SCHOOL TO MAKE DRUG TESTING MANDATORY

Hilton Head Preparatory School will require all middle- and high-school
students and staff to be tested for drug use next year, based on a policy
still in the works.

Headmaster Robin Byrd said Tuesday he thinks the policy -- the first of its
kind in Southern Beaufort County -- will motivate students not to
experiment with drugs and, in turn, will make the school free of drugs.

"We have the ability, we think, to structure a world where children are
safe from the environment of drugs," he said.

At the beginning of next school year, each of the 200 students in seventh
grade and higher will have to submit a stand of hair, which an outside
laboratory will examine to determine whether the student in the preceding
90 days has used any drugs on a list of those that are considered "most
abused," Byrd said. That list includes marijuana, opiates and Ecstasy among
other illegal substances, he said.

After the initial testing, the school will continue testing groups of
students randomly throughout the year, he said. Officials have not yet
determined how often the random tests will take place or what the
consequences will be for failing. So far, all they know is that students
who fail will be referred to counseling first.

"We do know that children would not be automatically expelled if they
failed the test," Byrd said. "Whether or not you get two strikes or three
strikes, we don't know yet."

Hilton Head Prep plans to administer the tests this spring on a voluntary
basis after the details of the policy are final, Byrd said.

The school's board of trustees began considering mandatory testing last
year after seeing statistics showing teenage drug use on the rise
nationwide and even higher on Hilton Head Island, Byrd said. Those
statistics came from presentations made by Larry McElynn, a Hilton Head
resident and retired Drug Enforcement Agency officer, who has helped the
school educate students and parents about drug use, he said.

McElynn could not be reached for comment.

"What we have accepted from Mr. McElynn is that nationwide and on this
island there is a real problem with drug use," Byrd said. "The fight
against drugs so far has been about the supply side. An effective program
does not go after just the supply side but the consumer."

Byrd said the school has offered educational programs about drug use and
its consequences for students for years through its health curriculum and
by bringing in outside speakers. It also has offered similar programs for
parents. The school will continue those efforts but believes the testing
will give students a reason to resist peer pressure to experiment with
drugs, Byrd said.

"We need to give children the ability to say no (to drugs)," he said. "Drug
testing is an effective method of motivating children ... not to use drugs."

But not everyone agrees with the proposed policy.

Phil Porter, a parent whose child attends Hilton Head Prep, said he wonders
whether testing is the best approach to the teen drug problem.

He said the board of trustees should have sought parents' input --
particularly about whether testing violates students' rights to privacy --
before adopting the idea.

"It's a private school and there's no democracy in schools," Porter said.
"But when it comes to parents and their decisions about children in school,
I think there needs to be a discussion before you implement it."

Byrd admits that the policy may be an infringement of students' rights. But
the danger drugs present to children outweighs the cost of infringement, he
said.

The board of trustees is responsible for setting policy for the school,
Byrd said, but it also works to educate parents about those policies and
seeks input on how to implement them.

"It's not sufficient to say 'it's a private school; we can do what we
please,' " he said. "We have to listen to, as part of the program, those
people who do see it as an infringement."

To discuss the drug-testing policy with parents, the school is holding
meetings to address different aspects of the policy -- such as how the
tests will be administered, how similar programs have worked at schools in
Mobile, Ala., and how families can seek counseling for teen drug use. Byrd
said the school has held three parent meetings so far and will continue
them throughout the year.

Carol Schembra, president of the school's parents' association and a member
of the board of trustees, said she supports the policy and thinks most
other parents do, too.

"I just think it is a very important policy for the future of all the
kids," Schembra said. "Raising your child in a drug-free community would be
a goal of every parent I know, and I think it's going to be an incredible
policy once we get all our details released."