DEBATE ON RANDOM DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS RETURNS TO NOVI

The District Will Hold Two Public Hearings on Proposal That Will Allow
Schools to Test Athletes.

NOVI -- The proposed random drug testing of all students involved in
extracurricular activities is likely to ignite heated debate this week
during a pair of public hearings before the district's Board of Education.

Novi High School Athletic Director Curt Ellis earlier this year spearheaded
a proposal to add random drug testing of student athletes to the district's
athletic code of conduct, but backed off in February when a small but vocal
group of parents mobilized to oppose the plan. School board members on
Thursday evening, however, agreed to allow discussion of drug testing
during hearings scheduled for tonight and Tuesday evening.

Drug testing is not included in the proposed changes to the athletic code,
but the school board has the power to implement a random drug testing
policy for students.

"The board agreed to open that up to discussion," said John Streit, school
board president. "We'll hear the input we get from the public and then make
a decision as to whether or not we want to get involved with that."

Ellis declined comment. But the re-emergence of the drug testing issue
infuriated some parents.

"It makes me feel like they've been working on this all along, just not out
in the open. We haven't seen any data presented that justifies why we would
need to spend taxpayer dollars for this," said JoAnne Pritchard, who has
two teenage sons in athletics at Novi High School. "There are just no
answers to our questions."

Novi would become the fourth district in Michigan to randomly drug test
students.

The Huron School District in western Wayne County and the Lake Fenton and
Grand Blanc community schools in Genesee County both randomly drug test
student athletes, a policy upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.

But a University of Michigan study released in May 2003 shows drug testing
in schools does not deter drug use. The study -- which looked at students
in eighth, 10th and 12th grades at 497 high schools and 224 middle schools
across the nation -- found nearly identical usage rates in schools that
have drug testing and schools that don't.

School officials and parents said drug problems among students in the Novi
district are no different from any other school system in Metro Detroit,
but some feel random drug testing would encourage students to think twice
before experimenting with illegal substances.

District Superintendent Emmett Lippe said he felt the board was "a long
way" from implementing random drug testing for students involved in
extracurricular activities, but that they are eager to get feedback from
parents.

"They just want to hear for themselves how the public feels about the
desirability or nondesirability of drug testing not only for athletes, but
for any student involved in extracurricular activities," Lippe said.