CLASS DRUG SWABS

Schools Eye Wipe Kit

A handful of schools in the tri-state area are hoping to wipe out
drugs with one quick swipe.

They're using a new DrugWipe technology that allows educators to take
samples from lockers or other surfaces, picking up on trace amounts
of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana that users give off
in their sweat.

In a matter of minutes, officials can determine what kind of illegal
narcotics are in their school, where drug dealers might be lurking
and how young the users are.

Newark school officials want to use the information to fine-tune
their anti-drug message, adjusting it to the reality of what drugs
kids are actually using, said Willie Freeman, security director for
the Newark School District. But officials won't be using the test to
bust individual kids, he said.

"It's just the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do,"
Freeman said. "We want to make the curriculum flexible enough to
teach toward the problem."

After receiving a $30,000 federal grant to test six city schools, a
team of school safety officers went through Newark's 1,500-student
Barringer HS last week, swiping batches of 20 locker handles with
each hand-held testing kit.

Freeman wouldn't share the results of the test, but said he was
pleasantly surprised.

"There were some positives - we did get some marijuana and some hits
of cocaine," he said, but "less than I thought. I'm extremely
pleased, and I'm pretty sure the principal will be even more pleased."

Because the lockers are tested in batches, school officials can't
identify individual students who may be using drugs. But it's easy to
figure out how old the users are, since lockers are organized by grade.

"We always find cocaine and marijuana," said Roger Deitch, president
of Global Detection & Reporting, the New York-based company that
offers the swipe test. "Some schools, we find a little heroin and meth."

The technology was developed a few years ago at the request of German
police who wanted a quick way to test drivers for drug impairment, Deitch said.

The company just began offering $50 kits to parents over its Web site, he said.

And one school principal in New Jersey is looking to take the
technology to a whole new level - seeking permission from his board
to swipe the foreheads of students who look stoned.