DRUG TESTS NOT THE ANSWER FOR STUDENTS IN OUR SCHOOLS

Re: District gets grant for drug tests, Oct. 8, Citrus Times

As a mother of three children in the Citrus County School District and
as a nurse, I urge the Citrus County school educators, parents and
board members to be wary of "feel good" promises and to proceed with
caution when it comes to student drug testing, as it may be doing more
harm than good.

Consider the real pitfalls: There is no proof that random drug testing
deters drug use. In 2003, the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded
the largest study ever conducted on the topic. Researchers compared
76,000 students in schools with and without a drug testing program.
They found no differences in illegal drug use among students from both
sets of schools.

Urine testing, the most common and inexpensive form of drug testing is
invasive and alienating. The collection of a specimen is humiliating,
a violation of privacy and especially embarrassing for an adolescent.
Testing can therefore have the unanticipated effect of keeping
students from participating in extracurricular programs and activities
that would fill their time during the peak teenage drug using hours of
3 to 6 p.m.

Random testing also can infuse an insidious sense of suspicion into
the delicate student-teacher relationship that contributes to a
hostile school environment. This is troubling in light of research
showing the strong correlation between school connectedness and
student success.

Drug testing is expensive. With costs ranging from $10 to $75 per
test, per student, even with federal subsidies schools simply cannot
afford to spend thousands of dollars each year for a program of
questionable effectiveness while valuable extracurricular programs
struggle to survive.

There are many problems associated with maintaining confidentiality
and school districts' legal liability in cases, for example, of false
positives or breaches of confidentiality.

Testing is inefficient when it comes to detecting drug problems.
Testing only detects a tiny fraction of users and misses too many who
might be in trouble.

We should listen to drug abuse professionals who know that detection
of problems requires careful attention to signs of truancy, erratic
behavior and failing grades.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional for a school
district to require drug testing but it does not say they must do so.

The Alachua School District will not conduct drug testing. The Broward
County philosophy is that kids come to school to get educated, not
interrogated and will not use drug testing. Manatee High School tested
in 1996, dismantled the program in 2002 after expressing skepticism
about its effectiveness. Miami-Dade Public Schools noted very few
parents consented to drug testing and the district's PTA, which
represents 850,000 parents, opposed the policy.

Their position was that such testing is a job for parents, not
schools. Funds would be better spent in the schools.

We as parents and taxpayers need to know the potential benefits and
the program's potential harms. Only the results of such careful
evaluations can and should guide parents and school administrators to
do what's best for our youth.

Parents need to know who is planning this program, we need to find out
what each School Board member feels about the program, what the costs
will be, what research has been done on it, how the test will be done
with specifics listed, who will be chosen, where will the testing be
done and what happens with the results.

A forum should be held so ALL of our voices are heard. There are too
many unanswered questions. Before we leap into a program that uses
students as guinea pigs, we should examine the many repercussions,
pitfalls and alternatives to random drug testing. The strongest weapon
we have to combat drug use in our children is not the chemistry lab,
but heads-up parenting. Let us parents do our job.

In the St. Petersburg Times, on Aug. 5, the Crystal River Police
Department started providing free drug testing kits to parents, who
also can remain anonymous. Officers promised not to make followup
calls. Police said they also will provide the kits to officials at
Crystal River middle and high schools.

In addition to the kits, police will provide materials about local
antidrug resources that parents may want to use. Their goal is to help
parents intervene before law enforcement has to. It is called the LEAD
program and is used in 15 police agencies in Florida. This money comes
from police drug forfeiture funds, not taxpayers' money or federal
money, which is still taxpayers' money. The School Board needs to
research this information from the local police departments.

Karen Rizzolo, Crystal River