NO-PASS, NO-PLAY RULE ON DRUGS IN GRAYSLAKE

When athletes at Grayslake High School prepare to hit the fields, courts,
mats and track next school year, they will have to do more than simply
pledge not to use drugs or alcohol.

Three times a season, Grayslake High athletes will be randomly selected to
take drug tests.

Grayslake District 127 will become the third high school district in the
Chicago area and the second in Lake County to give athletes occasional drug
tests when its policy--approved unanimously by the school board March
11--goes into effect this fall.

Grayslake Supt. Ray Novak said the district has been mulling over
implementing a drug testing policy for the past six or seven months.

"There was a desire from the athletic department to ensure the safety of the
athletes," Novak said. He estimated that one-third of the district's 1,456
students participate in high school athletics.

Although for years student athletes have signed pledges promising not to do
drugs or drink alcohol, Novak said, the district wanted to focus on early
detection and prevention in order to get help for students who might have a
problem.

At Grayslake, 10 percent of athletes will be randomly chosen for drug tests
three times a season. Athletes who test positive would be required to
complete a rehabilitation program and be drug-tested once a week. The player
would be suspended from competition for three weeks, but would continue to
practice with the team.

"You want the coaches to have a positive impact on these kids," Novak said.
"The worst thing to do is to cut them loose."

The policy approved in Grayslake is almost identical to the drug testing
policy implemented three years ago at Zion-Benton Township High School
District 126.

Zion-Benton approved a drug testing policy in 1993, but it was not
implemented until the 1996-97 school year, said Zion-Benton Supt. Gary Fields.

The program is "based on the idea that you will never have a drug-free
school unless your kids and role models are committed to it," Fields said.

He said he thinks it is working.

Fields said he has only received accolades about the program from parents,
students and community members, and in three years 800 students have been
tested and fewer than 10 have tested positive for drugs or alcohol.

"Our philosophy very simply is that it's a helping program," Fields said.
"Our philosophy is we never want to catch you, we only want to help you."

But Jay Miller, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois,
said drug testing in high schools is a sign that educators don't have
confidence in their students.

"If you know your students and if coaches know their athletes, you'll know
who's doing what and you'll be able to talk to them about it, and you won't
resort to this technical and insulting invasion of privacy," Miller said.

Superintendents and athletic directors who have put such policies in place
disagree.

"Philosophically that's a nice concept, but if you talk to the parents whose
kids test positive, they had no idea," said Ken Shultz, athletic director at
Homewood-Flossmoor High School. The south suburban school became the first
school in Illinois to drug-test student athletes in January 1990. "Things
can slip by."

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's 1995 decision upholding a public school's
right to test student athletes for drugs, few Illinois school districts have
followed Homewood-Flossmoor's lead.

Fields, who has spoken to many school groups in Illinois and around the
country, estimated there are no more than 10 districts statewide with drug
testing programs.

Though many districts are studying the issue, Fields said, few districts are
willing to invest the time it takes to develop a solid policy and gain the
support of parents, students and the community.

Denial is another obstacle.

"Sometimes we as administrators may not be aware of how extensive, of how
prevalent the use of alcohol and drugs is among our athletes," Fields said.

The programs are a way to give students another reason to say no to drugs
and to keep them safe on the playing field, Novak said. He estimates the
drug-testing program at Grayslake will cost about $8,000 a year.

"For protecting kids, that's a drop in the bucket," he said.