KILGORE ENCOURAGES DRUG TESTS IN SCHOOLS

RICHMOND -- Public school systems in Virginia should seriously consider
adopting policies enabling them to test students for drug use, Attorney
General Jerry W. Kilgore said Monday after meeting with the nation's drug czar.

"We're not forcing it upon anyone, but we're certainly encouraging school
districts to look at it, work with us and recognize the problems and the
need to intervene in the lives of children," Kilgore said in a press
conference, where he was joined by John P. Walters, the director of
national drug control policy.

Only two school systems in Virginia -- Lynchburg and Salem -- have adopted
drug-testing programs, according to state education officials. Both limit
the random tests to students participating in athletics. No schools in
South Hampton Roads perform drug tests.

In a 2002 survey by The Virginian-Pilot of nearly 1,000 local high school
seniors, 42 percent of respondents said they had used marijuana, up from 37
percent the year before.

Kilgore stopped short of calling for testing at all schools. He said drug
tests may one day be implemented in a majority of Virginia schools, but
added, "That's years away." The General Assembly this year passed a law
requiring the State Board of Education to adopt guidelines for voluntary
and mandatory drug testing. The new law does not require local school
boards to test students for drugs, but it imposes state regulations on all
new and existing programs.

The Board of Education is scheduled to consider proposed guidelines this fall.

Walters said the Virginia law is the first of its kind in the country.

The White House drug czar said testing should be used to prevent children
from taking illegal drugs and to identify those who need treatment. He said
school-testing programs should not be punitive.

"No one makes a career in law enforcement slam dunking 15-year-olds with
baggies of marijuana," he said.

Lynchburg's testing program, started in 1990, is the oldest in the state.
Student athletes and entire teams are chosen at random by a school employee
for weekly tests.

School Superintendent James T. McCormick said the district spends about
$40,000 annually for the tests, with part of the cost offset through a
grant. He said the number of positive tests has ranged from two to 13 annually.

McCormick said students who test positive are suspended from athletics for
two weeks while they are assessed to determine whether they need treatment.
Although the testing is confidential, he said, suspensions can generate
rumors among the student body.

The most extensive drug-testing program in Virginia is at Benedictine High
School, a private, parochial school in Richmond, where students, faculty
and staff are randomly tested each month.

Civil rights groups have not challenged those programs, but the legal
director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said random
testing raises a red flag with her organization.

"There are always concerns when school officials undertake to do drug
testing without any showing of reasonable suspicion of probable cause,"
said Rebecca Glenberg. "It's just a gross invasion of privacy."