Kid On Drugs?

MARIETTA SCHOOL SELLING TEST KITS

Counselor Predicts Demand Will Be High

Ever wonder if your teenager is firing up a joint on Saturday
night?

For parents in Marietta, the answer can be determined in their homes
in just a few minutes - thanks to their local high school.

In a new, innovative program that might prove more popular with moms
and dads than with their offspring, Marietta High School is offering
$12 drug-testing kits to parents.

Parents with middle school children also will be able to buy the
devices from counselors at the high school.

Marietta High counselor Chenedra Corbin predicted the kits will be in
demand.

"Almost weekly I have a parent in my office suspicious that their
child may be experimenting with drugs and asking how to go about
testing them," Corbin said. In the past, she told parents "that's
something they have to do on their own through private laboratories,
their doctor's office, or referring them to the police station."

Now, the Marietta Police Department is providing the drug-testing kits
through a program called Law Enforcement/Local Educators Against
Drugs, or L.E.A.D. Total Diagnostic Services, a Michigan-based
supplier of drug-testing kits to treatment centers, courts, law
enforcement and businesses, started the program.

L.E.A.D. kits already are available at police departments and school
districts in about 20 states, including Tennessee, Florida and
Alabama, said Vicky Grove, a volunteer who talks to parents who call a
toll-free number for information.

The Marietta School District is believed to be the first school system
in Georgia to be involved in the program, according to the
distributor, police and school officials.

Similar programs also are being developed by a St. Louis company, Test
My Teen. Mason Duchatschek, CEO of Test My Teen, said next year the
company plans to offer $5,000 in vouchers toward kits to every school
district and police department in Georgia.

To maintain privacy, the L.E.A.D. kits will be sold at the high school
rather than at the police department, said Marietta Lt. Mike Hathaway,
who coordinated the effort to bring the program to the city. Police
won't track who buys the kits, and school officials say their
involvement ends when a parent makes the purchase.

"This is for parents to do in the home, not to bring to the police,"
Hathaway said.

The kits test for marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and opiates such
as morphine and heroin. They also will detect "club drugs" such as
Ecstasy up to five days after ingestion, Hathaway said.

"Another tool' or a trust-breaker?

National studies show about 60 percent of teens will try drugs before
graduation, according to L.E.A.D.'s Web site.

Peggy Padgett, whose son, Alex, is a junior at Marietta High, thinks
making the kits available for parents who want them is a good idea.

"I look at it as another tool for concerned parents to know what their
child is doing."

But Marietta senior Robin Spears said the drug tests could cause a
breach in trust between kids and their folks.

"I wouldn't appreciate it if my mom were to come home and ask me to do
a drug test," said Spears, a student in the International
Baccalaureate program for high achievers. "I don't think it would go
over well with a lot of my friends."

Spears acknowledged, though, that the tests will give parents with
suspicions a way to confirm them. "It's a tricky situation," she said.
"I can definitely see both sides."

Marietta City Schools officials say they weighed such
concerns.

Another concern was that some people might take the system's
participation as an indication that its schools have a problem with
drugs, Assistant Superintendent Preston Howard said. Officials decided
the benefits outweighed such perceptions.

Howard made clear, however, that the school is not mandating drug
testing.

"It's parent-driven," Howard said. "We're not involved in it, and law
enforcement isn't involved in it. We wanted it to be as nonthreatening
as possible. We didn't want the first contact for parents to be a law
enforcement contact. It protects the privacy of the family."

The testing is done at home with a few drops of urine dropped into two
small wells. Results are available within a few minutes. A toll-free
number will lead parents to local resources for help if children test
positive.

The Web site for the program (leadtds.com) and school counselors can
offer additional resources for parents whose children need help.

Two Marietta Wal-Mart stores each contributed $1,000 as seed money to
buy the kits, Hathaway said. The first 100 kits arrived at the high
school last week and will be made available after school returns from
Thanksgiving break. The $12 paid by parents will go toward buying more
kits, he said.

Parents who are concerned about breaching trust with their children
should realize "a parent is going to have to be a parent," Hathaway
said.

"There are a lot of social services out there and rehabilitation
centers that offer services," he said. "If a child is on meth, they
will need treatment. If it's marijuana, it could be some counseling
they need. We will provide those names and numbers. ... They may need
more than a school counselor or a pastor can provide. We can help get
parents on the right track."

Used in New Hampshire

In Swanzey, N.H., the L.E.A.D. kits have been available since last
year, school resource officer Wayne Kassotis said. Drug testing kits
have been available off the shelf for years, he said, but they are
often expensive and aren't combined with a program.

"It's a great tool," he said.

Both Kassotis and Corbin, the Marietta counselor, pointed out that in
some cases the tests may help parents learn that the problems they
suspect are not drug-related.

"A lot of times it's not drugs," Corbin said. "Teens are often
stressed."

David Prichard, chief executive officer of Total Diagnostic Services,
said the kits can provide relief from peer pressure. When asked to
join friends in taking drugs, students can say their parents test at
home.

"You give them an out," Prichard said.