said in an e-mail to The
Tribune.

Paso Robles has a student-athlete drug testing program and random drug
testing for students on disciplinary contracts.

According to a 2005 state-sponsored Healthy Kids survey of Paso Robles
High students, 48 percent of 11th-graders and 19 percent of
seventh-graders had consumed at least one alcoholic drink in the past
30 days.

Among 11th-graders, 20 percent said they had smoked marijuana at least
once in the past 30 days, as did 7 percent of seventh-graders.

In San Luis Obispo County, the survey found that 40 percent of
11th-graders and 13 percent of seventh-graders had had at least one
alcoholic drink in the past 30 days.

Six percent of county seventh-graders and 20 percent of 11th-graders
said they had smoked marijuana at least once in the past 30 days.

Those numbers are alarming to William, who has four children from ages
13 to 24. She said she believes that kids need to be supported in
their effort to resist experimenting.

"Too many people think it's a rite of passage, and too many teens
think it's the thing to do," she said.

All of the program testing will be voluntary. Kids who sign up, get
their friends or teachers to sign up or encourage prominent Paso
Robles residents such as Mayor Frank Mecham or schools Superintendent
Kathleen McNamara to participate will get raffle tickets for a prize
drawing at the end of the year.

They'll also receive freebies and discounts from local businesses for
signing up.

The group hopes to have 10 percent to 15 percent of the students sign
up this year and increase the numbers next year.