STUDENTS SPEAK AGAINST DRUG POLICY

ELLIOTTSBURG - Students were unable to help a friend they said was
wrongly suspended from West Perry High School and the track team after
authorities found a small amount of marijuana residue in the ashtray
of a used car he had bought.

But several West Perry School Board members said Monday night they
will consider their suggestions to change their policy about students
found with drugs on or off campus.

A senior was suspended from school for five days and from the team for
30 days after a police drug dog detected the residue April 25 in the
18-year-old's car in the school parking lot, officials said.

In 2006, West Perry adopted a 24-hours a day, 7-days a week conduct
policy that calls for a 30-day suspension from extracurricular
activities for a first violation of district drug and alcohol policy
- -- whether the violation occurs at or away from school.

A second offense brings a suspension from the activity for a
year.

More than 40 parents and students attended Monday night's school board
meeting to express support for the student. No one in the audience
spoke in support of the policy.

Friends of the student said they felt he knew nothing about the
marijuana residue.

West Perry senior Joe Miller said district policy treats burned
residue the same as larger amounts of drugs.

"I think people should start using their heads," Miller said. "The
current policy does not allow that."

He urged the school board consider the results of drug tests when
punishing students.

Friends of the suspended student said he took and passed several drug
tests, including urine, blood and hair follicles. The district never
tested the student and referred him to counseling, friends said.

Police did not charge the suspended student.

Miller said school administrators should be able to use "common sense
judgment" when applying the policy.

"All you hear now is, 'We're following policy,'" Miller
said.

Lynn Aul, a junior, asked why students are not suspended for having
tobacco ashes in the ashtrays of their cars as well.

"Tobacco's against school policy, also," he said.

School Director Karen Anderson, an opponent of the 24/7 policy, said
she also had issues with how drug searches are conducted on campus.

Anderson said she would take the student's suggestions to the policy
committee.

"It's not over, and I won't let it be over," she said.

School board President Charles Thiemann said the board should discuss
how searches are conducted and he expressed concern that school
administrators may not be carrying out the policy as directors had
hoped.

The policy was created after five field hockey players were suspended
from the team after they admitted drinking alcohol at a weekend party
in 2005.