MIDLAND OKS RANDOM DRUG TESTING

High School Students, Parents Must Agree To Monitoring

LACON - The Midland School District in Marshall County has joined the
increasing number of area districts to implement random drug testing
for high school students competing in athletics and some other activities.

The School Board voted 7-0 on Monday night to adopt the policy.
Students and their parents will have to agree to random testing by
urine samples anytime during the year for the students to participate
in sports, cheerleading or scholastic bowl competitions.

The program "is designed to create a safe, drug-free environment for
student athletes and to assist them in getting help when needed,"
according to a mission statement that introduces the six-page policy.

The protocol is modeled closely on a policy enacted for the
Bushnell-Prairie City High School.

Urine samples will be required from at least 5 percent of the total
pool of covered participants at Midland on at least eight occasions
during the school year. Students will be selected by number in a
computer-based process. Collection and testing will be done by
employees of Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton to keep district
personnel out of the process, said high school Principal Rolf Sivertsen.

"I put myself in that pool. I thought that was important" as an
example, Sivertsen said after Monday's meeting.

Each sample will initially cost $12 to test, and any inconclusive
result will be sent to a separate lab at a cost of $37.50. Sivertsen
did not have an estimate of the overall cost but said he believed it
would be covered by state grant funds.

Confirmed violations would bar students from competition for periods
ranging from one-third of a season to their remaining high school
career. Some penalties could be reduced by voluntary counseling
programs at the students' expense.

Midland acted shortly after a testing policy was passed in the
neighboring Fieldcrest School District, where administrators said it
had been prompted by alcohol and marijuana use. A few incidents
involving students last year also influenced Midland, but Sivertsen
said another factor was the "influx of heroin" into the state along
Interstate 80 to the north.

The parents' committee that helped formulate the policy "felt that
was close enough to our county that we needed to do something to
protect our students," Sivertsen said.

That protective interest was one of the points criticized Monday by
the only person who objected publicly. Area businessman and parent
Terry Giosta, a frequent critic of Midland policies and practices,
said the policy reflected the growing tendency of school districts to
try to be "every student's parent" instead of concentrating on education.

Giosta also maintained the policy would have no real impact on the
use of alcohol or other drugs. He presented information indicating
random testing is opposed by many organizations, including the
National Education Association and the National Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Dependence.

"It has done nothing to stop or slow drug use," Giosta said. "It has
not made our roads, school, or anywhere else safe from drugs."

Sivertsen said the parents' committee plans to meet again in January
to evaluate the program.