Back To School: Plainfield

RANDOM DRUG TESTING OF SOME STUDENTS STARTS THIS YEAR

Kids Who Plan To Drive To Class, Participate In After-School
Activities Must Agree To Program

High school and middle school students who participate in sports and
other extracircular activities, as well as those who drive to school,
will be subject to random drug tests this year.

Ten to 15 students will be tested each week, said high school
Principal Scott Olinger.

Superintendent Jerry Holifield said Plainfield is the last district
in Hendricks County to adopt a drug use policy. School officials said
the decision to require tests is not the result of increased drug use
by students.

"We think it can be a deterrent," he said. "We want to give the kids
an excuse to say no."

Children who don't agree to participate in the program cannot be in
after-school activities or drive to school.

About half of the district's 1,200 high school and middle school
students would qualify for the tests, which cost the school about $20
apiece to perform. Students who are not in after-school programs can
volunteer to be included in the pool of students tested.

Olinger said he expected as many as 200 students to volunteer.

Also under the policy, the school can single out for drug tests any
student suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
School officials also may give breath tests to students attending
after-school functions.

Several new faces greeted students returning to classes this year.
The district hired 26 new teachers, including eight in the high
school and six at Brentwood Elementary.

Among those who retired were Mary Winters, a former teacher of the
year who had been at Van Buren Elementary since 1981, and Jan
Shaffer, an award-winning teacher who taught for 21 years in the
district, mostly at Brentwood.

Leslie Wolfe, a third-grade teacher with 36 years' experience, also retired.

One person with no intention of stepping down is Holifield, who has
been at the district's helm for 15 years.

His contract expires in 2008, but "he wants it known that he has no
immediate plans for retirement," said district spokesman Tony Perona.