COLLIER'S PURPOSE FOR DRUG TESTING: EDUCATE

Editor's note: This is the first in a four-part series looking at
the Collier County School Board's bid to implement random drug
testing for its athletes and cheerleaders.

In the eyes of Collier County athletic directors and school board
members, Nick Veintimilla, a senior at Lely High, is seen as a
shining example, a leader and someone who should be held up as the
standard for his peers.

Veintimilla is a football player, and if the school board's proposed
grant of $159,075 is approved by the U.S. Department of Education,
he would become one of hundreds of student-athletes and cheerleaders
in Collier County subjected to a random drug testing policy that
could be implemented by January, according to Tom Stephens,
coordinator of grant development at the school board.

"These typically are the kids that are role models for their schools
and they hold that position amongst 400 or 500 kids per high school,
but represent a bar, if you will, for all kids to attain, Stephens
said. "We want them to be aware of the various affects of using
drugs. We also want to set up a high bar for all students to achieve."

The progam would include randomly testing student-athletes from
Lely, Barron Collier, Gulf Coast, Golden Gate, Immokalee, Naples and
Palmetto Ridge. Stephens said the proposal is going to be sent to
the Department of Education before the Sept. 5 deadline and he
expects to hear of a decision between late September and early November.

Stephens said they sent the submission to try and gain a
psychological and competitive advantage.

Dr. Dee Whinnery, the county's executive director of student
services, said the Department of Education will only award 12 grants
throughout the country this year. Whinnery feels like the proposal
that was put together will receive strong consideraton.

Back in March, the school board voted 4 to 1 to apply for funding
regarding the drug testing program. One of the things Whinnery said
the county is hoping to accomplish through random drug screening and
testing is to identify student-athletes and cheerleaders who may be
using drugs and acohol.

"Then, we want to educate our athletes and cheerleaders on concerns
about health risks and saftey risks in regards to drug and alcohol
use," she said. "The program is going to try and encourage students
to seek appropriate counseling and treatment for drug and alcohol
use and any dependency that they may have."

The testing of recreational drugs such as emphetamines, marijuana,
cocaine, opiates and alcohol will be administered by FirstLab,
located in North Wales, Pa., on a monthly basis, Stephens said.

"They've been in this business many years," he said. "They've done a
lot of public institutions. They will do all the conducting and
ultimately, all of the analysis of the drug testing. We will have
really no hands-on component. We will, through our proposal,
hopefully employ a part-time employee to kind of coordinate with the
schools and the FirstLab, because FirstLab's first concern is
student protection and privacy, and so is ours. It will be as
non-intrusive as possible.

"It's not punitive. It's really to, number one, be a preventative
and help kids fight peer pressure, and, number two, if there is a
problem that kids understand that they have that resolve without
getting further along."

Joe Donzell, director of communications at the Lee County School
Board, said Lee does not have a random drug testing policy in place.

"At this point, it is not something that we're exploring at the
moment," he said.

Getting informed

Barron athletic director Joe Kemper and Naples High athletic
director Ernie Modugno were on the committee as the blueprint for
the random drug testing policy was being constructed.

Modugno said they first became interested in the idea of trying to
put a random drug testing program in place around five years ago
when they attended a Florida Athletic Coaches Association Clinic and
heard about Indian River County's program.

Both believe it is a good idea, along with the other athletic
directors in Collier County.

The only individuals who would be aware of when a drug test was
going to be given are the high school principals. Kemper said no
athletic directors will know in order to protect the validity of the
test. It will be conducted once student-athletes are selected from
a pool of approximately 10 percent based upon the number they were assigned.

"If it was during fall, all of the active fall sports athletes and
cheerleaders would be subject to random testing," he said, "and
there would be a computer-generated random selection and those
people would be brought from class immediately down to the testing
area where that would take place.

"They could all be from the football team, or there could be none
from the football team and it could be all men or no men, it could
be all seniors or no seniors, but it's going to grab the names out
and we're going to look at the numbers and we're going to
match those to the name that person was assigned and then those
people will be tested."

Kemper said the fact that student-athletes and cheerleaders are
specificed for the testing was a Supreme Court decision, because
they're viewed as leaders and their participation in athletics is
voluntary and not a protected right. According to Kemper, research
does not indicate that randomly targeting a group ruins the moral or
culture of a school.

"I've gotten a mixed response from kids," Kemper said. "The vast
majority of kids will go all four years and never get tested. There
may be somebody who gets tested twice, but that'd be rare when you
(have a big) pool of kids.

"I did survey the coaches, and 78 percent of the coaches in this
district who responded were strongly in favor of a random drug
testing program, and the ones who responded and were not in favor of
it, some of them had questions about the program that indicated to
me that they didn't know how the program was going to work exactly."

Those concerned that a positive drug test may follow a student to
college have nothing to worry about, says Kemper.

"All those tests, positive or negative, all that stuff is shredded,"
he said. "It does not got into permanent records."

In the event that the grant is not funded by the Department of
Education, Kemper said he would look into trying to implement a
stand-alone program for Barron. Modugno also feels that random drug
testing should be a part of Collier County high schools, even if the
request is denied.

"If we can't get a grant, I would like to sit down with the other
ADs and talk about an alternative way to fund this thing, because I
think it's an important thing and I'd like to see it happen and I
think there are other ways to fund it besides a grant," Modugno said.

"There are other ways to do it besides the way that it's proposed,"
Modugno added. "I think the proposal that we're trying to get
funding for is a well-thought-out one and I'd like to see it go in
that direction, but if we can't go in that direction we still need
to look into doing it."

Mixed reviews

Naples High football coach Bill Kramer likes the idea of random drug
testing student-athletes and looks to the NCAA's drug testing policy
as a positive that can be taken away from the program. He doesn't
think the plan is to try and catch student-athletes, but to give
them a reason to display integrity, something he tries to instill in
his players.

"It gives them a reason with status, other than 'just say no,' which
is tough for kids with peer pressure," Kramer said. "The reason with
status is that 'I can't because I may be tested, and as an athlete,
we have that higher standard.' "

Kramer believes there are kids using harmful drugs for recreational
purposes, although he thinks a plan should be put in place to test
for performance-enhancing drugs.

"We've never noticed any kid around here display symptoms that he
may be using anabolic steroids, but we hear suspicions from other
places and at the very least, it'll end the suspicion."

Shannon McFee, the girls basketball coach at St. John Neumann High
School and a defense attorney for the Berry, Day & McFee law firm,
sees flaws in the program.

"I think it's one more example of some people who don't understand
athletics and don't understand sports, who want to single it out,"
McFee said. "Where I have a problem is with the public schools doing
it to kids that are being mandated to go to school; now they're
being manadated to basically give up some of their liberties and
their privacy.

"I can understand it at a private school. If St. John Neumann or
Community School wants to require that as a condition of a child's
enrollment, I understand that. I don't understand that in a public
school, and I don't accept that."

At Neumann, McFee said the administrator bases a test upon a
reasonable suspicion that a student may be involved in drugs and
then requests a drug test for safety purposes, and it's done across
the board. He believes that the school board's policy is
infringing upon people's rights simply because "you feel that
one kid or two kids or three kids are violating it."

"If you think they're violating, get the evidence and remove them
from your program," he said. "What I'm going to be interested to see
is how universally applied the sanctions will be. Is Naples going to
be the same as Lely? Is Lely going to be the same as Barron?

"It's a system that's going to be run by people, and are they going
to treat the tenth kid on the bench the same as they'll treat their
star player, and who's going to have access to this information to
assure that's happening? In Collier County, we have
some outstanding coaches. I think you leave it to that coach and
that coach will determine. If a kid is under the influence, they're
going to see that."

Palmetto Ridge volleyball coach Jess Millar thinks the random drug
testing policy is a good idea, but she thinks it would be difficult
for coaches to police every one of their student-athletes.

Why just athletes?

Suzette Johnson is the mother of a Naples High band student. She
feels students in this day and age are much more cognizant of drugs
and its effects than during her high school days. However, Johnson
believes that random drug testing is still an essential element
toward helping children become intelligent, bright and successful.

"I think the athletes that we do have should know that when they go
into the workforce, they're going to be in the same situation," she
said. "Athletes are, of course, an exception because of the fact
that they're in the public eye all the time, but I think it
should apply to everybody."

Veintimilla said each person has to hold themselves accountable. He
acknowledged that what the school board is trying to do is prepare
student-athletes for life.

"I can see where in athletics it could be a problem, but for clubs
and stuff, I think they should do that, too," he said. "Like
lacrosse is a club, but they're not going to get tested because it's
not a sport, yet. If you're going to test student-athletes, why not
just go all the way?"

The rules

Code of Student Conduct: Refer to Rule 28 of the Activity/Athletic
Code of Conduct

FIRST OFFENSE - A participant who commits a first offense, under
this section, shall be ineligible from the time of administrative
action as follows: use, consumption and/or possession of a
performance-enhancing drug or alcohol aE" (14) calendar days;
illegal use, consumption and/or possession of controlled
substance/drugs aE" (21) calendar days.

A first offense also carries with it suspension from all practices
for the same period. If no activities in which the participant would
participate are scheduled during this time, the participant shall be
ineligible for the first (14) or (21) calendar days, respectively,
or the next regularly scheduled activity in which the participant
would otherwise have participated. A first offense also carries with
it a suspension for a minimum of two regular contests/events or one
football game.

SECOND OFFENSE - A participant who commits a second offense, under
this section, shall be ineligible from the time of administrative
action as follows: use, consumption and/or possession of a
performance-enhancing drug or alcohol aE" (28) calendar days;
illegal use, consumption and/or possession of controlled
substance/drugs aE" (35) calendar days.

A second offense also carries with it suspension from all practices
for the same period. If no activities in which the participant would
participate are scheduled during this time, the participant shall be
ineligible for the first (28) or (35) calendar days, respectively,
of the next regularly scheduled activity in which the participant
would otherwise have participated.

A second offense also carries with it a suspension for a minimum of
(4) regular season contests/events or (2) football games. In
addition to the above suspension, under subsection B, (1) and (2),
in order to regain eligibility, the participant must enroll
and successfully complete the "Substance Abuse Education Level II"
series for substance-abusing adolescents, offered at the David
Lawrence Center or a similiar facility. If this requirement is not
met, the participant will be suspended indefinitely until it is met.

THIRD OFFENSE - A participant who commits a third offense shall
become ineligible for any interscholastic or extra-curricular
activity participation for one calendar year.

However, reinstatement will only be considered after application has
been made to the principal of the school and documentation presented
to substantiate ongoing substance treatment and montoring.
Additional conditions may also be required for reinstatement.

* A performance-enhancing drug is defined as a drug or supplement
used to boost athletic performance, ward off fatigue and/or enhance
physical appearance.