GEORGETOWN SCHOOLS ENTER SECOND YEAR OF DRUG TESTING

Tests Expanded From Athletes To Students In Other Activities

Where once only athletes were required to take random drug tests,
Georgetown students in grades seven through 12 who take part in
activities such as band and cheerleading will be subject to the tests
this fall.

"Testing is just a way of providing our students with incentives not
to experiment with drugs," Superintendent Joe Dan Lee said last week.
"For those who test positive, we provide a way for them to stop."

At their Aug. 21 board meeting, trustees expressed support for the
program and endorsed expanding the tests from athletes to students in
band, orchestra, choir, cheerleading and drill team. The expansion
follows last year's decision to join the Leander, Bastrop and San
Marcos school districts in conducting drug tests. Georgetown's random
tests are mandatory for students who want to participate in
after-school activities.

Although the decision to begin drug testing was not without
controversy, last week's decision to expand the program drew little
public comment.

Last year, some parents said they felt that the tests were an
invasion of privacy or implied a lack of trust by the district in its
teenagers. Others, including one former Georgetown High School
athlete, said testing was good because it held athletes to a high
standard of conduct.

Brittany Barber, president of Georgetown High's student body, said
she believes that most of the students approve of the testing.

"Students seem to be OK with it because the testing is there to help
the few that need it," said Barber, 17, a senior. "I think the
program is wonderful, because we do have a few kids who need help,
and the program helps find them."

The program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of
Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

The district is in the second year of its grant, which provides
$200,000 annually for three years to cover the costs of testing for
substances ranging from amphetamines and cocaine to alcohol and marijuana.

Last year, the district conducted 3,183 random tests on 1,699 student
athletes in the district, which has about 9,000 students. Some
students were tested more than once.

Of those tested, 25 tested positive for either marijuana or cocaine:
fewer than 1 percent of all the students tested, Assistant
Superintendent Linda Simonson said.

Of those who tested positive, one was a seventh-grader, two were
eighth-graders, three were in the ninth grade, and 19 were in grades
10 through 12.

During a follow-up test on the 25 students who tested positive, done
weeks later, 20 tested negative, and five again tested positive.
Simonson said six of the students who tested positive have either
left the school district or withdrawn from athletic programs.

Thirty-four of the students tested positive for amphetamines,
Simonson said, but those results were determined to have been caused
by prescription medicines.

Simonson said students who test positive are required to meet with
their parents and district officials who arrange counseling sessions
with professional abuse specialists, who work with a child at no cost
to the parents.

"We monitor the progress of these students as they complete that
required counseling and do follow-up sessions of four hours a month,"
she said. "If there is a second positive test for a student, another
six months of counseling is required."

Students who test positive for the first time also are suspended from
all extracurricular competition for 30 days. If subsequent exams are
positive, the student can be forbidden from participation for longer periods.

Positive test results are revealed only to the student, principal,
parents, directors, sponsors and the superintendent. Police are not
notified unless required by law.

Students are selected at random for the tests. Test times are kept
secret by program officials so students will not be able to predict
when a specimen will be required and try to circumvent the system.

Students tested are generally called out of an athletic or
extracurricular class to avoid interrupting academic periods,
Georgetown High School Principal Randy Weisinger said.

Lee said the only major problem that occurred during the first year
of the program is that several students were chosen multiple times for testing.

"I inquired about that, and I was told by the testing people that
when students are truly selected at random, a kid can be called up
for testing several times," Lee said. "We gave some relief to the few
who kept getting chosen by pulling their names out of the test pool
for a while."

Lee said he believes that parents and the public approve of the
testing program.

"I got a visit from a parent of one of the students who tested
positive, and I thought she was going to be very angry," Lee said.
"Instead, she thanked us. She was convinced that the counseling made
her child understand that choices have consequences and that she
could send her student off to college with that understanding."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that drug testing for student
athletes is legal. The court later expanded its decision to include
students in all extracurricular programs.

The justices said testing that groups students is legal because they
take part voluntarily in the extracurricular activities.