GRAPEVINE-COLLEYVILLE TRUSTEES ASKED TO REJECT DRUG TESTING

GRAPEVINE - Grapevine-Colleyville school Superintendent Jim Thompson has
recommended that trustees vote Monday against random drug tests for high
school students who participate in extracurricular activities.

Dr. Thompson told school board members in a memo last week that recent
surveys found no evidence that teens involved in such activities abuse
drugs more than other students.

"That leaves us very vulnerable regarding the key legal defense issues of
how we would fare if we were [legally] challenged," Dr. Thompson said. "We
would rather put our energies into other efforts that would include
prevention and rehabilitation, rather than costly lawsuits."

Trustees last month postponed a decision on the drug tests so they could
gather information about the policy's legality. More than 20 parents and
students spoke out against the proposal when it was considered by the
school board last month.

School board President Janice Kane said that the board needed to gauge the
"true needs" of the community before voting on the drug tests. "Some of
those statistics in that data didn't indicate that that [testing] was
necessarily where we needed to direct our energies," she said.

School board member Alan Linford, who asked school officials to draft a
drug-testing policy, said the tests were never meant as a solution to the
drug problem. He said the tests could be considered again in the future.

"It was only one potential tool in the whole arsenal that we have," he
said. "Our goal is not to have drug testing. Our goal is to give kids the
tools to resist drugs."

Diana Philip, regional director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said
the district would open itself to legal challenges if the drug tests were
implemented as had been planned.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski