JEFF SCHOOLS CONSIDER DRUG SCREENING

DA Hopes To Get Grant To Test 2,500 Students

Plan Would Screen Sports Teams, Band

High school athletes, cheerleaders, and band, dance and drill team members
would be tested for drugs under a policy being considered by the Jefferson
Parish School Board tonight.

The policy would establish mandatory testing, beginning in August, for
about 2,500 student athletes and students participating in strenuous
extracurricular activities. It also would require mandatory testing for
students who have been suspended for drug offenses and would offer
voluntary testing for all other students at two high schools yet to be
selected. The tests would use a sample of students' hair.

Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick said he hopes the board
approves a policy so he can use it in an appeal for federal money. The
proposed policy calls for the entire program to be financed by non-school
sources.

Connick said the financing "will come, hopefully, from grants from the
federal government," and from local businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Athletes already must agree to drug testing under a 1999 Louisiana High
School Athletic Association rule. The rule, however, left to school
districts when and how testing would be done, and policies have varied widely.

Jefferson Parish schools have not performed any drug tests because the
parish didn't have the money to do so, officials said.

The policy under consideration by the board calls for testing for cocaine,
opiates, marijuana, amphetamines, PCP and ecstasy, said Freddie Landry,
Jefferson Parish school system administrative assistant for school safety
and discipline. Free assessments and treatment for students who test
positive would be provided.

The policy suggests that students who use drugs and are involved in
strenuous extracurricular activities are at greater risk for accidents and
other drug-related health consequences.

"We're trying to be preventative," Superintendent Elton Lagasse said. "I
don't want some kid to hurt himself.

"This is not a punitive thing," he said. "Nobody's going to be put out of
school."

Voluntary testing at the two pilot schools could be expanded to others if
financing is found. "This is a foot in the door for us," Lagasse said.

Landry said test results would be revealed only to the principal and one of
two Safe and Drug-Free Schools program administrators, who would tell
parents and assist them in getting services. An administrator would be
assigned to each side of the parish.

Proposals for mandatory and random testing of students have met stiff
opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU Executive Director
Joe Cook said hair testing is unreliable and possibly racially biased.

"It's unfair to force anyone without individualized suspicion . . . to go
through a degrading and uncertain procedure," he said. "We're preparing
kids to be citizens with respect for their fundamental rights," while
discounting those rights in practice, he said.

Orleans Parish piloted a voluntary drug testing program at two high schools
and recently announced plans for a program that includes mandatory testing
on the basis of "reasonable suspicion" of drug use. At the same time,
however, the Orleans Parish School Board rejected a federally financed
program proposed by Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Paul
Connick's uncle.

Paul Connick has been working closely with his uncle to get more testing in
schools.

"No other area in the country has moved this thing forward as much as south
Louisiana," Paul Connick said.

In Jefferson Parish, Connick obtained financing two years ago from Baptist
Community Ministries foundation and a private donor for mandatory drug
testing at three West Bank parochial schools.

"The kids feel like it's easier for them to say no," he said. "It gives
parents some security they are going to drug-free schools. . . . We wanted
to expand it into the public school system."

Connick said the mandatory testing would conform to limits already
established in courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld testing athletes,
he said, and an Indiana federal circuit court has upheld testing of
students participating in extracurricular activities.

Under the proposed policy, testing would be mandatory for students wishing
to participate in sports and strenuous activities, and consent would be
required from parents or legal guardians. If consent is withdrawn, the
student would no longer be allowed to participate in the activity.

Parental consent also would be required for voluntary testing of students.

Landry said Psychemedics Corp., the company that has performed testing in
several parochial schools, would perform the testing and analysis.

The board will meet tonight at 7 at Bonnabel High School, 2801 Bruin Drive,
Kenner.