Twin Lakes schools may start drug testing

By JOE LARSON

MONTICELLO -- The Twin Lakes School Board may make eligible for drug
testing hundreds of students between grades seven and 12.

If an idea discussed Tuesday is implemented, the school corporation
would enter certain students into a pool for random testing. Included
would be students who play sports, participate in clubs, drive to
school or take drivers' education courses.

A community forum on the issue will be held at the school in late
February, but no vote on the matter has been scheduled.

"I don't mind it, but if they're going to test athletes, they should
test everyone, including faculty and staff," said Rick Raderstorf,
whose daughter is a student at Twin Lakes High School.

Up to a third of Indiana's 290 school corporations screen students
for illicit substances, estimated Dave Emmert, general counsel for
the Indiana School Board Association.

"Our kids are no different than any other kids today," said Thomas
Fletcher, superintendent of Twin Lakes School Corp.

Twin Lakes School Corp. has discussed random drug testing for years
but until now has not attempted to implement it, Fletcher said.

The school corporation has around 1,000 students between grades seven
and 12. Fletcher estimates 60 to 65 percent of them would be eligible
for testing based on the standards the school board considered Tuesday.

School corporations legally can only test students who participate in
voluntary activities or who make themselves suspect for substance
abuse.

"It would be unconstitutional to test regular students because
they're forced to be there," Emmert said.

The practice of testing students who participate in extracurricular
activities has been upheld in courts at the state and national level,
he added.

If the Twin Lakes School Corp. does decide to implement drug testing,
a few eligible students would be chosen at random for urine tests
every four to six weeks.

The frequency of the tests and the number of students to whom they
are administered would depend on the availability of funding from
grants and other sources, Fletcher said.

He believes the drugs for which students are most likely to test
positive are alcohol and marijuana. The mere implementation of a
detection process may discourage the use of both.

"Drug testing could help them say 'no' to drugs," Fletcher
said.