BOARD EXPECTED TO DROP DRUG TESTING IDEA

A proposed policy to random drug test high school athletes at the North
Tahoe and Tahoe-Truckee high schools is expected to be dropped at tonight's
school board meeting.

During the Sept. 21 meeting of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District,
the board listened to arguments for and against the program from students,
doctors and educators.

"The whole board had a lot of questions," said board member Cindy Gustafson.

The board asked staff to investigate more and return with a recommendation
and a list of pros and cons.

"After careful review of available information, the administration is
recommending against moving ahead with a program of random drug/alcohol
testing at this time," said the staff summary in the Tahoe Truckee Unified
School District board agenda.

Some of the pros of drug testing include leveling the playing field and the
threat of the test may act as a deterrent and keep some students from using
drugs.

Some of the arguments against the proposal for random drug testing include
the fact that drug testing only tests for illicit drugs and fails to test
the most commonly used drugs by adolescents, tobacco and alcohol.

Drug testing can also label athletes and make them seem different from the
rest of the student body if they are the only ones tested, according to an
outline in the school board packet.

"Alcohol is a bigger problem; drug testing won't test for that," said
Gustafson.