COUNTY REVIEWS DRUG TESTING POLICY

The Pike County Board of Education is drug testing more students more
often, but there are still some problems with the policy.

Vice-Chairman J.C. Chaney asked Board of Education members to revamp
the district's random student drug-testing policy after one child,
who is not in the random drug testing pool, was tested because
officials suspected illegal drug use. The student, whose parents
weren't notified by the Board of Education or the school, passed the
test, Chaney said.

Board of Education attorney Neal Smith said a lot of people could
abuse the drug testing program if the district is legally allowed to
test students because of suspicion. The district should take every
precaution to ensure that the board's legal limitations are upheld,
he said.

Smith said notifying the parent about an upcoming random student drug
test could eliminate the "element of surprise" for students who are
drug tested.

Eugene Cisco, the owner of ASAP Consulting, a business that handles
the district's random drug-testing grant, said 1,300 students were
tested last year. There are thousands of students in the drug-testing
pool this year, he said, and 2,587 students have already been tested.

Cisco said there has been a 6 percent decline in student drug use in
Pike County, according to a survey in which students stated whether
they used illegal drugs over the past 30 days. The decrease, he said,
is similar in high schools across the country, but 35 percent of
students also claim that they know students who quit using drugs
because of the random drug-testing policy.

Cisco said there were 11 non-negative drug tests administered in Pike
County Schools this year, but seven or eight additional non-negative
tests came back from the lab with normal results.

"We're not so far off from the number [of non-negatives] that we had
the first year," Cisco said.

Chaney said something has to be wrong with the testing process
because he knows of schools where 10 or 11 drug-related problems pop
up every month.

The company uses urinalysis to test older students and swab tests for
younger students, Cisco said. If a student uses marijuana, he said a
swab test will only prove positive if the student used the drug
within the past seven hours. About 70 percent of the tests
administered were swab tests, he said.

If a student is taking illegal pills, no drug test will pick it up
after two weeks, Cisco said.

The district does not test students below the sixth grade and
officials estimated that about 45 percent of students in other grades
have been tested this year. Cisco was hoping to test at least 60
percent of the random drug testing pool before the school year ends.

Parents can request that their children be placed on the random
drug-testing list.

Cisco said the district needs to continually increase the pool of
students in the random drug testing list, a task that could be
accomplished by increasing the number of student clubs or athletic
activities. It is against the law to drug-test a student because he
or she is a student, but exceptions can be made for students who
participate in after school programs or who drive to school.

"We can call the freshman class a club and test them all," Chaney
said.

The Board of Education agreed to allow more frequent testing of
students, and it won't cost the district more to test the students
more frequently, Cisco said.

Board of Education members decided to schedule a work session to
discuss the drug testing policy.

Superintendent Roger Wagner said the district's substance abuse task
force is moving in the right direction. Officials are reviewing
employee drug testing policies in other districts in order to create
one for the Pike County School District.