COLONIAL PASSES NEW DRUG POLICY

Plan Allows Monitoring Of Off Campus Behavior

Students in the Colonial School District in Montgomery County caught using
drugs or drinking alcohol off campus can now be suspended and ultimately
expelled from extracurricular activities.

The 5-4 vote approving the "Activities Code of Ethics" came late Thursday
night after heated debate among parents and board members, who disagreed on
the enforceability, fairness and the right of school officials to monitor
students' off-campus behavior. "We're hoping that people will see this in
the spirit it's given -- as a deterrent for drug and alcohol abuse," said
Board President Stuart Kessler.

The policy should provide more uniformity among coaches and advisers, he
said, and send teens a strong message about the consequences of substance
abuse.

The Colonial district serves students from Conshohocken, Plymouth and
Whitemarsh. Similar policies are in place in the Wissahickon and Upper
Merion School Districts.

Many parents who attended the four-hour meeting acknowledged that some
action needed to be taken, especially on the heels of a November district
survey that disclosed that 85 percent of 11th graders had tried alcohol and
51 percent of 10th graders had tried marijuana.

However, they expressed concern about the potential pitfalls of such a
policy, which calls for a 10-day suspension after the first violation,
suspension for the rest of the season or school year after the second, and
expulsion upon the third.

"Sixty to 70 percent of students in the high school would have to walk out
of extracurricular activities, and I don't think that's what you intend,"
said Whitemarsh resident Richard Oller, a parent and member of the Hands on
the Future community task force that favored the drug and alcohol survey.

"They'll be driven further underground . . . and all your money will be
spent fighting the constitutionality of this."