13 BOYS POSITIVE IN CBHS DRUG TEST

School Officials Say New Policy Having Hoped-For Effect

During the fall semester, 13 Christian Brothers High School students
tested positive for drugs.

All of those positive tests were for marijuana, CBHS officials said
Friday. The test scans for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, PCP,
methamphetamines and ecstasy. It does not test for alcohol.

CBHS began testing its entire student body for drugs this fall,
becoming the first school in the Memphis area to institute such a
policy.

So far, 565 of the school's 870 students have been tested, meaning
about 2.3 percent of the students tested have returned positive
results.

Officials at the East Memphis private boys school declined to name
the students or allow them to speak with a reporter. Also, although
the school wouldn't reveal their classifications, CBHS principal
Brother Chris Englert said all four grades were represented. Only
Brother Chris and dean of students George Pratt know the names of the
13 students.

CBHS officials said they were pleased with the relatively small
percentage but would have preferred zero positives.

"On the one hand, it's way below the national average. On the other
hand, it concerns me that 13 kids knew they were going to be tested
and still did it," Brother Chris said. "I'd like it to be zero. What
I am happy about is that I think it has stopped the drugs on campus,
and off campus, too. This seems to be doing exactly what we wanted it
to."

Added Tommy Miller, who is co-president with his wife, Kathy, of the
school's Parents Board: "I think (the numbers) are extremely good, as
far as I'm concerned. Ideally, we would like to have not had any
positives. But realistically, we knew there would be some positives
out there."

Brother Chris said he was somewhat surprised that only marijuana use was found.

"I actually thought some of the hard drugs would show up, so I am
surprised it's only marijuana," Brother Chris said.

Miller believes that's because marijuana is one of the easier drugs
for teenagers to get.

"I'm sure it's the most easily accessible contraband that the kids
could get their hands on," Miller said. "Probably the least
dangerous, you might say, or at least what they think is dangerous. I
think this, in their mind, was the safest."

Under the CBHS program, those 13 students and any others who test
positive will have to participate in a conference with their parents
and school officials, in which counseling and other issues will be
discussed.

Then, about 100 days later, the student will be tested again. If the
second test is positive, the student will be expelled. Any student
refusing to be tested will also be expelled.

So far, none of the 13 has been retested, although Brother Chris
believes those second tests will begin in February.

Christian Brothers borrowed the policy from De La Salle High School
in New Orleans, where the program was instituted for the 1997-98
school year.

In the first year at De La Salle, 24 students out of about 850 tested
positive, including one for cocaine, said Joe Hines, the dean of
students and coordinator of the De La Salle program.

In the second year, that dropped to 20 positives and, in the third
year, to six. So far this year, 10 students have tested positive at
De La Salle.

In the test, Pratt snips about 20 hairs from the back of a student's
head. Those hairs are sealed in an aluminum pouch, then placed inside
an envelope to be sent to a California lab, which can detect drug use
over the past 90 days or so.

The tests are conducted by a Cambridge, Mass.-based company called
Psychemedics. The process usually takes less than a week.

Over the course of the school year, CBHS plans to test each of its
students at least once, with several being tested more than once to
try and prevent those tested early from thinking they have a free
ride for the rest of the year. Parents will pay the $60 cost for the
tests along with tuition.