DRIVING DRUG POLICY

Shelby parking rule pushes drug tests one step further

Nick Staas sat wedged, lanky legs stretched out, on institutional chairs
between his dad and his best friend in the lobby of the Shelby County
services building in Pelham last week. Rain pummeled the parking lot; just
another hot, gray thunderstorm on another hot, gray summer day.

But Staas didn't care. He was getting his driver's license.

"It's pretty cool," he said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

Staas attends Thompson High School, one of Shelby County's 35 schools. He's
been getting rides with his buddy, Billy Cole, the gangly guy with black
wire-rimmed glasses and a comic book T-shirt sitting next to him. Billy got
his license in February. Come autumn, Staas is going to drive himself to
school.

But there's one hitch. If he wants to park on campus at Thompson, he's got
to be tested for drugs, according to a unanimous Shelby County school board
decision last week.

Staas doesn't think it's a big deal.

"Drugs are a problem," he said. "People who do drugs might be upset, but
they shouldn't be doing them anyway."

While other school systems have begun testing students for drugs since two
Supreme Court rulings in favor of testing in 1995 and 2002, Shelby County is
the first system in the state to expand the controversial issue to the
parking lot. And that expansion may expand to the courts.

"They should do more drug testing," said Cole, who is in Junior ROTC and has
the buzz cut to prove it. He has a summertime job at Winn-Dixie and had to
pass a drug test there, so he might as well do it at school, too.

"I'm used to it," Cole said. "We don't need drugs in our school." The school
system's previous policy required random drug testing for all athletes and
students in competitive extracurricular activities such as the sports teams,
math and debate teams or band.

The first Supreme Court decision allowed drug testing of athletes. The
second, Board of Education v. Earls, expanded drug testing to students in
competitive extracurricular activities. No one is quite sure whether parking
permits fall under the Earls decision.

"This hasn't been tested yet," said Alexandra Cox, a researcher with the
nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance in Oakland, Calif. For her job, Cox monitors
student drug testing throughout the country.

When called Monday afternoon, Cox already was familiar with Shelby County's
new policy.

"This will be interesting to see what happens," she said. "The Earls
decision didn't talk about the issue of parking."

Shelby County school board member Trey Ireland is a practicing lawyer in
Inverness. He said the expanded policy is "absolutely legal."

"The issue of drug testing for student parking has been approved by numerous
courts over the years," Ireland said. "Even a lot of the challenges to the
policies with testing student athletes also had parking. And the parking
part was never challenged."

He said all the court decisions in favor of student drug testing were rooted
in student safety.

"The key is that is has to involve an issue of safety," Ireland said. "And
parking is absolutely dealing with safety."

Only a "handful" of other school systems from Florida, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, Utah and Ohio have implemented the parking-permit policy in the
past year, Cox said.

Shelby County school board members said the expanded policy gives students
even more leverage to "just say no."

"This sends a message. We want drug-free schools and this is just another
opportunity for the students to make the individual choice to say 'no' to
drugs and alcohol," said Steve Martin, the school board vice president.

"If a friend asks you to share a drink before school, it's a lot easier to
say 'no' because I don't want my driving privileges taken away rather then
saying 'no' because I'm square," he said.

At the Shelby County board meeting last week, one parent spoke out against
the expanded policy. She said that's because she was the only parent there.

"Most parents have no idea this happened. If you don't read the newspapers
or you didn't see it on TV, then you don't know a thing about it," said
Michele Trachy Zaragoza, whose 14-year-old daughter attends Oak Mountain
High School.

"The board didn't make a sincere effort to discuss this with parents prior
to the meeting," she said.

Shelby County board member Allen Rice said all meeting agendas are posted on
the system's Web site before the meetings. He also said board members'
e-mail addresses are given on the site, so residents can contact them at any
time.

"Did we do this intentionally? No. Unequivocally no," Rice said. "It just
happened to come up when it came up and we proceeded to move forward with
it."

Zaragoza said she's contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. Privacy is
one of several complaints she said she has about the new rule.

According to the waiver students must sign if they want a parking permit,
they "authorize any laboratory or medical provider to release test results
to the board, the medical review officer, the drug program coordinator and
to local school officials who have a need to know."

Zaragoza thinks that's too broad.

"This is very serious," she said.

Rice acknowledged those fears.

"There are some privacy issues that must be safeguarded," he said. "Drug
testing is more commonplace in all facets of our society, but I still
believe we have to be very, very cautious as to who we give that information
out to."

A month before Shelby County's decision, University of Michigan researchers
concluded drug testing does not deter student drug use. The research,
published in the Journal of School Health, culled data from surveys of
students in 722 secondary schools across the nation from 1998 to 2001. They
found students' drug use in testing schools and nontesting schools were
"virtually identical."

For example, 36 percent of 12th-grade students in nontesting schools said
they had used marijuana in the 12 months before the survey. In testing
schools, 37 percent said they had.

Rice said he knows there is a lot of research for and against student drug
testing as a deterrent for teen drug use.

"I'm sure you can get data on whatever position you take," Rice said. "But
we want to do anything and everything we can do to provide a safe
environment for our students."

Connie Williams, assistant superintendent of Hoover schools, said she's
going to watch Shelby County's program because she might want to copy it.

"The policies aren't necessarily to catch kids, but to give them an
opportunity to use that as a reason not to do drugs," said Williams, whose
system tests athletes for drugs. "A lot of times with peers, it's hard for
students to say 'no.' But if they can say 'the coach might catch me' or 'the
school might catch me,' then that helps.

"Some kids need a reason. That's what this is here for."

Gloria Anderson is the director of student services for Mountain Brook
Schools, which tests athletes and students in competitive extracurricular
activities. Each year, Anderson administers questionnaires to high school
students.

"Consistently about half of the students report they believe drug testing is
a deterrent," Anderson said. "And I believe it is."

On that same gray day last week, Will McWilliams sat beside his mother in
the Shelby County lobby, waiting to take his driving test.

"I'm not nervous," he said.

McWilliams plans to drive to Montevallo High School next year, where he will
be a sophomore, but he's going to park in the street instead of on campus.
That's not because of the drug testing, it is to save some money, he said.

"I don't think it's an invasion of my privacy," said McWilliams, who already
gets tested because he plays football.

His mother agrees.

"I think it's a good idea," Marley McWilliams said. "If they are on school
property, they need to be drug free. ... "

"You have a choice to get a parking permit. You have a choice to be in
athletics. You have to accept the rules."

"Yeah," her son said. "I don't want somebody blocking for me if they're
smoking crack."

Drug testing policies

While Shelby County is the only school system in Alabama that has expanded
its drug testing policy to the parking lot, it's not the only one with
drug-testing policies:

* Shelby County - randomly tests for drugs in student athletes and others
involved in competitive extracurricular activities; expanded policy last
week to include all students who want a school parking permit

* Hoover - randomly tests student athletes for drugs

* Jefferson County - no student drug testing

* Tarrant - no student drug testing

* Birmingham - no student drug testing

* Homewood - no student drug testing

* Mountain Brook - randomly tests for drugs in student athletes and
others in competitive extracurricular activities

* Vestavia Hills - randomly tests for drugs in student athletes and
others in competitive extracurricular activities

Information was not available for the following school systems: Bessemer,
Fairfield and Midfield.