SCHOOLS LAUD DRUG TESTS RESULT

Less Than 2 Percent Of Students Failed

Less than 2 percent of student athletes who submitted to the Jefferson
Parish school system's first round of mandatory drug testing tested
positive, said school officials who applauded the results as falling far
short of the 10 percent they expected.

According to a report released this month by Freddie Landry, Jefferson's
anti-drug and school safety coordinator, only 1.7 percent, or 28 students
of the 1,556 who gave hair clippings or urine samples this school year,
tested positive.

Under a policy approved by the School Board in March, high school athletes
and students participating in physically strenuous extracurricular
activities must be tested or they will be barred from the activities.

The first round of testing began in August for students in football,
volleyball, cross country and activities such as cheerleading or dance teams.

The students who tested positive were not expelled from school or reported
to police, but their parents were notified, and they were referred to
counseling.

The 28 students who tested positive will be retested after they complete
counseling, Landry said.

Elected officials, including Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick
and U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie, have touted the plan as the first
of its kind nationwide, and Vitter helped secure federal grants to finance it.

Linking extracurricular involvement to staying drug-free helped keep low
the number of students testing positive, Landry said. "The students
realized they have to make a decision whether they either wanted to
participate in activities or do drugs," she said. "It gave the kids a real
reason to say no."

The majority of the participating students had tufts of their hair clipped
for tests conducted by Psychemedics Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., but 133
students had to have their urine tested because of a lack of hair, Landry
said, adding that officials were cautious in protecting the anonymity and
confidentiality of all students.

Officials are still waiting for results on a small number of students at
Grand Isle School, where, because of logistical reasons, students were
tested earlier this month.

In November, the system will hold two additional rounds of testing, one for
about 450 students participating in winter sports and another set of
randomly selected students from those tested in August.

The random testing, which will routinely target about 25 percent of those
previously tested, hopefully will continue to keep students drug-free,
Landry said.

"I think it's a significant deterrent," she said.

About 450 more students who want to participate in spring sports must be
tested in January.

The test results help dispel negative stereotypes of teenagers, said Mannie
Barocco, the district's athletic director. "Everybody thinks teenagers are
always doing something negative, but that's not the case," he said. "There
was a lot of anticipation that the results were going to be phenomenal."

Coaches and students were eager to be done with the testing and move on
with their seasons, Barocco said. "It was just another requirement they had
to deal with," he said.

As part of the drug-testing policy, all students at East Jefferson High
School in Metairie and John Ehret High School in Marrero could volunteer to
be tested with parental permission. But turnout for that part of the
program has been low, which has raised concern among school officials.

About 100 Ehret students and another 40 at East Jefferson will be tested
next month, Landry said, adding that ideally the district would like to see
50 percent to 60 percent of students at each school volunteer. Ehret has
nearly 3,000 students, while about 1,100 attend East Jefferson.

Officials will work harder to publicize the program at those schools but
first must check on the federal grant to make sure enough money is
available to handle the increased demand.

In what some officials described as uncharted territory in drug testing,
the School Board also voted in July to expand the policy to include
mandatory testing for middle, junior or high school students who have been
suspended three times in a school year. The plan is still awaiting
financing, officials said.

Under the policy, a student cannot return to class until he or she is tested.