VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL CONSIDERS DRUG TESTING

SIERRA VISTA - Richard Humphries has seen many young lives ruined by
the use of drugs.

But it hit a little too close to home for the retired Department of
Public Safety narcotics agent when his 19-year-old daughter admitted
to using marijuana while attending Valley Union High School in Elfrida.

Now, Humphries wants to get back into the fight against
drugs.

Humphries has been working with the Valley Union High School school
board to implement random drug and alcohol testing of students
involved in school-sponsored extracurricular activities, something
modeled after a program already in place in Willcox.

"Participating in a school-sponsored extracurricular activity is a
privilege, not a right," a draft of the proposal read.

For students to participate in the random drug testing, parents must
sign a consent form, allowing their children to be tested. If the
parent doesn't sign the form, the students will be banned from
participating in extracurricular activities.

Extracurricular activities, for the purpose of this program, would
include students who ride the bus to and from school, as well as kids
who drive themselves - that would mean about 98 percent of the
student population at the 180-student high school could be tested,
Humphries said. To ensure that the testing is random, students
involved in activities would be assigned a number and a computer will
pick students to test based solely on the numbers.

If a student tests positive for drugs, the student would be banned
from participating in extracurricular activities and required to seek
counseling for drug use.

"We don't bring the law into this at all," Humphries said. "That's
not what this is all about.

"It's an attempt at prevention ... it's not punishment."

Now several months into discussion, after tabling the topic at
meetings, the issue will again come up at today's 6 p.m. board
meeting at the high school with the possibility of it being brought
to a vote.

As the school board again discusses the proposal, community members
are still divided on how they feel about the topic.

"I just feel that the high school really needs to be drug-free," said
Valley Union junior Logan Essary. "It's against the law. It doesn't
help with learning."

Essary said he's seen drug-using students disrupt classes on many
occasions, and he believes something needs to be done.

"I would think that if we put in the drug-testing policy ... they
would stop doing it at school," he said. "So I would think it would
help a little bit."

However, Essary doesn't believe that the problem students are
actually involved in extracurricular activities.

"I would think that the kids that do drugs don't really do anything,"
he said. "I don't know how effective it would be, because most people
in sports don't do drugs for the fact of not wanting to get caught
and stuff."

Essary, who says he doesn't do drugs, is involved in football,
baseball and Future Farmers of America.

Elfrida resident Benny Bishop has spoken out at meetings against the
proposal. "You have kids who are not involved in the drug scene, and
you are testing them," he said. "They feel like they're being taken
advantage of if they're doing what they're supposed to do, and
they're not involved in drugs in any shape or form.

"Why put them in the same process? Why find yourself in court dealing
with wrongful accusations, wrongful charges?"

Bishop believes that any drug policies should just be targeting
drug-using students.

"My opinion has been, and I have been involved in education for 40
years, if you have somebody involved in drugs, you'll know who they
are, and deal with it either with your school policy, district policy."

Plus, Bishop said, he's concerned that random drug screenings would
affect involvement in extracurricular activities that may be the only
thing that get students through graduation.

"I wouldn't want to be an athlete knowing I was going to be drug
tested," he said. "Extracurricular activities get a large number of
kids in school through graduation, that's why I support
extracurricular activities."

Having the financial means to execute the policy is a concern shared
by board member Richard Searle and board president Mary Appel.

"It's expensive," Appel said, explaining that the district is being
told it will cost $100 per test. "If the kids test positive for two
different drugs, then they retest for those two drugs, that's $100
for each test."

While the financial burden would fall to the parents for subsequent
tests and counseling, according to Appel, she believes that $100 for
the initial screenings may be too much for the district.

Searle said he was told the tests cost $5 per test in Willcox, so he
is interested in finding out why there is such a large difference,
because he feels, at $5-10 a test, it would be financially manageable.

Another concern Appel has is banning kids from riding the bus if they
test positive. "I'm afraid that they will drop out, and I don't want
them to drop out," she said. "That would need to be altered for me to
totally support it."

"If they're in a position where they can't ride the bus and they
can't drive their own car, which means their parents would have to
take them, would they be able to?" Appel asked, pointing out that
some students live 35 miles away. "I certainly don't want them to be
in a position where they have to make a choice of dropping out of
school ... I know that, legally, providing transportation is a
privilege, but it's really also, in many cases, a necessity."

Searle is concerned that, after testing positive, there's really not
a lot of options to help the students.

"In the offside chance that someone does test positive, there is very
limited rehab options in the county," he said. "There's a lack of
options for kids that are not in the legal system."

However, Searle and Appel agree that such a drug-screening policy
could give students a reason to say "no" to drugs.

"The whole idea of the policy is prevention, hoping kids would have a
reason to say 'no' because they might get caught and not be able to
participate in activities," Appel said.

And, even though Bishop is against the policy, he said the positive
to come out of this is it has the community talking about drug use in
schools.

"There was progress made in the community when these things started
getting talked about," he said. "The worst thing for the school board
to have done was refuse to accept the facts that there was a problem
on hand."

And, Bishop said, if the policy is adopted, he will live with it and
support it, hoping that it will evolve "into something better than
what it started out to be."

"The danger is not doing anything," he said. "The lesser danger is
starting out on the wrong track."