DRUG TESTING OK'D FOR SCHOOL

Details of policy are being worked out; officials want to include many
students

Random drug testing will begin at Westfield High School in
August.

Westfield Washington School Board members this week gave administrators the OK
to move forward on defining a policy that can be implemented with the
start of the 2006-07 school year.

The board's decision finalizes a process that began last fall, when
high school Principal Stacy McGuire and other building administrators
began meeting with parents, students, teachers and others about the
possibility of drug testing.

Board member Jim Pantos said he thinks it helps kids make good
choices.

"It is a program that (is) in the best interest of the students,"
Pantos said, adding that during his time as principal of nearby
Lebanon High School, students there favored a similar policy.

"The students were supportive of it because it was one more reason for
them to say no to drugs."

McGuire said she hopes to have a formal policy ready for the board in
April.

McGuire likely will work to keep the language broad and
encompassing.

"One thing that we have heard is that the more kids you test, the more
effective your policy is," she said. "You want to get as many kids
into the pool as possible."

Testing groups could include athletes and students involved in other
extracurricular groups, as well as teens who drive personal cars to
school.

The fall addition of Westfield means all Hamilton County school
districts, with the exception of Carmel, will be conducting random
student drug testing. Late last month, the Carmel Clay School Board
defeated a testing proposal because of the estimated $35,000 price.

Westfield officials aren't sure about the cost for testing, and board
members did not qualify their approval of a proposal with any type of
expense range.