BILL MANDATES DRUG TESTING FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

HELENA -- Young athletes and debaters and will have to stay clean to
compete if Rep. Joan Andersen, R-Fromberg, has her way. The students
wouldnít be forced to scrub behind their ears, though; they would be
taking mandatory drug tests under her bill, which was heard Monday.

Andersen is sponsor of House Bill 81, which would require drug and
alcohol testing for all sixth-through 12th-graders who participate in
extracurricular activities. They would be tested once each year,
during the first two weeks of the first activity they participated
in. Throughout the school, year 10 percent of the kids in each
activity would be randomly tested to ensure they were staying clean.

Students who tested positive would be suspended from activities for
two weeks. Testing positive twice in a year would keep them out of
activities for the rest of the year. Students who tested positive
would be allowed to get another test, but their parents would have to
pay for the second test if it were positive.

Several school districts in the state already have drug-testing
policies. But not all do, and those that do have different policies.
In a hearing on the bill Monday afternoon in the House Human Services
Committee, Andersen said she wanted to standardize drug-testing
policies in schools to make them more fair. The panel took no
immediate action.

"If there is a statewide criteria for what happens if you do test
positive, and then exclusion from extra-curricular activities is the
same for all students, then weíre being fair," she said.

Two students from Custer County High School in Miles City supported Andersen.

Student body president Katie Yother said mandatory testing "would
give those involved a reason to say no."

Yother, an 18-year-old senior, said she had problems with substance
abuse when she was in the fifth and sixth grades. She has received
help and support since then, she said, and has learned to make better
choices. She said she sees the drug testing as a way to help other
students make good decisions.

"I see this as a type of deterrent, just as was a change of
environment in my case," Yother said.

Sophomore Matt Gibbons, 16, said he thinks students will value their
activities over drugs.

"You are hanging over them that, at any given time, they could be
tested," he said. "You show them a consequence, and it keeps that in
their minds."

But not everyone was excited about the idea of mandatory drug testing
for children.

Scott Crichton, executive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Montana, called the proposal "contradictory to the basic
tenets of liberty."

He said the bill violates both the federal Bill of Rights and the
Montana Declaration of Rights because it is an unlawful search and
seizure conducted without probable cause.

"Do you want (students) to learn that they can be searched without
reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause?" he asked.

Joe Barbero, superintendent of schools in Pryor and a supporter of
the bill, said his district has had a drug-testing policy for five
years. Each student is tested for each activity, and that testing is
followed up by random testing. Kids who test positive are given
counseling.

"Our students know whatís expected from them, and they know not to do
drugs," he said.

Barbero said his program costs about $10,000 a year. In the past
three years, 393 students have been tested. Six tested positive for
marijuana during initial testing, and five tested positive for
marijuana in the random tests.

Having the state pay for testing would be nice, Barbero said. But
money isnít the only issue, he said. "We have to provide our children
another opportunity to say no," he said.

Andersen said she expects it would cost $562,400 to implement her
statewide program. It would be less expensive than the program in
Pryor because kids would be tested for only one activity each year,
and counseling is not part of the deal.

Lance Melton, executive director of the Montana School Boards
Association, said he was concerned about the billís
constitutionality. Cost was also a concern for Melton, who said he
would expect lawsuits over positive test results.

Cost also concerned Inga Nelson of the Montana Education Association
and Montana Federation of Teachers.

"Is this the most appropriate and necessary way to spend that money?"
she asked. She said school districts could institute their own
testing programs if they found they had a drug problem and that
mandating testing statewide is not necessary.

She also had concerns about how testing might affect kids and their attitudes.

"Treating me like I had already done something wrong was not the best
way to get me not to do something," she said of her own teen-age
experience.